Tuesday April 8, 2008- A Northern Light

I just started to read the book “A Northern Light,” by Jennifer Donnelly. The beginning starts out with the main character, Mattie, put in a difficult situation already. They have just found the body of Grace Brown and Mattie recently had been given letters from Grace to burn, but she hasn’t don’t that yet. Mattie is confused and frustrated. She doesn't know if she should burn it or keep it. Then the author leaves us with that to think about and moves into before Mattie was put in that situation. Mattie is a farm girl who lives with her siblings and her father. Her mother had recently passed away and her older brother left them. She is now the oldest of the girls and forced to do all the house work and be responsible for a lot of things in the house. She has dreams and is a very bright girl, but her father is the only person in her way. She loves to read and write stories, her father doesn’t think she should even be going to school. Mattie is struggling with trying to convince her father to let her work at the Glenmore to help the family with money and go to New York. Mattie is a sixteen-year-old girl who has been put in a position with a lot of responsibilities, but her dreams are stopping her from those responsibilities.