Lyddie

This was an okay. I thought it was going to be more to it. I didn't think it was that exciting. I can't say that this book was the worst book I read though. I liked the time period it took place, though. I liked how the story was introduced but for the most it wasn't overly fantastic.

Theme: Never give Up!

Reader reviewed by Bo-Bo

Lyddie started out as a wondeful book about an inocent farm girl, but turned into a sexual story that is unfair for children to read. People are required to read this and I for one do not think that this is a school book. This book is very inapropiet for 5th graders.  This book is perverted.

Reader reviewed by Bettina

Lyddie and her brother are left my their mother and 2 sisters. Their mother rents them out to work for other people. Lyddie is sent to another place, but to make real money she leaves to go to the textile mills. Lyddie becomes very good at overseeing the machines that do the weaving. She makes friends along the way and becomes a young woman.

I thought that this was a pretty good story. It was intresting, but some of the parts were slow and a bit boring.

Reader reviewed by bookworm9

Lyddie Worthen is a tough Vermont girl who has taken it upon herself to look out for her family's welfare when her father disappears west in hopes of earning money. Lyddie may be able to defend the family against an invading bear, but she's helpless when Ma decides to move in with their aunt and uncle, taking Lyddie's two younger sisters with her and hiring out Lyddie and her brother Charlie. Lyddie eventually leaves her job at an inn in hopes of earning enough as a mill girl in Lowell, Massachusetts to save the family farm. Lyddie does make money, but she learns that money can't buy her a family, and that some things really are more important than her job.

Paterson has a reputation for writing sad books, and with this in mind "Lyddie" was actually not as depressing as I thought it might be. The protagonist is endearing despite her prickly exterior, and the lessons she learns are valuable without becoming preachy.

Reader reviewed by sara

This book is for older readers in my opionin.Because i read it when i was younger and i didn't anyhting about it then.i just thought it was boring.But when i read it a couple months ago i liked it.It has a good story line.and it makes a great "work to save my family"book.I love how she teachers herself to read and write,with the help of the other plant workers.

Reader reviewed by Barbie

Well Ms. Paterson is remarkable. Another book which is of course nothing but pure pleasure to read. I suggest young readers read because it is a book which needs great thinking so it will challenge them. I think the ending could have been better. So i give it 4stars

Reader reviewed by Anonymous

I thought it was a really good book.The only thing I didn't like was how it ended.It keeps you guessing though.I suggest many young adults to read it.

Reader reviewed by Megan

this was a pretty good book. id actually give it a three and a half, but there's no halves!! lol. i read it last month as one of those class books everyone read. i liked the character Lyddie. she's got spunk and she's hardworking. she's a good role model. i liked how she helped that new girl. it was an interesting book, but there were a lot of time that it bored me because it's just not a book that I would pick out to read on my own. sometimes it felt like it was going too slow!!

Reader reviewed by Shelly Nova

I just finished reading Lyddie by Katherine Paterson for a youth services course in library science. This is the first book I've read in years that I've not wanted to put down - nor did I want it to end! This is a historical novel about three years in the life of Lyddie, a 13 year old girl in New England, between 1843 and 1846. She is a strong and determined heroine who discovers a new life through reading. Along the way she suffers family hardships, faces her own morality when she encounters a runaway slave, is put in morally compromising positions and finds work as a mill girl in Lowell. The language is not only wonderful and challenging for younger readers; Paterson can really tell a story.