  | True colors Author: Kinsey-Warnock, Natalie | |
| Price: $6.50 | ||
Summary:
In 1952 Vermont, ten-year-old Blue decides to set out in the middle of her town's sesquicentennial celebration to find the mother who abandoned her as a baby, but a series of events reminds her that she already has everything she needs.
| Accelerated Reader Information: Interest Level: MG Reading Level: 5.20 Points: 8.0 Quiz: 155144 | Reading Counts Information: Interest Level: 3-5 Reading Level: 5.70 Points: 14.0 Quiz: 59505 | |
Common Core Standards
Grade 3 → Reading → RL Literature → 3.RL Key Ideas & Details
Grade 3 → Reading → RL Literature → 3.RL Craft & Structure
Grade 3 → Reading → RL Literature → 3.RL Integration & Knowledge of Ideas
Grade 4 → Reading → RL Literature → 4.RL Key Ideas & Details
Grade 4 → Reading → RL Literature → 4.RL Range of Reading & Level of Text Complexity
Grade 4 → Reading → RL Literature → 4.RL Craft & Structure
Grade 4 → Reading → RL Literature → 4.RL Integration & Knowledge of Ideas
Grade 4 → Reading → RL Literature → Texts Illustrating the Complexity, Quality, & Rang
Grade 5 → Reading → RL Literature → 5.RL Key Ideas & Details
Grade 5 → Reading → RL Literature → 5.RL Craft & Structure
Grade 5 → Reading → RL Literature → 5.RL Range of Reading & Level of Text Complexity
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (10/15/12)
School Library Journal (11/01/12)
Booklist (12/01/12)
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (A) (11/12)
Full Text Reviews:
Bulletin for the Center... - 11/01/2012 Eleven-year-old Blue has been happy enough on the Vermont farm where she is being raised by Hannah, the woman who found her as a baby on her doorstep. The farm work is hard, and there’s not a lot of extra money, but Blue’s days are so full that she has little room for discontent. She has always especially looked forward to summers, because then a nearby house is rented by the well-to-do Tilton family, whose daughter Nadine has become her only close friend. This summer, though, Nadine seems to have undergone a personality change, prone to arrogance and social insults. Confused by her friend’s behavior, Blue is further troubled by turning up some evidence that could lead to discovering who her real mother was-a secret that it turns out everyone in town knows except her. The novel’s early 1950s setting reinforces the old-fashioned feel of the orphan-story plot, and readers familiar with the tropes will be way ahead of Blue in figuring out her parentage. There’s a touch of Gantos’ Dead End in Norvelt (BCCB 9/11) in the small-town dynamics and the protagonist’s foray into exploring her community’s past for the local paper, but apart from the quest to identify her mother, Blue’s story is fairly uneventful. Still, tweens whose own friendships have inexplicably hit the rocks will empathize with Blue and hope for similarly happy endings. EB - Copyright 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.
School Library Journal - 11/01/2012 Gr 4–6—A wholesome and satisfyingly predictable book, strongly evocative of Clare Vanderpool's Moon Over Manifest (Delacorte, 2010) and Jennifer L. Holm's Our Only May Amelia (HarperCollins, 1999). Blue, a softhearted 10-year-old farm girl, spends the summer of 1952 seeking to learn who abandoned her days after she was born. Kinsey-Warnock creates a nice balance between the fun Blue experiences in her small Northern Vermont town, where she lives with Hannah, the older woman who found her, and the tension she feels both in her friendship with a rich "summer" girl and about how some people treat a kindhearted, brain-damaged man. Hints and foreshadowing about missing animals and Blue's own mysterious heritage are deftly interwoven. Highly teachable with well-drawn characters and an engaging narrative voice, this novel also contains a well-integrated component about vocabulary and writing. Well-read youngsters will feel they've heard this story before, but in a good way: this is a sweet and worthwhile addition.Rhona Campbell, Georgetown Day School, Washington, DC - Copyright 2012 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.
Booklist - 12/01/2012 Left as a tiny baby outside 63-year-old Hannah’s farmhouse door for her to name, love, and raise as her own, Blue has never known the identity of her parents, but it never seemed to matter until her tenth summer. Her best friend, having family troubles, seems like a stranger. Her familiar, loosely knit community is suddenly full of surprises. And her new project with the local newspaper leads her in unexpected directions. Meanwhile, Blue learns that every family has secrets, and hers is no exception. Set in 1952, this well-constructed novel features a number of distinctive, believable characters moving in their own circles, which occasionally and sometimes unexpectedly intersect those of others. Meanwhile, the words and deeds of even minor players resonate through the story, as Blue sets out to solve the mystery of her parentage and, in the end, discovers where her heart lies. - Copyright 2012 Booklist.
