A Northern Light

Ok now… time for another blog/book review. This time, the book is A Northern Light, by Jennifer Donnelly. As I stated in my “Feed” blog, there is a set of questions I ask myself when reading a book that help me think about what I am reading. These questions are my own criteria, but anyone can use them.

1. What catches my interest about this work of literature?

2. What is off-putting about it?

3. Is the content reasonable for the age group suggested?

4. What significance does this work have on me, my life, or my perspective?

(Stories only) 5. A. Are the characters relatable? B. Does a character’s plight help me?

Question number 1! Some of the things that interested me in this book… Not super hard to find. I really like the idea of Mathilda “Mattie” Gokey (no relation to Danny) being a semi-oppressed farm worker. Mattie isn’t really paid for work on her family farm, but I like that she is doing it in place of her brother, who decided he hated dad enough to leave everyone. I really liked the fact that Mattie isn’t a “country bumpkin” and loves to read and write. This seems a little familiar to me, but we’ll get back to that later, in question 5. For now… on to question 2.

What things are off-putting in the story? I’d say the number 1 thing that I didn’t like about the story is that the brother reminds me of Richie Cunningham’s brother, Chuck. He went upstairs once, and was never heard from again. The same is true about her brother. After leaving, he really isn’t heard from again unless you re-read the parts he IS in. That fact stuck out a lot while reading, and is really the only thing I can think of that isn’t great about the novel. The language used isn’t archaic, and the characters aren’t swallow and one-dimensional. Having answered that, we can move to question 3.

Is this book good for its age group? I’d say yes. This book isn’t exactly family friendly, but it is far from a slasher book. I’d say my reason for saying yes is in question 5, too.

Are the characters relatable? Definitely. Despite racism being more rampant back then, I’d say a lot of African-American boys could relate heavily to Weaver. He is loyal, honest, and a great friend in general. He’s tempted to do some things that he shouldn’t, just like anyone would be, and generally, he pulls through with flying colors. Mattie on her own note, is very relatable too, especially to Midwesterners. Many of my childhood friends had to miss out on playing sports or going to the movies because they had to do work on the farm. Thankfully enough, the technology now has made it much easier for college-bound farm workers to take time away from the farm to go to college. While I haven’t been a farm boy myself, I’ve done work on farms and with corn for enough time to realize that it does take a lot of work to do, especially without modern machines. Almost everything about this book is relatable; the characters, the lifestyle, and even the “I can’t wait to get the hell of ‘insert state’” mentality.

As a student, I’d recommend this book to people, even if only for the sense of nostalgia. As a teacher, I might teach this book because of Mattie’s great approach to her problems. I might have to change teaching patterns for the book depending on where I am. New York – “This is what it’s like for Midwesterners” Farmers – “See, you CAN get out!”