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    Like the Willow Tree (Dear America): Like the Willow Tree
    Like the Willow Tree (Dear America): Like the Willow Tree
    Like the Willow Tree (Dear America): Like the Willow Tree
    Audiobook4 hours

    Like the Willow Tree (Dear America): Like the Willow Tree

    Written by Lois Lowry

    Narrated by Sara Barnett

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    In the Fall of 1918, eleven year-old Lydia Pierce and her fourteen year-old brother, Daniel, find themselves suddenly orphaned by the Spanish flu epidemic.

    Their grieving uncle takes them from their home in Portland, Maine to be raised in the Shaker community, where they are separated since males and females are not permitted to live together. Lydia, a fiercely independent girl, is forced to adjust to her new life and the restrictions placed upon her all on her own.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherScholastic
    Release dateJan 1, 2011
    ISBN9780545329262
    Like the Willow Tree (Dear America): Like the Willow Tree
    Author

    Lois Lowry

    Lois Lowry is the author of more than forty books for children and young adults, including the New York Times bestselling Giver Quartet and the popular Anastasia Krupnik series. She has received countless honors, among them the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, the California Young Reader Medal, and the Mark Twain Award. She received Newbery Medals for two of her novels, Number the Stars and The Giver.

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    Reviews for Like the Willow Tree (Dear America)

    4/5

    65 ratings5 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I believe this was a very inspiring, informative book because I noticed the recurrence of an epidemic both the Spanish Influenza and the Coronavirus. I really enjoyed it.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 2/5
      I didn't like this book that much.I mean it was okay but I have read i LOT better Dear America books!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      I didn't like this book that much.I mean it was okay but I have read i LOT better Dear America books!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    • 4/5
      I was excited to see that Lowry was contributing a title to the Dear America series, and expected it to be a cut above others in the series -- which it was.Lydia and her brother Daniel, orphaned during the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918, are taken to live with the Shaker community at Sabbathday Lake, Maine. Lydia soon adapts to her new surroundings, but Daniel is not so happy, and Lydia worries about him.This is an extremely well-researched book, and presents a sympathetic view of the small Shaker community. My only issue with the book is that Lydia did seem to adapt very quickly to a completely different lifestyle than the one to which she was accustomed. Still, I give it high marks for being well-researched and well-written, and for adding to the historical breadth of the Dear America series by presenting a community and time period not often featured in juvenile fiction.
    • 3/5
      Eleven-year-old Lydia Pierce lives a carefree life in Portland, Maine, in 1918, until the terrible flu epidemic that is spreading worldwide takes the lives of her parents and baby sister. Lydia and her older brother Daniel are now orphans, and their aunt and uncle have no room for them on the crowded family farm. With no other options available, their uncle takes them to live in Sabbathday Lake with the Shakers, who care for orphaned children. Life with the Shakers is very different from Lydia’s old life in Portland. The Shakers have many rules that must be strictly followed. Males and females must stay separate and not socialize, which means Lydia can rarely speak to her brother. In her diary Lydia describes her first few months living with the Shakers and how she eventually adjusts and finds some happiness in her new life. I was really looking forward to this new Dear America book as the historical setting looked really interesting and unique. However, the main character, Lydia, seemed to adjust far too quickly to her new life. Her parents and little sister died, she and her brother were separated, she had to start a totally new life in a place with very different rules and a new religion, where she could not even keep the few mementos she had of her family and old life - and less than a month later, she didn’t seem too sad or concerned and her only worry was that she thought her brother might be unhappy. It seemed more than a bit unrealistic for an eleven-year-old girl to adjust so quickly to so many losses and I would have enjoyed the story more and found it more realistic if these changes in Lydia had taken place over a longer period of time. While the historical information was interesting - I hadn’t read any books before about Shaker life during this time period - ultimately, I just found the main character to be totally unrealistic. Three stars for the historical detail and interesting setting, and possibly still worth a read if you are a dedicated fan of the series, but personally, how unrealistic the main character seemed pretty much ruined the book for me.