Bride's Farewell

Rosoff, M.  (2009). The Bride’s Farewell.  New York: Viking Books.

Pell was just a young girl of seventeen when she decided that being married to Birdie was not for her.  She didn’t want to end up like her mother, bearing children year after year, and looking worn out at a young age.  She wanted to run away by herself but her brother Bean decided he wanted to go to.  Along the way to Salisbury and after reaching their destination, Pell lost Bean, her horse, Jack and 5 pounds.   She helped a horse trader named Harris buy some horses and he promised her 5 pounds.  He left without giving it to her.  Bean jumped on Jack and followed him getting lost in the process.  The plot was kind of choppy, seesawing back and forth between the past and present, but I could follow fairly well.  It might be a little harder for teens to follow the story.  The point of view was told in third person that followed the voyage of Pell most of the time and only once in a while when it left her thoughts to follow Dogman while he taught his son how to hunt or Bean in the workhouses.  This would be a good book for teens.  They could learn about the different levels of poverty that faced the characters in the story.  I liked the way the book made me feel: sometimes sad, sometimes angry, sometimes happy but always relieved when things worked out for Pell and her family.