Blue (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Blue Karen Coats Hostetter, Joyce Moyer Blue. Calkins Creek/Boyds Mills, 2006 [200p] ISBN 1-59078-389-1$16.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-8 In January of 1944, thirteen-year-old Ann Fay says goodbye to her father as he heads off to fight Hitler, and she puts on the blue overalls that will make her the man of the house in his absence. With help from a neighbor boy, she plows, sets, and tends the family's huge vegetable garden, battles the encroaching wisteria that threatens to take over their property, and takes care of her younger siblings. They all miss their father dreadfully, but their real tragedy begins when four-year-old Bobby is stricken with polio. Ann Fay does her best to hold things together while her mother stays with Bobby at the polio hospital in Hickory, North Carolina, known as the "Miracle of Hickory." Bobby dies, but the epidemic isn't done with their family, and Ann Fay finds herself side by side in the contagious ward with a black girl. They become fast friends, helping each other through the uncomfortable Kenny treatments and physical therapy until they are separated, under much protest, into the segregated convalescent wards. Between Daddy's absence, Bobby's death (and the death from grief of his faithful dog, Polio Pete), and Ann Fay's difficult recovery, this is three-hankie historical fiction about a truly grim time in American history, but Hostetter manages to avoid too much sentiment by focusing on Ann Fay's determination and common sense in the face of hard times. Readers in this iconoclastic age will be struck by the admiration and esteem people, especially fellow polio victims, felt for Roosevelt, as well as the spirit of volunteerism that characterized the response to the domestic epidemic in the midst of war. An informative author's note and extensive bibliography are included. Copyright © 2006 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois