Fiction - African, Fiction - African American, Fiction - Miscellaneous People, Places & Cultures, Fiction - General & Miscellaneous, Fiction - U. S. People, Places & Cultures, Fiction - Family Life

Boundless Grace

Name: Boundless Grace
Author: Mary Hoffman
ISBN: 9780140556674

by Mary Hoffman, Caroline Binch

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Overview

When Grace gets the opportunity to go to Africa and visit with her father and his new family, she feels a little strange. But Nana says families are what you make them, and Grace is going to make the most of hers! Mary Hoffman and Caroline Binch bring their spunky heroine to brilliant life in this charming sequel to the award-winning Amazing Grace.

"As assured and uplifting as its predecessor." -Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Validating, uplifting, and bound to please." -School Library Journal, starred review

Awards:

( A Parents Choice Best Book of the Year
( A Parents Magazine Best Book of the Year
( Parenting Magazine Reading Magic Award
( A Reading Rainbow Book
( An NCSS-CBC Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies

Grace is invited for a visit with her father and his new family in Africa.

Synopsis

Publishers Weekly

Irrepressible, plucky Grace charmed a multitude of readers when she debuted in Amazing Grace, defying the narrow-mindedness of her classmates to land the plum role of Peter Plan in the school play. In this more message-oriented sequel, Grace is older (her gap-toothed grin all filled in), but still brimming with stories and dreams. Here she must overcome her own preconceptions and fears to accept and find acceptance with her divorced and remarried father's ``other'' family in Africa. Traveling to The Gambia with her grandmother, Grace frets about the horrible stepmothers found in fairy tales and worries that her hosts won't need or love her (``They make a storybook family without me''). Unlike the first book, where the spunkiness of the heroine was the heart of the story, this tale revolves around the lesson that ``families are what you make them.'' Hoffman has once again imbued her story with an abundance of familial understanding. Binch's brilliant watercolors capture the colorful clothing and scenery of the African village; her snapshot-like portraits seem to radiate light. Despite the more predictable plot line, this volume is as assured and as uplifting as its predecessor. Ages 4-8. (May)

About the Author, Mary Hoffman

Mary Hoffman has written more than 70 books for children, and her powers of observation bring vitality and humour to all her stories and retellings.

Her previous titles for Dorling Kindersley include Henry's Baby and A First Bible Story Book. Her best-known picture books are Amazing Grace, Three Wise Women, and An Angel Just Like Me. Mary lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and they have three daughters. The girls were brought up on myths and legends, of which Mary and her husband have an extensive collection.
Caroline Binch lives in Cornwall, England.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Children's Literature - Marilyn Courtot

Once again Grace charms us. Her Dad, who she barely remembers, invites her to come to The Gambia for a visit with him and his new family. Nana agrees to accompany Grace on the visit. It is an emotional tussle to accept a stepmother, brother and sister, and to become reacquainted with her Dad. Nana is the common thread between Grace's life in America and this new family in Africa. Her adage "families are what you make them" guides Grace into an acceptance and enjoyment of the separate lives and cultures of her parents.

Children's Literature - Susie Wilde

Story-loving, thoughtful Grace faced racial and sexual stereotyping in Amazing Grace. She takes on narrow definitions of family in Boundless Grace. Grace's family "is not right" because she can't find the mother-grandmother household reflected in her books and when her father issues an invitation to visit him and his second family in Gambia, Grace concludes, "They make a storybook family without me. I'm one girl too many." Then Grace enjoys the role of big sister, befriends the stepmother she'd intended to hate, savors her father's storytelling, and decides she'll compensate for books' failures by writing a story to reflect her family. In a story textured with word images and enriched by illustration and strong characters, the author voices difficult issues young children can't describe. She is never preachy, for like her heroine, she knows the wisdom of letting story tell situation.

Children's Literature - Jan Lieberman

Amazing Grace is back with all her exuberance and feistiness in this sequel. Grace is invited to meet her father's new family in Africa. On arriving in The Gambia, she is awed by the sights, the color, the animals, the rural ambience, but especially by her stepmother and her "half-siblings." She feels like an outsider. They are a storybook family without her. Nana reminds her that "Families are what you make them." Grace is wise enough to understand that. The paintings grab you and let you inhale the exquisite colors and the exotic atmosphere.

School Library Journal

K-Gr 3-The irrepressible heroine of Amazing Grace (Dial, 1991) is back in this realistic adventure of the heart. A lover of stories, Grace longs for a family like the ones she reads about in her books. She has a secure and happy home with her ma, her nana, and her cat, but feels she's missed out by not having a father, a brother, and a dog. Her own father moved to Africa after her parents' divorce and began a new family there. One day her mother surprises her with the news that her dad has sent tickets for Grace and Nana to come for a visit. Arriving in The Gambia, she finds the storybook family she's been looking for, but it doesn't seem to include her. "`I'm one girl too many. Besides, it's the wrong Ma,'" she says. Jatou doesn't fit the model of any of the stepmothers Grace has read about, but she promises her father she'll try to like the woman since they are both so important to him. Through the wonderful visit and getting to know her stepfamily Grace learns to embrace life even when it isn't picture perfect. Binch's sumptuous pencil and watercolor artwork is astonishingly lifelike and expressive in detail. The exotic locale is an extra bonus in this universal story that is validating, uplifting, and bound to please.-Luann Toth, School Library Journal