A Northern Light Paperback – Abridged, September 1, 2004

Last year, I used to go every day to the library of the bank where my dad works at--I'm homeschooled, and it was the perfect place to study for upcomin' exams. There I stumbled upon a Reader's Digest Condensed Version book, which basically features 3 to 4 abridged books in one volume, and one of the novels it featured was A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly (which I later found out was called A Northern Light in the states). Since I am the queen of procrastination, I began reading it during studying and soon was so swept away by the beautiful story I couldn't stop until I was finished. And when I did reached the ending, I loved it so much I was crying and doing my best not to cheer aloud since I was in, you know, a library.So when I got the chance to order some books from Amazon some time ago, I had only a quota of four books and I selected this one first-up. My sister was confused, since she couldn't understand why I was ordering a novel I'd already read when I could order a new very-highly-anticipated one. That's because I love this novel so much it was never even a question I'd get a copy for myself. And soon after it arrived, I began reading it, tossing away the resolution to not before exams (see, exams never seem to end in my life). It was just too tempting! And the book...WOW. The condensed version did NOT do it justice. Because I savored every single word of it and only fell even more in love with it, so much that it's officially my No. 1 favorite book EVER, Hands. Down. And if you know me, you'll know it's not very easy to get that title. I love it so much I actually took a picture of it and edited it up to use it as my cellphone wallpaper.I'm super picky about my cellphone wallpaper, so this is also a Big Deal.But that's just my history with the book. And now I'll review it, and hopefully I'll do it justice so that you'll go read and fall in love with it too. I mean, it DID win the Carnegie Medal, was a Michael L. Printz Honor book, and fetched numerous blurbs as well as starred reviews, which in itself makes it a must-read book.The first time I read this novel I was a bit puzzled by the simplicity of the prose. At that time, I believed you needed to use Big Words often to be a good writer (thank you, Steph Meyer!), and this novel barely employed any. And I was struck by how, despite this, the novel read so beautifully. And that's when I learned that the best kind of writing is not the Overwrought Kind, but the one that seems utterly effortless. Mattie is a lover of all things literature, and you wouldn't believe how well the author has incorporated this fact into the story. This book pretty much nails the rule of `show, not tell'. Every day Mattie learns a new word, its origins and all, and does her best to use it in that day. And a fellow word-lover meself (actually, I can safely bet that whoever's reading this review is also fond of words, right?), I loooved this aspect.And you can see how much she loved words through the following passages:"Well, it seems to me that there are books that tell stories, and then there are books that tell truths...The first kind, they show you life like you want it to be. With villains getting what they deserve and the hero seeing what a fool he's been and marrying the heroine and happy endings and all that. Like Sense and Sensibility or Persuasion. But the second kind, they show you life more like it is. Like in Huckleberry Finn where Huck's pa is a no-good drunk and Jim suffers so. The first kind makes you cheerful and contented, but the second kind shakes you up...Why don't they tell the truth? Why don't they tell how a pigpen looks after the sow's eaten her children? Or how it is for a girl when her baby won't come out? Or that cancer has a smell to it? All those books...I bet not one of them will tell you what cancer smells like...I don't mean to be coarse. I just...I don't know why I should care what happens to people in a drawing room in London or Paris or anywhere else when no one in those places cares what happens to people in Eagle Bay.""I had looked around. I'd seen all the things she'd spoken of and more besides. I'd seen a bear cub lift its face to the drenching spring rains. And the silver moon of winter, so high and blinding. I'd seen the crimson glory of a stand of sugar maple in autumn and the unspeakable stillness of a mountain lake at dawn. I'd seen them and loved them. But I'd also seen the dark of things. The starved carcasses of winter deer. The driving fury of a blizzard wind. And the gloom that broods under the pines always. Even on the brightest of days.""What I saw next stopped me dead in my tracks. Books. Not just one or two dozen, but hundreds of them. In crates. In piles on the floor. In bookcases that stretched from floor to ceiling and lined the entire room. I turned around and around in a slow circle, feeling as if I'd just stumbled into Ali Baba's cave. I was breathless, close to tears, and positively dizzy with greed."The setting is so, so vivid, and I felt as if I were really transported back to the early 1900s. In the same way, I felt like I personally knew every character. Especially Royal, Mattie's spankin' good-looking neighbor who she's attracted to, even if she maybe shouldn't be. I distinctly remember the first time round I read this book, how my heart both soared with hers and then came crashing down when things got rough. I actually began crying and very badly wanted to punch Royal's face. Yep, my connection with this book runs VERY deep.And it's not just this: Mattie yearning to be both an educated woman and eventually an author, as well as have a family and a loving husband...it was so very relatable. Especially since I often go through the same dilemma, even in this day and age, thanks to the backward society I'm from. I remember this quote really affected me:"And I knew in my bones that Emily Dickinson wouldn't have written even one poem if she'd had two howling babies, a husband bent on jamming another one into her, a house to run, a garden to tend, three cows to milk, twenty chickens to feed, and four hired hands to cook for. I knew then why they didn't marry. Emily and Jane and Louisa. I knew and it scared me. I also knew what being lonely was and I didn't want to be lonely my whole life. I didn't want to give up on my words. I didn't want to choose one over the other. Mark Twain didn't have to. Charles Dickens didn't."So, yeah, that's my review. Jennifer Donnelly is now one of my all-time fave authors, and her novel Revolution also definitely deserves to be read. In fact, if you read both and compare then, you'll be seriously shocked the same author penned both books. I mean, yes, they're both at least partially historical, but that's kind of as far as the similarities go.

