Quicksand Pond | TheBookSeekers

Quicksand Pond


School year: Year 6, Year 7, Year 8

No. of pages 272

Published: 2018

Great for age 7-13 years

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An ALA Notable Book A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2017 Striking, enigmatic, and haunting all around. Booklist (starred review) A suspenseful, realistic, finely crafted story exploring friendship, trust, and how we judge others. Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Newbery Honor winner Janet Taylor Lisles novel about a pivotal summer in two girls lives explores the convictions we form, the judgments we make, and the values we hold.The pond is called Quicksand Pond. Its a shadowy, hidden place, full of chirping, shrieking, croaking life. Its where, legend has it, people disappear. Its where scrappy Terri Carr lives with her no-good family. And its where twelve-year-old Jessie Kettel is reluctantly spending her summer vacation. Jessie meets Terri on a raft out in the water, and the two become fast friends. On Quicksand Pond, Jessie and Terri can be lost to the outside worldlost until they want to be found. But a tragedy that occurred many decades ago has had lingering effects on this sleepy town, and especially on Terri Carr. And the more Jessie learns, the more she begins to question her new friendshipand herself.

 

 

This book is aimed at children at US 5th grade+.

This book has been graded for interest at 10-18 years.

There are 272 pages in this book. This book was published in 2018 by Simon & Schuster .

Janet Taylor Lisle's books for young readers have received the Newbery Honor Award (Afternoon of the Elves), the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction (The Art of Keeping Cool), Holland's Zilveren Griffel, and Italy's Premio Andersen Award, among other honors. A graduate of Smith College and former journalist, Janet lives in Rhode Island and often draws on Rhode Island history in her work. Visit her online at JanetTaylorLisle. com.

 

Kirkus Best Books of 2017, middle-grade fiction

 

An ALA Notable Book

 

*STARRED REVIEW* "Deftly navigating a diverse array of socioeconomic statuses and the discriminatory nature of the justice system, Newbery Honor-winner Lisle crafts a stirring story that raises crucial questions about the assumptions we make, the distances we keep, and the vulnerable voices we often fail to hear. As Lisle details Terri's determination to cease a vicious cycle, Henrietta's resolve to remedy an unjust past, and Jessie's aching ambivalence between the cautionary advice of others and her own hard-won revelations, readers are sure to listen. Striking, enigmatic, and haunting all around."--Booklist, February 2017, starred review

 

*STARRED REVIEW* "A summer beside Quicksand Pond on Rhode Island's coast transforms a reluctant 12-year-old.... Unfolding slowly in simple, quiet prose, this sensitive, compelling story alternates between Jessie's present experiences and Henrietta's befuddled memories until they collide in a disturbing, pivotal climax. A suspenseful, realistic, finely crafted story exploring friendship, trust, and how we judge others."--Kirkus Reviews, March 2017, starred review

 

"Echoing the themes and tone of Lisle's Newbery Honor-winning Afternoon of the Elves, this loss-of-innocence novel traces the delicate friendship built between two girls from different backgrounds.... With characteristic subtlety and enormous compassion, Lisle expresses complex family and social conflicts while showing how Jessie's understanding of the world and her newfound friend expand, even as the views of those around her remain narrow. Terri's struggle against oppression and prejudice will have as profound an impact on readers as it does on Jessie."--Publishers Weekly, March 2017

 

"Quicksand Pond by Janet Taylor Lisle (Newbery Honor Book Afternoon of the Elves; The Art of Keeping Cool) is a beautiful, realistic story about trust, self-doubt and judgment."--Shelf Awareness, May 19, 2017