The+River+Between+Us

When two mysterious young women arrive in Grand Towers by steamboat, young Calinda's life is changed forever. She admires the beautiful Delphine, but what is the secret she seems to be hiding? Set during the turbulent years of the Civil War, this well researched novel by award winning author Richard Peck explores a segment of the strange history of race in America.

Isy14's book review: //The River Between Us //- Richard Peck Book Review by Isabel Harrison  In the summer of 1916- A fifteen year old boy; Howard Leland Hutching travels from St. Louis Missouri in a Ford Model T touring car with his older father and younger brothers. They are headed for Grand Tower, Illinois; his father’s hometown. Howard meets his great aunt and uncle and his grandparents. From there the story launches backwards to 1861…the time of his grandmother; Tilly Pruitt, who is then 15, and the time of civil war. 1861- Tilly Pruitt lives with her sad mother, “moony” sister Cass, and her eager brother, Noah. When Tilly goes to fetch Cass for dinner Cass is crying, she has had one of her deathly visions. Cass has seen a death vision of young men blown apart, blue and grey. What could this vision mean? What Tilly doesn’t know is that many of the young men she knows may be among those blue and grey people of the vision, and that, this vision is not in the past, it is in the future. Tilly’s greatest fear is of her twin brother leaving to fight just like her father left them years ago. Noah is eager to leave and become a blue coated Northern soldier in the civil war; he trains vigilantly with the other young men. One day when a steamboat stops from New Orleans, it changes Tilly’s life drastically; two mysterious young women step off into the small town of Grand Tower. Mrs. Pruitt, Mama offers them room and board and they choose to stay. The young women are the beautiful, finely dressed, peach skinned, outspoken Delphine Duval, and the quiet, dark skinned, handy Calinda. Who are they? Could Calinda be Delphine’s slave? What is their past in New Orleans? On the evening of Noah’s 16th birthdays he leaves for war. Everything is sad but the same until one day, Mrs. Pruitt knows somehow that her son is sick. Delphine and Tilly set of to find Noah and attempt cure him. They see the atrocities and effects of the war. Tilly also learns the truth about Delphine’s past and who Calinda really is. Does the French accented, strong Delphine love Noah? At the end of the book this story travels forward back to 1916 and Howard Leland Hutchings where he learns his true family history. This is a mysterious story with a serious topic and just enough humor. It is an engrossing tale of the civil war and what it means to lose people you love. I highly recommend this book. It is not a complicated read and you learn from it.