Fours Crossing

Fours Crossing #1

by Nancy Garden

Shortly after her mother's death, thirteen-year-old Melissa goes to live with her grandmother in a small New Hampshire town which is experiencing an odd unending winter.

Genres: Fantasy

197 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1981

About the author

A versatile writer, Nancy Garden has published books for children as well as for teens, nonfiction as well as fiction. But her novel Annie on My Mind, the story of two high school girls who fall in love with each other, has brought her more attention than she wanted when it was burned in front of the Kansas City School Board building in 1993 and banned from school library shelves in Olathe, Kansas, as well as other school districts. A group of high school students and their parents in Olathe had to sue the school board in federal district court in order to get the book back on the library shelves. Today the book is as controversial as ever, in spite of its being viewed by many as one of the most important books written for teens in the past forty years. In 2003 the American Library Association gave the Margaret A. Edwards Award to Nancy Garden for lifetime achievement.

In Remembrance: Nancy Garden

Reviews

[Romi (likes books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so strange! And beautiful! And I liked it a lot! I didn't really know what to expect, having only read Garden's "Annie on my Mind" and adoring it, but there's the same compelling plot + characters, the same beautiful way of putting words together, and although I was hoping, honestly, for some aspect to be lgbtiqa+ and that didn't come to fruition I still enjoyed this a lot.

Especially the fact it features a desperately adorable dog.

[Eilonwy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't read this until I was an adult and a co-worker who actually knew Nancy Garden lent me her copy. But even though I guessed some of the plot twists, I enjoyed every word and could hardly put it down. Definitely a ver enjoyable book. And I didn't realize there are sequels ...!

[Patricia]

It is interesting that I read this book about a never ending winter as we continue to face winter this year as March ends. Interesting modern twist on pagen beliefs of the northeastern settlers.

[R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fours Crossing is one of those kid’s books that you kind of wish was aimed at adults. You know, those stories that work fine for kids, but that have these fascinating elements or ideas that could really be developed into something remarkable, but way too dark or way too complex for their intended audience.

That’s not to say that this is a bad book! It’s actually a really interesting little read about a town that appears to have been cursed into an eternal winter. Not that most of the residents have figured that out yet - it’s only April and they live in New Hampshire.

Cue the story of our main duo, Jed and Melissa, a pair of middle schoolers who somehow find themselves caught up in a rather dangerous quest to figure out what’s happening to the village.

As I said earlier, this is an interesting read. The mythos of this world and the events that transpire are all well planned out and make for a fun time. It’s just that the book’s aimed at readers in either their late elementary or middle-school years. This gives you a book that I think a good number of adults would enjoy, but that definitely has some “childish” element in how it’s told. That’s obviously not a bad thing, but if you prefer books that are aimed at more mature age groups, then steer clear of this one.

If you have kids or if you don’t mind books aimed at younger audiences, then I’d probably recommend this one to anyone who thinks that the book’s description sounds interesting.

Now, with that being said, I do have to make one, little complaint about the book’s grammar. I don’t normally comment on this topic, but I feel like I need to on this one.

I’m not sure if something was up with my copy, but about once every 30 to 40 pages I’d come across a line or paragraph that just read weird. For example, the opening paragraph has this bit, “her Boston home had seemed as cold as Maine and grayer, most days, than in the wettest, darkest spring.” The line makes sense, but it’s really awkward to read and stuff like this is sprinkled all over the book. Hopefully other versions got some edits because poorly constructed sentences are the easiest way to draw a reader out of the story and this is a story that deserves to have its readers full immersed.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book as well. Gently menacing supernatural tale for youngsters.

[Jennifer Heise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creepy little teenage scholastic book.