The River Between Us by Richard Peck

From the Publisher

Richard Peck is a master of stories about people in transition, but perhaps never before has he told a tale of such dramatic change as this one, set during the first year of the Civil War. The whole country is changing in 1861-even the folks from a muddy little Illinois settlement on the banks of the Mississippi. Here, fifteen-year-old Tilly Pruitt frets over the fact that her brother is dreaming of being a soldier and that her sister is prone to supernatural visions. A boy named Curry could possibly become a distraction.

Then a steamboat whistle splits the air. The Rob Roy from New Orleans docks at the landing, and off the boat step two remarkable figures: a vibrant, commanding young lady in a rustling hoop skirt and a darker, silent woman in a plain cloak, with a bandanna wrapped around her head. Who are these two fascinating strangers? And is the darker woman a slave, standing now on the free soil of Illinois? When Tilly's mother invites the women to board at her house, the whole world shifts for the Pruitts and for their visitors as well.

Within a page-turning tale of mystery, adventure, and the civilian Civil War experience, Richard Peck has spun a breathtaking portrait of the lifelong impact that one person can have on another. This is a novel of countless riches.

USA Today

The book is rich in detail about life along the Mississippi and the limited, late war news that further splits communities. Peck captures the light and dark sides of the Pruitt family, the sweetness of tiny moments, the excruciating pain of a distraught mother's words. He writes life-changing scenes reminiscent of the Atlanta pilgrimage that Scarlett O'Hara makes in Gone With the Wind: Tilly and Delphine are confronted with hundreds of wounded and dying soldiers after an exhausting trip to Cairo, and, like Scarlett, roll up their sleeves and find a strength that neither knew she had. — Lynne Perri

The Washington Post

This unusual Civil War novel really boosts Peck's credentials as America's best living author for young adults. Not only is it a gripping yarn -- about two enigmatic women and a small Southern Illinois town in the momentous first year of the war -- but it is nearly as intricately structured as Wuthering Heights, with multiple narrators and tales-within-tales enhancing both the mystery and the wistfulness of long-ago events. — Elizabeth Ward

Publishers Weekly

In our Best Books citation, PW wrote, "The author crafts his characters impeccably and threads together their fates in surprising ways that shed light on the complicated events of the Civil War." Ages 10-up. (Apr.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Susie Wilde - Children's Literature

Richard Peck won a 2000 Newbery for A Year Down Yonder and a 1998 Newbery honor for the prequel, A Long Way from Chicago (both $5.99 from Puffin). Both books are steeped in history and strong characters. So is his newest, The River Between Us . The main character is fifteen-year-old Tilly Pruitt who lives in Grand Tower, a muddy little Mississippi River town. Tilly worries about what the impending Civil War may do to her already threatened family. The situation is gripping, but it's Tilly's voice that captures readers with a the mix of humor and homespun that shone in Peck's other books. Soon a second character enters who sets mystery into motion. On a "velvet night" a ship arrives from New Orleans and two figures come down the plank, back lit by the boat's lanterns. One, Delphine Duval, is a beauty, encased in taffeta and satins. The other is dressed plainly and it is quickly assumed she is Delphine's maidservant. The two take up residence at Tilly's home and the family is immediately struck with Delphine's fine manners, elegant possessions, and generosity. Delphine is shrouded in mystery of the exotic New Orleans life she describes and "her conversation was a lacework fan that opened and closed, concealing and revealing." The strength of the two characters and the relationship they establish transcends the horrors of war and the prejudices of gender and race, and highlight lesser known historical facts and make them real. 2003, Dial, Ages 11 up.

Jing Cao, Teen Reviewer - VOYA

Mixing vibrant characters, a gripping plot, and historical facts, Peck cooks a literary gumbo worthy of New Orleans' finest chefs. (Or "Nouvelle Orleans" as character Delphine would say.) Irksome dialect aside, this book is sumptuous. Fifteen-year-old Howard's story in the Model-T era complements grandmother Tillie's story of fifty-five years earlier, when she has enough troubles with her sister's visions and her brother facing war. Then two Louisiana women waltz into their lives, with southern drawls and surprises beneath their petticoats. The town starts whispering, the Civil War begins, and Tillie's life changes forever. Peck spices up his stew with showboats, apparitions, romance, battle, and twists around every corner in this great read, even for those who dislike historical fiction. VOYA Codes: 5Q 4P M J S (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2003, Dial, 176p,

