True Colors

October 29, 2012
On the day Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, a two-day-old newborn was left in a flowerpot outside a widow’s Vermont farm. Hannah Spooner named the baby for the color of her skin—blue at that moment—and raised her as her own. Ten years later, Blue narrates the myriad ways in which life disappoints her: endless chores, nagging questions about her parentage, and a loneliness so persistent she tells her troubles to an indifferent stray cat. Friends are so scarce that Blue looks forward to the return every summer of Nadine, a bratty city girl who treats Blue shabbily. The plot is wildly unbalanced: it takes a third of the novel to move beyond the workaday details of farm life; a rush of events overwhelms the last few chapters. Still, Kinsey-Warnock’s (Gifts from the Sea) story has its charms, and Blue’s eventual realization that it’s less important to know who abandoned her than it is to appreciate the woman who rescued her closes the narration on a loving note. A quiet country story for fans of Ruth White’s books. Ages 8–12. Agent: Gina Maccoby, Gina Maccoby Literary Agency.

October 15, 2012
In the summer of 1952, 10-year-old Blue finds that her "real mama" isn't the one who abandoned her when she was 2 days old, but the strong woman who raised her on a farm in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom. Kinsey-Warnock returns to the world she has lovingly described earlier in such titles as From Dawn Till Dusk (2002). On Hannah's old-fashioned farm, milking and haying are done by hand. Tourists at the nearby lake find farming tasks "relaxing," but Blue and Hannah, now in her 70s, consider them plain hard work. The book opens with Blue waiting not only for her "real mother," but also for the return of her best friend, a regular summer visitor named Nadine. But Nadine, nearly 12, has developed new interests and an unfamiliar mean streak. She even makes fun of Raleigh, a brain-damaged adult who does odd jobs around their supportive small town. Nadine's family, which Blue had once envied, is falling apart. For Blue, the summer brings a new understanding of what it means to be family and an appreciation for her own life, as well as answers to some mysterious disappearances--both animals and people--and the development of a talent for writing. Blue's first-person voice is believable and her growth convincing in this satisfying family and friendship story--with a perfect cover to boot. (Historical fiction. 9-12)

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November 1, 2012

Gr 4-6-A wholesome and satisfyingly predictable book, strongly evocative of Clare Vanderpool's Moon Over Manifest (Delacorte, 2010) and Jennifer L. Holm's Our Only May Amelia (HarperCollins, 1999). Blue, a softhearted 10-year-old farm girl, spends the summer of 1952 seeking to learn who abandoned her days after she was born. Kinsey-Warnock creates a nice balance between the fun Blue experiences in her small Northern Vermont town, where she lives with Hannah, the older woman who found her, and the tension she feels both in her friendship with a rich "summer" girl and about how some people treat a kindhearted, brain-damaged man. Hints and foreshadowing about missing animals and Blue's own mysterious heritage are deftly interwoven. Highly teachable with well-drawn characters and an engaging narrative voice, this novel also contains a well-integrated component about vocabulary and writing. Well-read youngsters will feel they've heard this story before, but in a good way: this is a sweet and worthwhile addition.Rhona Campbell, Georgetown Day School, Washington, DC

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2012
Grades 4-6 Left as a tiny baby outside 63-year-old Hannah's farmhouse door for her to name, love, and raise as her own, Blue has never known the identity of her parents, but it never seemed to matter until her tenth summer. Her best friend, having family troubles, seems like a stranger. Her familiar, loosely knit community is suddenly full of surprises. And her new project with the local newspaper leads her in unexpected directions. Meanwhile, Blue learns that every family has secrets, and hers is no exception. Set in 1952, this well-constructed novel features a number of distinctive, believable characters moving in their own circles, which occasionally and sometimes unexpectedly intersect those of others. Meanwhile, the words and deeds of even minor players resonate through the story, as Blue sets out to solve the mystery of her parentage and, in the end, discovers where her heart lies.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2013
Newborn Blue was left on Hannah's doorstep in 1941 and has remained on her farm since. This touching self-discovery story outlines ten-year-old Blue's longing to find her real mama, friendship woes, and eventual appreciation of her unique family situation. Kinsey-Warnock effectively uses simple-folk dialogue to cement the 1950s rural Vermont setting in her intimate portrait of a loving but non-traditional family.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)