Genre - Historical Fiction
Rating - 4.5/5
Age group recommendation - Grades 5-12
The Scoop - When Turner Buckminster moves from Boston to Maine, he discovers a new way to play baseball, friends in unlikely places and how hard growing up can be. Turner causes controversy in the town with his friendship with Malanga Isaland resident Lizzie and changes the course of the entire town.
The Story - I enjoyed reading this book. Even though the story is set in a different time period, I don't think that would keep readers from connecting with the story. The characters are vibrant and believable and the action of the story keeps the reader's interest. Toward the beginning of the book, it felt like it was going to be a "boy" book, focusing on baseball and the interests of a young boy. But, with the introduction of Lizzie and her friendship with Turner, the story takes a turn that makes it an "everybody" book. Turner's relationship with his father has a lot of conflict and could be another point of connection for young readers. Even though the ending is sad, with a lot of death, the lessons of people making the right choices helps even out the sadness.
Educational applications
Rating - 4.5/5
Age group recommendation - Grades 5-12
The Scoop - When Turner Buckminster moves from Boston to Maine, he discovers a new way to play baseball, friends in unlikely places and how hard growing up can be. Turner causes controversy in the town with his friendship with Malanga Isaland resident Lizzie and changes the course of the entire town.
The Story - I enjoyed reading this book. Even though the story is set in a different time period, I don't think that would keep readers from connecting with the story. The characters are vibrant and believable and the action of the story keeps the reader's interest. Toward the beginning of the book, it felt like it was going to be a "boy" book, focusing on baseball and the interests of a young boy. But, with the introduction of Lizzie and her friendship with Turner, the story takes a turn that makes it an "everybody" book. Turner's relationship with his father has a lot of conflict and could be another point of connection for young readers. Even though the ending is sad, with a lot of death, the lessons of people making the right choices helps even out the sadness.
Educational applications
Georgia Performance Standards
ELA6R1 The student demonstrates comprehension and shows evidence of a warranted and responsible explanation of a variety of literary and informational texts.
Working in collaboration with the classroom teacher, students are instructed to use the text as a basis for finding the factual events that happened at the time in which the story is set. Students should look for events described in the book (the destruction of the Malanga Island community) and events that have similar conflicts (e.g. characters vs. society). Students use a variety of research methods including online journals and archives and the school OPAC for other historical and fictional sources.
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt
New York : Clarion Books, c2004
Copy from Atlanta Fulton County Library
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