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Reviewed by:
  • Storyteller
  • Elizabeth Bush
Giff, Patricia Reilly. Storyteller. Lamb/Random House, 2010. 166p. Library ed. ISBN 978-0-375-93888-7 $18.99 Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-375-83888-0 $15.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-375-89744-3 $15.99 Ad Gr. 4-6.

Elizabeth is not at all happy at the prospect of spending time with her taciturn aunt Libby while her father goes abroad. He may see it as a chance for her to get to know her deceased mother's family, but she sees it as a span of friendless months at a strange school in the company of a reluctant guardian. A framed drawing on Libby's wall bears a striking resemblance to Elizabeth, and soon the girl and her aunt begin to bond over a common fascination with their ancestor, Zee, who was known to have been injured in a Loyalist attack and to have been involved in the 1777 battle at Oriskany, New York, in which Patriot fighters were ambushed [End Page 129] and suffered heavy casualties. Elizabeth's contemporary tale alternates with Zee's story, and readers are privy to a more complete rendering of Zee's travails than her descendants will ever be able to know. Zee's story is the more compelling of the two, partly because of the wartime peril, and partly because we never learn enough about Libby and her extended family to account for their eccentric behavior and chilly relationships. Readers who are ready to step up from the American Girls' Felicity stories, though, may find a great deal here to pique their imagination. A brief historical note is appended.

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