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279th out of 415 books
—
398 voters
Billy Creekmore
Folks say I'm bound to be unlucky in life, for I was born at midnight on a Friday, the thirteenth of December, and Peggy says it's certain I can commune with spirits. But I ain't never seen any ghosts, not even my own mother, and wouldn't that be the ghost I'd see if I could?
So begins the tale of Billy Creekmore, a boy with mystifying powers and the glorious gift of storyt...more
So begins the tale of Billy Creekmore, a boy with mystifying powers and the glorious gift of storyt...more
Hardcover, 320 pages
Published
June 26th 2007
by HarperCollins
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While I enjoyed this book, it just did not live up to its promise. Billy Creekmore believes his mother died shortly after he was born because he started speaking to spirits right out of the womb. His father has abandoned him. As the story opens, it is the early 20th century and Billy is living in a horrible Appalachian orphanage where the children are regularly beaten and starved. We follow Billy as an uncle he didn't know existed comes to save him from a fate even worse than life at the orphana...more
My 2nd children's book of late and how I have enjoyed both ! This book, Billy Creekmore, ought to become a movie ! Why it has not is beyond me when such drivel is on the screen for children. I think I'll call Julia Roberts. She produced "KIT- an American Girl" which is of this category.
Billy is a orphan child (like Oliver, perhaps) living in an orphanage (like Annie, perhaps) and is on the verge of being sent into a child-labor job (like David C., perhaps) when he is rescued by a long-lost aunt...more
Billy is a orphan child (like Oliver, perhaps) living in an orphanage (like Annie, perhaps) and is on the verge of being sent into a child-labor job (like David C., perhaps) when he is rescued by a long-lost aunt...more
I have just finished reading this glorious book, Billy Creekmore. This book is by Tracey Porter, who in my opinion, is a great author. This story takes place in an Orphanage, Guardian Angels Home for Boys, where Billy lives with many other boys who have no family. They all are very unfortunate to end up in the orphanage beacuse Mr. Beatle (who runs the orphanage with his wife), is not a very kind man. He feeds them little food, and forces them to do yard work. Billy does not like life this way....more
"It's best not to get settled on things being a certain way, I realized. Life had a funny way of interrupting your plans." p260
Billy Creekmore is new to the Pikes Peak Regional Battle of the Books list this year so I read it in preparation for the competition in April. Like most of the other Battle books, this one tells a fine story that highlights a particular time in history.
Billy is an orphan living in a home for boys when the book begins. We follow him to the home of his aunt and uncle and...more
Billy Creekmore is new to the Pikes Peak Regional Battle of the Books list this year so I read it in preparation for the competition in April. Like most of the other Battle books, this one tells a fine story that highlights a particular time in history.
Billy is an orphan living in a home for boys when the book begins. We follow him to the home of his aunt and uncle and...more
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I really love historical fiction, but this is the second piece of historical fiction off the Sunshine State list that I just didn't really get into. I love the character of Billy, and the events of his life are accurate for the time period and experiences, but really I just felt like this book wasn't going anywhere. It's a chronicle of the troubles he has, few of which he actually resolves and most of which he simply runs away from (not that I blame him) but it leaves the entire story feeling a...more
I really love historical fiction, but this is the second piece of historical fiction off the Sunshine State list that I just didn't really get into. I love the character of Billy, and the events of his life are accurate for the time period and experiences, but really I just felt like this book wasn't going anywhere. It's a chronicle of the troubles he has, few of which he actually resolves and most of which he simply runs away from (not that I blame him) but it leaves the entire story feeling a...more
I'll be honest with you... I saw the title and the cover and thought this looks terrible... why oh why are they putting this on the Florida state list...
After reading it, the cover is still awful... the book started slowly and ended abruptly, but the middle 200 pages or so was a gripping read... kind of a youthful Big Fish minus the fantastic elements... Billy was an interesting protagonist and his journey was full of side characters and plots that held your interest until the next group came al...more
After reading it, the cover is still awful... the book started slowly and ended abruptly, but the middle 200 pages or so was a gripping read... kind of a youthful Big Fish minus the fantastic elements... Billy was an interesting protagonist and his journey was full of side characters and plots that held your interest until the next group came al...more
Favorite quotes:
It's best not to get settled on things being a certain way, I realized. Life had a funny way of interrupting your plans.
I got awful lonely going over these memories. Once I was a union man, then I was a member of the Sparks World Famous Circus. Now I was part of a small-time circus working the graft. I wandered if everything folks said about me back in the orphanage was true - that I was born to be unlucky, that I'd always have to fight the Devil inside me, that I was prone to ta...more
It's best not to get settled on things being a certain way, I realized. Life had a funny way of interrupting your plans.
I got awful lonely going over these memories. Once I was a union man, then I was a member of the Sparks World Famous Circus. Now I was part of a small-time circus working the graft. I wandered if everything folks said about me back in the orphanage was true - that I was born to be unlucky, that I'd always have to fight the Devil inside me, that I was prone to ta...more
Billy Creekmore by Tracey Porter is about a boy who can sense spirits. Billy is an unlucky kid. His mother died shortly after he was born and his father ran away. He was sent to an orphanage where the boys are treated cruelly. This is where his bad luck continues. One of his friends dies and Billy is about to be sent to the oh-so horrible glass factory. At the last minute His uncle comes and takes him to live with him and Billy's aunt. They live in a coal mining town where there is talk of the U...more
Billy Creekmore has been raised in an orphanage in West Virginia run by a greedy man and his wife who then send the boys on to work in a Glass Works and get a cut, while the kids get maimed. Just before he is to be sent off, an unknown uncle shows up and claims him. Billy's mother died in childbirth and his dad ran off without telling his aunt and uncle about him. In fact they had been told he'd died too. Uncle Jim takes him to the mining town where he lives and after attending school for a year...more
Billy Creekmore is an orphan with a talent for telling lies and hearing spirits. In 1905 West Virginia, his fate is to live at the Guardian Angel Home for Boys until he's old enough to go work at the glass factory. Billy thinks that's a fine future until a friend comes back from the glass factory with a maimed hand and no job. Luckily, Billy's aunt and uncle that he didn't know he had show up at the orphanage just in the nick of time and whisk him off to a life in a coal mining town.
