Nory Ryan's Song

I skimmed this book without reading it word for word. Which is enough for me to get the gist of it. Besides, I got tired of reading the 36th dialogue that started with, "I will..."

It's a pretty good book for third graders. The Irish Potato Famine of the 19th century shaped quite a bit of U.S. history as well as European history. I didn't realize, as the author claims, that people who had lived through it didn't like to talk about it. Maybe it was like how some people don't like talking about the Great Depression of the 1930s.

I wonder if people will be reluctant to talk about the current recession a hundred years from now. I doubt it. Things are bad, but life in general is still better than in the mid-late 1800s.

I also wonder why this book is called "Nory Ryan's Song." Nory Ryan is the main character, but I couldn't really locate the "song" part of the book. It was more about hunger, survival under any means, and escaping to Brooklyn. Note to self: adding the word "song" to a book title is poetic - but not always functional.