| Darkness Under the Water | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 6 reviews)
Sales Rank: 78376
Category: Book
Author: Beth Kanell
Publisher: Candlewick
Studio: Candlewick
Manufacturer: Candlewick
Label: Candlewick
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 1
ISBN: 076363719X
EAN: 9780763637194
ASIN: 076363719X
Publication Date: November 11, 2008
Release Date: November 11, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
This gripping, ultimately hopeful tale of an Abenaki-French Canadian girl in 1920s Vermont explores a dark episode in New England history.
Just as the waters of a river roar through her town, Molly Ballou's life is riding on a swift current, where change comes faster than a spring flood. As a half - Abenaki Indian, half - French Canadian girl in Vermont, Molly is slowly realizing that her family and others like them are being targeted by a governmental effort to rid the state of so-called "poor citizens." Not only is Molly facing discrimination, but she is also haunted by the ghostly presence of her drowned older sister and her grieving mother's evasive love. Curious about her family's traditions, Molly finds herself drawn to Henry, an Abenaki boy whose connection to the natural world provides solace when Molly's mother tragically loses a baby and grows increasingly ill. With Henry's support, sorrow gradually gives way to the joy of self-discovery ? and allows Molly to look beyond hardship to a future of promise.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Darkness Under the Water December 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I found "Darkness Under the Water" to be a very good 'read'. I live in the area, my husband has a Native American heritage and his uncle worked on building the dam. I feel the basic facts are there and Molly's story kept me coming back to read the book over and over. I have recommended it to several friends who have younger adults in their families, and have also mentioned it to those who don't.
L.G. Allen; Barnet, VT
Coming of Age as an Outsider in the 20's in Vermont December 24, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Beth Kanell's The Darkness Under the Water is the coming of age story
of Molly Ballou, an Abenaki teenager living in the Northeast Kingdom of
Vermont in the 1920's, just as the dams were being put in to provide
hydroelectric power. I was motivated to read this book because I know
and admire Beth as a writer, I have worked in St. Johnsbury for the
past 25 summers and know the Northeast Kingdom, and because I knew
little about the Vermont Eugenics Project. What made this book so
excellent was that it is not a polemic or issue book, despite the
historical background. Instead, Molly's first person account is a
loving, innocent, and inspiring account of what life in the 1920's
meant to a young girl. Her challenges were both universal (young love,
hard work, accepting authority) and situational (being Abenaki in
Vermont, giving up a home to the dam's arrrival). What Beth Kanell is
able to do as a writer is to weave those situational challenges into
the universal narrative so that
novel as a whole develops rich symbolism and becomes uplifting and
cathartic for the reader. The Darkness Under the Water is a very
successful novel, and I will be recommending it to my students at
Waring School in Beverly, MA.
Well written first novel with fact-based history December 9, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I enjoyed this first novel, and did not get a sense of stereotyping. At the time of this story, 1930, through the 1950s, so many people who were seen as part of a minority in America, wanted just to assimilate into the mainstream culture. They did not always pass all on the stories and traditions of their cultures, but kept it limited to a few things. This was the time of the 'melting pot' theory, when Americans were supposed to find more in common with each other than to find ways to celebrate their differences. It was scary to be different - a family could be sterilized, ostracized, driven out of their home... Parents may have observed traditions themselves but not taught them fully to their children, being more willing to see their children fitting in, in order to have the trade off of education, career, or simply see an easier path for their children. It has been my experience that not all Native Americans celebrate that history or want it known, not all Jews who left Nazi Germany stayed Jewish when they came here, and not all Eastern Europeans kept the names that identified them as being from their home countries.
Now, back to the book as it is - teens, and some older folks, will learn about the bewildering and horrifying time of eugenics, the justification for so much evil. As in these times, when we wonder how Americans could ever justify torture, the reader of this tale will be drawn to wonder how eugenics was ever allowed to come into popularity, when it is considered in light of the U.S. Constitution. Eugenics carved it's own river of tears, that damaged families for generations - even now. Most will relate to the main characters, and the difficulties they face, and even understand the way that childhood memories mix with imagination and loneliness to invite a young woman to cling to a dream.
 Any way to do minus-stars? December 7, 2008
5 out of 12 found this review helpful
Two Abenaki women have written an essay that is very critical of this book. Their essay is on my website, American Indians in Children's Literature. Joseph Bruchac has also posted at my site, about problems with accuracy in the book. To get to the review, do a search on "Debbie Reese" and "American Indians in Children's Literature."
Update, December 17, 2008: The book jacket for Kanell's book includes a positive blurb by Joseph Bruchac. His remarks on my website were written after the blurb on the book jacket.
 Missing a few beats December 4, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I found this book intriguing on a conceptual level but misguided in execution. The author has pitched her tone at teens, but often sounds too simplistic, especially since the themes she's dealing with are literally epic: life, death, love, the horror of eugenics, and the grand historical fact of a river being engineered to flood into a lake, destroying lives and homes forever. I felt a great deal was lacking overall, although the author's skills as a poet came through many times in small moments of thought or dialogue. I wasn't asking for some bodice-ripping period teen romance; however, I was asking for the protagonist's voice to be more compelling than it was.
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