Claire Rosser - KLIATT

This latest historical novel by Peck will win critical acclaim and also appeal to YA readers, even high school readers. It is set during the Civil War in a little town along the Mississippi River, where a family lives slightly apart from their neighbors. Tilly is surprised when her mother takes in two strange young women, Delphine and Calinda, journeying up the river from New Orleans as the war begins. Delphine is enchanting and Tilly is surprised to learn they are about the same age; 15. Tilly's older brother Noah is definitely fascinated. And Calinda understands Tilly's strange little sister, who sees visions; mostly visions of horror to come. The horror, of course, is the war. Noah joins the Northern army, and after a terrible battle nearby, Tilly and Delphine go to find him wounded in the ghastly hospital tents and eventually save his life, with the help of a young Army doctor. Peck tells the story by peeling off layers, saving the best surprise for the end, which I won't give away here. His mechanism is introducing the family history through the eyes of a boy living in 1916, whose father, a doctor, takes the boy to visit his elderly relatives; Tilly, Noah, Delphine, and Dr. Hutchings; before he himself goes off to Europe to take care of the wounded in another Great War. The narrative voice shifts to Tilly at 15, who relates the events of 1861, before returning in the final chapter to the boy in 1916 once again. Peck has achieved the highest awards for his work in children's literature, and this novel is among his best work for YAs. KLIATT Codes: JS*; Exceptional book, recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2003, Penguin Putnam, Dial, 164p.,

School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up-In the opening days of the Civil War, a genteel but worldly wise young woman and her companion step off a steamboat from New Orleans onto the dock of a provincial Illinois town. This richly told and evocatively realized novel tells how the strangers are taken into the Pruitts' home (and into their hearts), changing all of the characters' lives forever. Winner of the 2003 Scott O'Dell Award for historical fiction. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

"Imagine an age when there were still people around who'd seen U.S. Grant with their own eyes, and men who'd voted for Lincoln." Fifteen-year-old Howard Leland Hutchings visits his father's family in Grand Tower, Illinois, in 1916, and meets four old people who raised his father. The only thing he knows about them is that they lived through the Civil War. Grandma Tilly, slender as a girl but with a face "wrinkled like a walnut," tells Howard their story. Sitting up on the Devil's Backbone overlooking the Mississippi River, she "handed over the past like a parcel." It's a story of two mysterious women from New Orleans, of ghosts, soldiers, and seers, of quadroons, racism, time, and the river. Peck writes beautifully, bringing history alive through Tilly's marvelous voice and deftly handling themes of family, race, war, and history. A rich tale full of magic, mystery, and surprise. (author's note) (Fiction. 12+)

Product Details

• ISBN: 0142403105
  
• ISBN-13: 9780142403105
• Format: Paperback, 176pp
• Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
• Pub. Date: April 2005
• Edition Description: Reprint
• Sales Rank: 13,578
• Age Range: 12 and up

• Read an Excerpt

Read an Excerpt

I couldn't picture where they'd come from, where they were going. Did I know enough to wonder?

We worked our way forward to see Noah and Curry and the other boys running up the gangplank for the freight. We all waved and waved till the pilot up on the Texas deck bothered to wave back. What a sight it all was, this brilliance in the velvet night.

People were crazy to hear the news. They called up to the passengers leaning on the rails. "What's it like down yonder? What's conditions at New Orleans?"

"Port's open!" someone called back. "Business as usual. Still shippin' cotton. But we was boarded and searched at Cairo."

We drank it all in and turned over every word. Then lo and behold, two figures were coming down the plank. Will I ever forget that first sight of them? Two figures, backlit by the boat, come down to us by lantern light.

A young lady was in the lead, in ballooning crinolines. Heavens, I'd never seen such skirts -- rustling taffeta stretched wide over hoops. Her top part was encased in a cut-plush cape, with tassels. And her bonnet. My stars, I pushed people aside to get a look at it. A bonnet too dark to make out except for the ice-blue satin it was lined with, and a whole corsage of artificial violets planted inside next to her face. An enormous satin bow tied beneath her chin.

And then her face, framed with long dark curls beside the violets. Her eyes were large and darkly fringed. Her Cupid's bow of a mouth too dark to be as nature intended. She must be from New Orleans. No town between here and there could have produced her. The slant of the gangplank all but upturned her. She clung to the rope with one gloved hand. From the other hung a round hatbox covered in elegant wallpaper.

She turned back to the young woman behind her. I saw this other one only in silhouette at first. She was narrower, darker, shrouded in a long plain cloak. In place of a bonnet or a traveling hat, her head was tied up in a bandanna. It was of some fine silken material, and the tails of the knot were artfully arranged Her hands were full of various boxes and reticules. The two of them murmured together.

Behind them a deckhand staggered under a humpbacked Saratoga trunk. At the end of the plank he very nearly stepped through the young lad's hoops. When he swung the trunk off his back, it lit in the mud.

By then, I was standing as close to the young lady as I am to you. She turned right to me. "Il est saoul!" she said. Her great fringed eyes grew wider.

"Come again?" I said, in a trance.

"He's drunk, that one. All men are drunkards! And the men on this boat, all of them spit, spit, spit." She pointed back to the Rob Roy in case I'd missed seeing it.