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Synopsis
A collection of short stories following the lives of two twelve-year-old boys and their adventures of growing up on a South Carolina rice plantation before the Civil War. Inspired by actual events at Hampton Plantation.
School Library Journal
Gr 4-6 Some of the nine stories found in this book are based on legends from the Hampton Plantation in the rice-growing region of South Carolina during the years before the Civil War. They involve some hair-raising elements such as a hurricane, a wild rampaging alligator, a beached whale, and a cursed bracelet. The heros are two boys: Cart, the son and heir of the plantation owner, and Will, the son of slaves on the land. Despite exciting ideas, the stories fall short due to much repetition of plot, scant characterizations, and clumsy dialogue. Another problem is that this is a book about an antebellum Southern plantation in which slavery is never mentioned, and children may get the impression that the black people on the property are simply employees and not slaves. Holub's gray-and-black full-page pencil illustrations, one per story, are of good quality. The story, though, is a little reminiscent of old movies such as The Little Colonel, in which everyone is happy and singing and dancing on the plantation. Kay McPherson, Central Atlanta-Fulton Public Library