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Finest Kind
by
Lea Wait
WHAT CAN YOU DO WHEN YOU'RE TWELVE YEARS OLD AND YOUR WORLD IS FALLING APART?
It's 1838. Jake's father has lost his job and his savings. Hearing of work in Maine, the family leaves their large home in Boston and heads north, taking with them a few furnishings -- and a deep family secret. In Maine they find only a dirty, isolated farmhouse, and a job for Father that takes hi...more
It's 1838. Jake's father has lost his job and his savings. Hearing of work in Maine, the family leaves their large home in Boston and heads north, taking with them a few furnishings -- and a deep family secret. In Maine they find only a dirty, isolated farmhouse, and a job for Father that takes hi...more
Hardcover, 256 pages
Published
October 10th 2006
by Margaret K. McElderry Books
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Title: Finest Kind
Author: Lea Wait
After his father looses his job, Jake and his family head north to Wiscasset, Maine. Their new life is hard. Mother is afraid their new neighbors will find out about Jake’s brother, Frankie. Father is rarely home. Their new house is small and dark. Jake has difficulty making friends. Worse of all, he feels responsible for the family and he knows they don’t have enough food for the coming winter. Will Wiscasset ever feel like home? Will Jake’s family ever be toge...more
Author: Lea Wait
After his father looses his job, Jake and his family head north to Wiscasset, Maine. Their new life is hard. Mother is afraid their new neighbors will find out about Jake’s brother, Frankie. Father is rarely home. Their new house is small and dark. Jake has difficulty making friends. Worse of all, he feels responsible for the family and he knows they don’t have enough food for the coming winter. Will Wiscasset ever feel like home? Will Jake’s family ever be toge...more
(I rate it 3 and a 1/2 stars) I went to the Multnomah County Library because I had to read a book for a shool assignment. (Genre Project) I was looking at some books when my sister found this book. I thought this book was going to be one of those books where I would fall asleep after the first chapter. I was totaly wrong. This book kept making me want to read more and more. My favorite part was when Jake and Nabby scared away the drunk men away from burning Nanny McPherson's house. My favorite c...more
Sep 28, 2009
Krista the Krazy Kataloguer
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
read-childrens-books,
read-historical-fiction
Wonderful story about a boy and his family who move from riches to almost rags, and from city life to rural farm life, and how they cope. Father loses his job in the financial depression of 1837, and so the family must let their servants go and leave their big house in Boston and take a small, run-down, 3-room farmhouse outside the village of Wiscasset, Maine, while Father takes a job in a lumber mill. The story is interesting on several levels. First, it's a story of survival and adjustment to...more
A banker's son has lived a life of privilege in Boston during the mid-1840s. When the banking system collapses, his family is forced to move to the outskirts of a small village to a barely livable (to them anyway) farmhouse. Their father takes a job at a sawmill meaning he will be gone during the week - leaving Jake to care for his mother and brother - the brother no one must know about. Will recommend often.
I thought this book was pretty cool. Its basically about this city boy from Boston being forced to move to rural Maine and trying to prove to the other boys that he is just as good as they are. He meets some strange characters in the process that cause some more strange events that really tie the book together.
Another fine book for early teens which was very enjoyable even @ a great-gram's age.
Good insight into the culture of early Maine and the brave people who lived @ that time.
Val, this is one waiting for you @ 11 Franklin Avenue.
Good insight into the culture of early Maine and the brave people who lived @ that time.
Val, this is one waiting for you @ 11 Franklin Avenue.
This was a nice, easy read. It was interesting reading on the side to learn about the Panic of 1837, which I had never heard of historically. This is a great story of a family going from riches to rags and how they deal with their new reality.
I loved this book! I found myself wanting to read it book again and again! A high society boy used to getting served and doing nothing that would be considered work, had an interesting time when his father loses his job; he finds himself having to step up and adjust to the new-found role of being the "man" of the house. But the previously easily kept secret becomes a constant struggle on him and his mother when the move for a job; the threat of someone finding out their secret and ruining their,...more
Another children's book I picked up at the library. Interesting that they added a character with CP in it - not something you often see in a historical children's book.
This was a really good book. Adjusting to a new life is hard ecspecially when you are used to being waited on. Also keeping your brother who has fits secret is hard. Can the boy in this story do it? Read this book to find out.
Ver interesting story. We are going to wiscasset to check out the old jail in the story.
A book of a family growing up in Maine. this book takes place in the 40s. great book.
This was a very good book. It was interesting and a fun story to read.
Riches to rags in the 1800s. Wonderful story.
I loved this book. It touched my heart in many ways.
Ugh...This Mark Twain nominee is full of every cliche there is. Not only does a family lose everything and have to move to the middle of nowhere, but a father comes home for Christmas, family members have to wait until a fever "breaks", and the neighborhood "witch" is actually a nice, helpful old lady. Blah, blah. I'm not sure what the MT committee was thinking!
I love historical fiction. This one was a good one about a boy learning to survive in rural Maine after his father loses his job at a bank in Boston. I couldn't put it down.
I didnt like it
May 13, 2013
Michelle
marked it as to-read
Jan 31, 2013
North Branch
marked it as north-branch-jf
Dec 10, 2012
Dawn cline
marked it as to-read
Nov 18, 2012
Kellie Demarsh
marked it as to-read
Nov 17, 2012
Carrie
marked it as to-read
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Maine author Lea Wait writes acclaimed historical novels for ages 7 and up, set on the coast of Maine. She did her undergraduate work at Chatham College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and her graduate work at New York University. While she was raising the four Asian daughters she adopted as a single parent, she worked as a manager for AT&T. Now she divides her time between her writing and her an...more
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