Product Description

Not only is Turner Buckminster the son of the new minister in a small Maine town, he is shunned for playing baseball differently than the local boys. Then he befriends smart and lively Lizzie Bright Griffin, a girl from Malaga Island, a poor community founded by former slaves. Lizzie shows Turner a new world along the Maine coast from digging clams to rowing a boat next to a whale. When the powerful town elders, including Turner’s father, decide to drive the people off the island to set up a tourist business, Turner stands alone against them. He and Lizzie try to save her community, but there’s a terrible price to pay for going against the tide.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17464 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-25
• Released on: 2006-04-25
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9–Gary Schmidt's Newbery Honor and Printz Honor winning book (Clarion Books, 2004) gains a new dimension in this recording. Prejudice and intolerance are a way of life in this fictional tale set into the historical reality of 1912 Maine. Turner Buckminster has very recently arrived and already he can't stand the small coastal town of Phippsburg. Within the first few days, the town's unfavorable impression of him is set; not only is he unable to hit a baseball thrown the Maine way, but he acts in a manner unbecoming to a minister's son, earning himself a summer's worth of playing hymns on the organ for crotchety Mrs. Cobb. Ostracized by most of the town's inhabitants, Turner meets Lizzie Bright Griffin, who lives on nearby Malaga Island, which was settled by former slaves. Turner and Lizzie become fast friends despite resistance from the town as well as from Turner's minister father, who is already feeling the backlash of his son's transgressions from his new congregation. Phippsburg town elders and Turner's father wants the residents of Malaga to leave so that their town can be turned into a tourist hot spot, and they're willing to do just about anything to make that happen. Schmidt's lyrical language describing the seasons and the sea breeze makes the setting come to life, making it another character that weaves its way throughout the entire story. Flashes of humor, temper, and an aching melancholy, along with a variety of Maine accents for the assorted townsfolk color veteran actor Sam Freed's narration of this title that should be in all libraries.–Charli Osborne, Oxford Public Library, MI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
Boston and Phippsburg are close geographically, but 13-year-old Tucker Buckminster, who moves to Maine with his minister father, discovers they are two different worlds. He tries to fit in but the door is firmly shut until he finds friendship with old Mrs. Heard and sprightly Lizzie Bright. From the beginning, Sam Freed portrays Tucker as open, caring, and honest as he faces his new life. Freed doesn't differentiate the many characters, but his Maine accent is superb. Freed superbly conveys Tucker's innocence and naïveté as he faces prejudice, his wonder and awe at communing with the whales, and finally his growing strength of character and sense of self. Very fine! WL.S. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Gr. 7-12. Turner, the rigid minister's son, doesn't fit in when his family moves from Boston to the small town of Phippsburg on the coast of Maine in 1912. It's not only that Maine baseball is different from the game he knows; he's just plain miserable. Then he makes friends with a smart, lively young teen, Lizzie Griffin, living in a small, impoverished community founded by former slaves on nearby Malaga Island. When the town elders drive Lizzie's people off the island, Turner stands up for them, but he can do nothing. Lizzie eventually dies in an insane asylum. The novel may be too long and detailed for some readers, with every plot strand and character accounted for. But the removal of the Malaga community really happened, and Schmidt weaves that history into a powerful tale of friendship and coming-of-age, adding a lyrical sense of the coastal landscape. Characters are drawn without reverence in this haunting combination of fact and fiction that has a powerful and tragic climax. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Good story.
Very good story. I enjoyed readint it. My granddaughter will hopefully enjoy it also.

A book for all ages
This book won the Newberry Honor book for a reason. In my opinion it should have been the Winner. This is a thougthful, well written book. It is full of great characters in a thought provoking story. Seeing the story of Malaga Island and the town of Phippsburg through the wise young eyes of Turner Buckminster was brilliant. Gary Schmidt is a master at telling the story of "adolescents turning their face toward adulthood." I heard Gary say those very words last week when I heard him speak at a local community dinner. I was very moved by all he talked about. It is clear that he is a gifted storyteller on paper and in voice. Lizzie Bright tells an important story about ignorance, prejudice and growing up. As an adult who loves to read well written juvenile fiction, I am looking forward to more great books by Gary Schmidt.

Lizzie Bright Review
I bought this book for class. It was very well written. The ending was hard to deal with, but it was excellent and a good background to the history of Malaga Island. I would suggest this for anyone who likes a good read. This also good for educators to introduce race relations in Maine.