Calico Captive

Elizabeth George Speare

Okt 2001 · Ibinebenta ng Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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From a Newbery Medal–winning author, an “exciting novel” about a colonial girl’s experience during the French and Indian War (Saturday Review).
 
In the year 1754, the stillness of Charlestown, New Hampshire, is shattered by the terrifying cries of an Indian raid. Young Miriam Willard, on a day that had promised new happiness, finds herself instead a captive on a forest trail, caught up in the ebb and flow of the French and Indian War.
 
It is a harrowing march north. Miriam can only force herself to the next stopping place, the next small portion of food, the next icy stream to be crossed. At the end of the trail waits a life of hard work and, perhaps, even a life of slavery. Mingled with her thoughts of Phineas Whitney, her sweetheart on his way to Harvard, is the crying of her sister’s baby, Captive, born on the trail.
 
Miriam and her companions finally reach Montreal, a city of shifting loyalties filled with the intrigue of war, and here, by a sudden twist of fortune, Miriam meets the prominent Du Quesne family, who introduce her to a life she has never imagined. Based on an actual narrative diary published in 1807, Calico Captive skillfully reenacts an absorbing facet of history.
 
“Vital and vivid, this short novel based on the actual captivity of a pre-Revolutionary girl of Charlestown, New Hampshire, presents American history with force and verve.” —Kirkus Reviews

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Elizabeth George Speare has been recognized by literary critics as one of the best writers of historical fiction for children. She was born in Melrose, Massachusetts on November 21, 1908, and attended Smith College and Boston University. Trained as a high school English teacher, Speare published Calico Captive, her first novel, in 1957. She is a two-time winner of the Newbery Medal for The Bronze Bow and The Witch of Blackbird Pond. The Sign of the Beaver, published in 1984, received a Newbery Honor Citation, the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, and the Christopher Award. In 1989, Speare received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for her distinguished and enduring contribution to children's literature. Speare died in 1994.