Lily's Crossing - Patricia Giff

Lets readers walk in the shoes of a tweenage girl.

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Common Sense rates it
4
Read the book?
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Book details
  • Author:Patricia Giff
  • # of pages: 180
  • Publisher:Random House Inc.
  • Original Publication Date: 01/01/1997
  • Genre: Fiction - Friendship
  • Paperback: $5.50
  • Publisher's Recommended Reading Level: Ages 9-12
  • Read Alone: 8-12
  • Awards:Newbery Honor

Parents need to know

Parents need to know that this book, written so well it appears effortless, lets readers inhabit the world of a 10-year-old girl dealing with loneliness, a new friendship, and the impacts of war during her summer vacation.

Families can talk about how Lily deals with her situation. How does she handle her frustrations? How does her new friendship change her outlook on things?

Message

Social Behavior:

Given a key by a departing friend, Lily ventures into a neighbor's uninhabited house several times.

Consumerism:

Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:

Violence

Albert describes what he knows about the Nazis' capture of his parents, his attempt to escape Europe with his younger sister, and their separation when his sister became ill.

Sex

Language

Humorous use of a mild oath.

Common Sense says

What's the story?

Reviewed by Amy Brotman

In the last summer of World War II, ten-year-old Lily meets a young Hungarian refugee who's come to the Long Island beach community to be safe from the war. With delicate but authoritative writing, the author brings these two distinctive youngsters together and makes them allies against loneliness.



Is it any good?

4

Setbacks (someone's using the rowboat), triumphs (free lipstick!), intrigues (is Mr. Egan a spy?), and frustration (piano practice in the summer) all are convincingly conveyed from a ten-year-old's point of view.

With meticulously chosen details, Giff lets us into Lily's life--past and present--and makes us care about what the future holds for her. It's clear that the author, who spent her own childhood summers in Rockaway, knows her landscape; she leads readers to inhabit Lily's world: beach sand and tarry streets, hot breezes and houses on stilts at the water's edge. They feel the impact of war: rationing, radio news, censored mail, and reports of a neighbor missing in action. They feel Lily's loneliness and know why she stretches the truth.

Giff slowly and persistently connects her readers to the heroine, and, as with friendships in real life, makes the friendship that is at the core of this novel heartfelt. Young readers recognize this honesty at once and take to this book with devotion.

Other choices

Readers who enjoy Lily's Crossing might like to try a story from a different historical period, Avi's The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.

Parents and kids say

All Reviews

There are 5 reviews.

4

Posted on 11/13/08 by Anonymous Kid contributor, age 15

I had fun

I loved this book so much that I cried humorously
4


Posted on 05/19/08 by thecross Kid contributor, age 13
4


Posted on 02/08/08 by swirlyQ Kid contributor, age 13

This was a great book. I was required to read it for school. I liked the story and the message. Another similar book that i would definitly reccomend to people is Number The Stars by Lois Lowry.
2


Posted on 05/24/07 by sazaka Adult contributor

I am not sold on this book

I read this book because my daughter was required to read it for school. Despite the editors claim that Lily's lying would be understood by the reader - that never really happened. The fact that the author was determined to "show us" how her lying was OK - acceptable even - really bothered me. I don't know why this book won a Caldecott Award accept for it's war time setting. The writer is talented but I question the moral message here.
4


Posted on 11/16/06 by kaelalove Kid contributor, age 12

this was awseome

it kind of confused me couse i was also reading willows run but over all it was awesome i would also recemengd pictures of hollis woods i also that that book was wonderful

Adult Reviews

There are 1 reviews.

2


Posted on 05/24/07 by sazaka Adult contributor

I am not sold on this book

I read this book because my daughter was required to read it for school. Despite the editors claim that Lily's lying would be understood by the reader - that never really happened. The fact that the author was determined to "show us" how her lying was OK - acceptable even - really bothered me. I don't know why this book won a Caldecott Award accept for it's war time setting. The writer is talented but I question the moral message here.

Kids Reviews

There are 4 reviews.

4

Posted on 11/13/08 by Anonymous Kid contributor, age 15

I had fun

I loved this book so much that I cried humorously
4


Posted on 05/19/08 by thecross Kid contributor, age 13
4


Posted on 02/08/08 by swirlyQ Kid contributor, age 13

This was a great book. I was required to read it for school. I liked the story and the message. Another similar book that i would definitly reccomend to people is Number The Stars by Lois Lowry.
4


Posted on 11/16/06 by kaelalove Kid contributor, age 12

this was awseome

it kind of confused me couse i was also reading willows run but over all it was awesome i would also recemengd pictures of hollis woods i also that that book was wonderful
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