Eclipse
Basic Information:
Illustrator: none
Publication Year: Oct 2006
Publisher: Front Street Books
Book Type: Middle Grade Novel
Grades: 4th to 12th
ISBN-10: 1932425217
ISBN-13: 978-1932425215
About the Book:
A serious young boy has to learn to take a stand for his own well-being. In 1952 eight-year-old Peti's Hungarian relatives come to live with his family in America. His older cousin Gabor is a sullen boy who argues with his parents and bullies Peti. Peti's only escape is to the local library, where he reads about everything from the solar system to pinhole cameras and secret codes. Peti wants Gabor to move out, but Uncle Jozsef can't find a job, and Peti's mother has to find work instead. The landlady is threatening to evict them, and the boys in the neighborhood are dreaming up trouble. To top it all off, Peti's mother worries constantly about her father, who is behind the Iron Curtain in Hungary. When the librarian invites Peti to go with her on a tour of the Rankin House, once a stop on the Underground Railroad, the day trip turns into much more than a chance to get away from tension at home. Peti comes back with a new understanding of friendship and family, new insights about human nature, and a new resolve to stand up for himself.
Author Perspective:
In some ways, my brother and my cousin are the models for Peti and Gabor. When I was little, my cousin bullied my brother. I hated my cousin for pulling my brother on a carpet and burning his back or tossing the baseball into his mitt too hard. Only later did I realize that my cousin had troubles of his own that made him act the way he did. The dynamics of Peti's family are based on my own memories. I missed my mother when she went to work and worried about my aunt's ability to take care of me. The scene at the swimming pool involving the eclipse is based on a very early memory.
Reviews:
School Library Journal
Grade 4-7–This thoughtful novel about Hungarian refugees living in Cincinnati in 1952 invites comparison with many situations in today's politically unstable world. Peti, 8, lives with his parents and is looking forward to having his aunt, uncle, and 12-year-old cousin join them in the U.S. How could he have known how cruel and disturbed his cousin would be? Or that his mother's worry about her father, still in Hungary and able to communicate only through letters with coded messages, would overshadow so much else in their family? The adults in this small apartment all have far too much on their minds to pay much attention to Peter, a curious, talkative child who is sometimes overly eager to please, and his first-person narrative conveys an authentic feel for some of the universal experiences of childhood. Significant plot elements include a friendly librarian, stories about the Underground Railroad, and the boy's growing interest in photography. All of these contribute to his gradual journey toward maturity and a stronger sense of himself. Peti is occasionally too good to be true, and there won't be a huge audience for this sensitive story. Also, the narrator is younger than the intended readership, something else that can get in the way of selling a book to kids. Yet, in its quiet way, this is a remarkable and original book.–Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Booklist
The pain of the immigrant experience--the suffering that drives people from home, the break with those left behind, and the hard adjustment in a strange place--is compellingly captured in this spare, unsentimental novel. The story is told from the perspective of eight-year-old Peti, born in Australia to immigrant parents who emigrated to Ohio. In 1952, Peti's uncle's family joins them, and Peti must endure the bullying of his traumatized 12-year-old cousin, as well as the anguish he feels about their Hungarian grandfather, who remains imprisoned behind the Iron Curtain. That's a lot for one small novel, but the spare, first-person, present-tense narrative beautifully discloses the displacement and persecution. Peti finds refuge in books, and although the librarian is just too perfect, his trip with her to a station on the Underground Railroad raises a crucial connection. The child's naive, immediate viewpoint dramatizes issues--past and present. Hazel Rochman Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
