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Nory Ryan's Song

Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
2 of 2 copies available
Nory Ryan's family has lived on Maidin Bay on the west coast of Ireland for generations, raising a pig and a few chickens, planting potatoes, getting by. Every year Nory's father goes away on a fishing boat and returns with the rent money for the English lord who owns their cottage and fields, the English lord bent upon forcing the Irish from their land so he can tumble the cottages and clear the fields for grazing. Times are never easy on Maidin Bay, but this year, a terrible blight attacks the potatoes. No crop means starvation. Twelve-year-old Nory must summon the courage and ingenuity to find food, to find hope, to find a way to help her family survive.
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  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      You are a great girl. These words of praise are Nory Ryan's anchor in the year her older sister leaves for America, her father fails to return home, the potatoes rot in the field, and her family relies on Nory for their existence. The 12-year-old's heavy burden becomes slightly more bearable through her relationship with Anna, a neighboring widow. Susan Lynch brings the pleasure of an Irish voice to the narration of an Irish story. As narrator, her voice is melodious. As character, she heightens the pathos of the times--the whine of young Patch as he begs for food, the desperation of Nory as she climbs for bird eggs on a cliff, the horror of Sean and Nory as they see streams of people coming to their beach to gather limpets and mussels, the conviction of Anna that she will be happy when her neighbors leave for America. The combination of Giff's story and Lynch's voice creates a memorable listening experience. A.R. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from September 2, 2002
      "Giff meticulously re-creates the Great Hunger as she traces a 19th-century Irish girl's struggle to survive," PW
      wrote. Ages 8-12.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 4, 2000
      In a novel inspired by her own heritage, Giff (Lily's Crossing) meticulously recreates An Gorta M r, the Great Hunger, as she traces a 19th-century Irish girl's struggle to survive in her small village of Maidin Bay. As the story opens, 12-year-old Nory Ryan describes her neighbors being put out of their homes and her own family's oppression under English imperialists. Nory's widower father is in Galway earning money for rent while Nory, her two older sisters, Maggie and Celia, and her younger brother, Patch, stay with their grandfather. The celebration of Maggie's wedding and passage to America becomes overshadowed by the grim realities around them. Giff slowly builds the suspense as the potato blight begins to travel down the west coast from Sligo, and describes the rotting smell as the disaster strikes closer to Nory's home. Day-to-day worries about survival supplant the heroine's dreams of some day joining Maggie in New York. Allowing few glimmers of hope and numerous setbacks for Nory and her loved ones, this gritty slice of realism grows increasingly ominous as it progresses. At the same time, the hardships throw Nory together with her aging neighbor, Anna, a healer who initially frightens her, and their growing friendship is one of the novel's greatest strengths. Other characters, such as Celia, Maggie and Granda, are not as fully fleshed out. Still, vivid descriptions of the stench of failed crops and the foul-tasting food that keeps them alive will linger in readers' minds even after Nory's salvation is secured. Ages 8-12.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • ATOS Level:4.3
  • Lexile® Measure:600
  • Interest Level:4-8(MG)
  • Text Difficulty:2-3

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