About the Author

Dianne E. Gray's first novel for young people, Holding Up the Earth, won a Willa Literary Award and was selected for the American Library Association's list of Best Books for Young Adults 2001. She grew up on the Nebraska prairie and now divides her time between Minnesota and Nevada.

Reviews

"The stories of five teenaged girls -- separated by decades, but joined by their love of a Nebraska farm -- are pieced together like a patchwork quilt in this first novel. . . . A carefully structured work full of recurring connections and patterns, peopled with strong female characters." --Horn Book (9-10/00) Horn Book "An excellent candidate for mother/daughter reading groups, Holding Up the Earth will become a collective memory for young teenage girls." --Kirkus Reviews (10/1/00) Kirkus Reviews School Library Journal (10/00) School Library Journal The Bulletin (11/00) The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books "This highly recommended book can be read on many leavels -- historical, psychological, structural, or artistic. Each level is fascinating and fulfilling." --VOYA 4Q 3P (10/00) VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates) "...powerful female protagonists...the concerns that connect them...make for gripping reading." -The Paperback Shelf Midwest Book Review --

Narratives, diaries and letters woven together, often too tidily, tell the stories of four girls from different generations who each find a way to reclaim their lives on a small Nebraska farm. Hope, whose mother died eight years earlier, is 14 when her latest foster mother, Sarah, brings her to the farmDthe site of "earth finds." These archeological treasures, such as barrettes and gold coins, become touchstones for each girl's experience and for Hope's ultimate sense of belonging. Abigail, the daughter of a 19th-century homesteading family unable to meet the demands of the frontier, returns to her prized meadow to die. Rebecca, a hired girl on the farm at the turn of the 20th century, eventually helps to heal the family she works for and marries the son. Her daughter, Anna (Sarah's mother), still runs the farm, and she and Sarah welcome Hope. Unfortunately, Hope's character does not seem convincing; her struggles are too easily won. Some tying of threads across the girls' narratives is contrived, such as Anna's meeting with Abigail just before she dies and the creation of a "story quilt" at the end. However, the letters and diaries, while uneven, offer some of the more fluid passages here and may sustain readers' interest in this first novel. Ages 10-14. (Oct.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.