A Northern Light by Jennifer DonnellyMattie is the eldest of her three sisters and helps her father take care of everything, farm and family, since their brother Lawton left and their mother is no longer with them. Mattie loves words and treasures the dictionary she inherited from her mother. She teaches her siblings new words every day. Mattie loves to read and write and she’s attending school as often as she can to earn her high school diploma. In 1906, women didn’t have voting, purchasing, or really any legal rights. Men decided pretty much everything. There wasn’t really any birth control except abstinence so that changed the course of many lives. Mattie observes others and analyzes their actions to understand their behavior better and empathize with them. So much around her is complicated and more than the eye, or gossip, can see. She also listens to the judgmental gossip and realizes how selfish the gossiping people are and how they see that people need help but they don’t help at all, instead they just enjoy talking about them. The grit, roughness, grief, joy, hardwork, and the everyday living details are included in this story and that makes a wonderfully, realistic historical fiction read! I love Jennifer Donnelly’s writing style and have read all of her books except one, Tea Rose is on my to-be-read pile. 5 stars for a satisfying historical read!

Nice story and well written but lacking a spark I was expecting from all the other reviews. Will not recommend to my book club but to some people separately I think might enjoy it

This book is based on an actual tragedy that occurred on a small lake in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State. It is told from the view of a young girl who lived with her family on a small farm, hardscrabble living. A teacher introduced her to different kinds of literature and encouraged her writing abilities. She was trying to save money to leave the farm where every family member helped with chores and earned money to keep the farm going.Her brief encounter, as a waitress in a summer hotel, with the young woman guest who drowned, awakened her as to the real reason she had been asked to marry and the decision she made.This book was very believable as it actually used the names of existing small towns and lakes and told the story about the differences in the very poor year-rounders who don't know any other life and the "summer people" whom they serve during the very short summer season. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dressier told the story in a far more tedious way with ficticious names and placesI only gave it four stars because of the many spelling mistakes that should have been edited. It was a great book and I highly recommend it. I look forward to more books by this author.

This book is also called A Gathering Light in UK editions. I hadn't heard of it, even though it was published in 2003, but it was put forward to be read by my book group and I'm very glad I came across it. The writing is beautiful and the characters well observed. There is a plotline relating to an infamous murder that took place in 1906 in the Adirondack Mountains, and the author has created fictional characters to tell this story, interweaving the murder into their lives. It's a clever device and works well, but I was more interested in Mattie and her world than in the murder itself. The book is set in a great location and all the characters are believable and beautifully drawn. I found out after reading it, that A Northern Light was published as a Young Adult title, but I hope that doesn't stop it appealing to older readers as well.

I've just finished this book and was totally absorbed by it. Two stories run on parallel grounds.Set in the early 1900's, Mattie is a young lady very torn between her dreams of becoming a writer and family related responsibilities. To add to her dilemmas, she falls in love, feeling more and more confused.Grace is another young lady whose body is found lifeless in the lake by the Glenmore Hotel, where Mattie works.Both girls' tales entwine and merge in a clever and entertaining combination.The prose is pictorial and detailed, conveying the surroundings, the characters and their feelings so nicely.There's a little gem embedded in the beginning of each chapter, which is not numbered but starts off with the introduction of a new word, as part of a game that Mattie and her friend Weaver play every day to strengthen their vocabulary. Each word is irrelevant to the core of the story but there's always the appropriate space for it, a clever touch. I found myself playing along and testing my own vocabulary!There are many themes in this book: poverty, racism, love, compassion, hope are but a few. The narrative is creative and clever, with very sad and very funny situations too. The sense of humour conveyed by Mattie is remarkable.When I started it, I had avoided reading the summary on the back cover (a bit revealing I later realised), but I was glad I did, so that the last part of the book took me completely by surprise.Definitely a timeless novel, I would suggest it for young readers too (15+).P.S. A little note: "A Gathering Light" and "A Northern Light" are exactly the same book, the second one being the American original title. I was about to buy it when I realised they were the same. Just so you know.

I ordered this as a gift and my teenage niece was really pleased with it. Arrived quickly and in good condition.

I would have liked a sequel to see what happened next and whether her dreams were fulfilled. She deserved the future she hoped for.

I bought this book on the recommendation, before I knew it was aimed at the childrens market. But dont let this put you off, it is a wonderful book centered around our heroine Mattie and the events over a summer as she comes of age. There is a true life murder that takes place sort of in the background but central to Matties development.Mattie basically is a bookworm, forced to be the woman of the household by her oppressive but struggling father, her best friend Weaver is a wonderful character who is alos a bookworm, and her boyfriend Royal, seems wonderful in the same way her father must have once seemed wonderful to his wife.This has easily become one of my favourite books and I really did believe in Mattie as a character and the choices she makes to shape her future. Her relationships with other characters are very believable and form the woman she is to become.Dont delay buying this book for a simply wonderful read and enjoy it WITH the children!