Billy has a...more
Billy has a...more
I read this book with my reading bowl team. To me, this book tried too hard--seems like it was written to win an award. It's an okay book that would fulfill any elementary historical fiction assignment, but that may be all it's good for. Billy is an endearing boy with a good heart, but his character would've been better if he would've been more mischevious. Actually, there's not a whole lot to analyze here, so I'll stop. Honestly, this book left me with a "what happened to all of the amazing chi...more
I picked this up at a gifted/talented conference. Some part of me has always wanted to join a circus, so Billy's story spoke to me. He's a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. I would like to believe that sterling qualities emerge from downtrodden characters. Billy had rock solid values in spite of his haphazard and cruel beginnings. I'll bounce it off my 7th graders this fall and perhaps change my rating based on their responses.
Very cute sad little story about Billy he was a very unlucky boy born in the early 1900's Back East. He lived in a orphanage for a long time and then with his Aunt and Uncle works in a mine, and he finally finds his Dad and joins the Circus. He was a good boy trying to live in a hard lonely world. It's a historical novel and I liked it because it reminds me of the Classic ophan boy books, like Great Expectations, Oliver Twist etc.
This novel could have been a great book, as it has all the elements of a good tale: a boy in an orphanage, hardships in the mining industry, joining a circus. But it wanders all over. There is no major thread that holds each section together. It is chock-full of coincidences, and plots points seem to happen at random, according to the author's will. Disappointed.
I really liked this story and the main character. He's a bit like Tom Sawyer. His adventures are heartwarming and heartbreaking. The background subplots include orphanages, miners and unions, circus, etc. during that time period. This little boy is resilient as he searches for his father, finds him, then has to decide what a family really is.
I enjoyed this book, but I love historical fiction. I think the kids who read it will find a connection to the characters and hopefully recognize how lucky they are to be living in a different time. I liked the fact that it illustrated so many different facets of child labor. It will be very useful in some of our history lessons.
William Allen White selection for grades 6-8. Set in the early 1900s this is a portrayal of an orphan and whathis fate was. The child is intelligent, maintains hope in a better future, and deals with issues we would never want our children to experience. Opens eyes to the harsh realities of an earlier age.
Reminds me of David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, and Huckleberry Finn. Billy Creekmore, a 10-year-old "orphan" living in the Guardian Angels Home for Boys at the beginning of the 20th century. He is a
motherless child, a thief, a saint, a sinner, a survivor.
motherless child, a thief, a saint, a sinner, a survivor.
An historical fiction set in a coal-mining town in West Virginia. I liked it, but there were too many settings for Billy in such a short novel, so I was a little disappointed in the story itself. I like Billy's voice - it's just not a must-read.
I love historical fiction. However, when historical is combined with humor and action, it's even better. I read this book while on vacation, and I enjoyed it very much. Quick pace. Easy read. And, super for the young reader in your life.
Children's book set in the early 20th century about a boy who is rescued from an orphanage by his uncle, who takes him to a mining town in Virginia. When mayhem follows the attempt by the miners to unionize, Billy runs off to join the circus.
This was a 2009-2010 William Allen White nominee, and although it did not win the award, I would have voted for it! In this novel, Tracey Porter takes you for a journey though Billy's life as he finds his place to fit in!
This is the first book this summer I have really loved. Billy lives in an orphanage as the book opens. He is spunky and a fabulous storyteller. I really cared about Billy and what was going to happen next in his life. historically accurate.
I loved this! One of the best children's books I have ever read. It's dark, and the themes and situations are best left to older children. Would make a great movie
Although i love historical fiction, I'm not a big fan of this book. It would lead to a nice study of child labor, but will be a hard sell to gets kids to read.
I liked it, but parts of this book were never fully developed, and that kind of annoyed me. Anything else I have to say would spoil the book...
I learned a lot from this book. The author, Tracey Porter, researched for 5 years to make sure her depiction of what Billy experiences. I love how she used names of children that dies in coal mining accident throughout the book to pay homage.
But, I think I don't like magical realism. This is the second book in a row where overall the book was realistic, but it has fantasy elements. In Billy Creekmore, Billy can feel spirits. Although Tracey made the fantasy part fit, I just wish that is was onl...more
But, I think I don't like magical realism. This is the second book in a row where overall the book was realistic, but it has fantasy elements. In Billy Creekmore, Billy can feel spirits. Although Tracey made the fantasy part fit, I just wish that is was onl...more
This was such a cute read. Billy is an adorable character and it was great that he was able to find his "family" at the end. I felt the one drawback was that it kept dragging on near the end, but overall, especially since it's a children's book, a good read.
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Tracey Porter is the author of Treasures in the Dust and A Dance of Sisters. Her most recent novel, Billy Creekmore, was named to Oprah.com's Kids' Reading List, compiled by the American Library Association. For the past twenty years she has taught middle school at Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California. She lives with her family in Los Angeles.
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Jan 07, 2011 05:56pm