Walk Across the Sea (Aladdin Historical Fiction)
by Susan Fletcher
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Book Summary Information
Author: Susan FletcherEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-06-01
ISBN: 0689857071
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Book Reviews of Walk Across the Sea (Aladdin Historical Fiction)
Book Review: Lots of layers
Summary: 5 Stars
Written from the perspective of a thirteen year-old girl, Eliza, in late nineteenth century Crescent City, California. Eliza lives on an island with her parents and helps them run the lighthouse. (Interesting historical fact-this is the Battery Point lighthouse in Crescent City. The characters are fictional, but the lighthouse is not.)
Many residents of Crescent City want the Chinese out. Eliza begins to question the prevailing prejudice when she makes friends with a young Chinese boy. She must stand up for what she knows is right, even if it means standing up to her own father.
I thought this book was so well written and with so many layers. First of all, the lighthouse and island life were so intricately described...I could tell the author did her research. As a reader, I could love the island with Eliza and all its wildness and storms and unpredictableness.
In a way, the island kind of parallelled Eliza's life at that time. The sea was tempestuous just like the townspeople and there wasn't a whole lot she could do to affect the outcome of campaign against the Chinese...other than stand (like an "island") for what she believed was right.
And the lighthouse was God because this was also a story about Eliza's coming into her faith by her own right, and not leaning so much on the faith of others. SPOILER: There is a beautiful scene at the end, in the lighthouse when Eliza knows that God is listening.
Eliza's father is among the townspeople that do not want the Chinese in Crescent City, and she struggles with reconciling the father she loves -and who is a good man- with the father who is prejudiced.
SPOILER: Eliza's mother has a miscarriage. In a way, I saw this book as pro-life. Eliza saw the unborn child. Eliza sought out the doctor and asked him to show her the graveyard where the unborn children were buried. Eliza refers to the baby as her "little sister," and the baby is eventually brought back to the island and buried.
In the end, the family makes a sacrifice which is sad, but beautiful, too. And right. It ended just how it should end
Summary of Walk Across the Sea (Aladdin Historical Fiction)
By 1886 many of Eliza Jane McCully's neighbors are concerned that the growing immigrant Chinese population is threatening their comfortable way of life. But it is a young Chinese boy named Wah Chung who saves Eliza and her pet goat from being swept into the sea by a deadly wave. This makes Eliza wonder: Are the Chinese really people to be feared, as her father and their neighbors believe? Or are the Chinese immigrants people with whom the townspeople in Crescent City could live peaceably, with a little tolerance and understanding?Prejudice & Racism Books
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