What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
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Jonica's Island
SOLVED: Children's/YA
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SOLVED. Juvenile novel about Indentured Servitude in the United States [s]
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Man, the description sounds Really plausible. I'm not completely sure, but I'll send this over to 'solved' until I can get my hands on a copy. It seems everyone else who read it loved it, so I must check it out again and see if my eight-year-old's opinion had any merit.
I hope it's it. If not, I hope someone else finds it for you. There are quite a few books with this plot line.
I'm going to leave it as "Unsolved," just to see if there are any other suggestions? There may not be enough memories enough for me to have that "aha!" moment.Does it end with her having the opportunity to leave on a ship to go back to her own people, but she chooses to stay with the family? And someone tells her she must be out of her mind to choose indentured servitude over freedom?
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That's cool. I haven't been able to get my hands on a copy to verify, but it sounds pretty plausible.
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I haven’t been able to get a copy, of Jonica’s Island but I think you can mive it to “solved”
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"Good family story of life in Nieuw Amsterdam of the 10's. Authentic feel of life and customs, good characterization. Jonica's father is the town drunk, and when he is banished for theft, Jonica is saved from being sent to the almshouse when 14-year old Gerrit, one of seven sons of a leading citizen, pleads with his parents to take her in. She's endentured to the Van der Voorts, and works from dawn to dusk for the family she adores, The story moves swiftly, humanness and humor mingling with good Dutch industry, church-going, weddings, funerals, holidays, Indians on the warpath, a smallpox epidemic. In the midst, Jonica is suspected of theft -- "like father like daughter" -- and sent to work for the married son, Willem, and his spinsterish nagging wife. But with confession from the real culprit, Jonica is reinstated and wins her freedom. Colorful period, skillfully drawn."
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Here's another thread where someone was looking for that book.
What's the Name of That Book???
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Jonica's Island (other topics)Jonica's Island (other topics)
The family she serves treats her kindly, and she winds up choosing to stay with them, even when she has the opportunity to leave. Possibly some romantic tension between her and the oldest boy.
Required reading when I was in grade school. Read it over summer when I was 8 years old, found it very dry and dull and I had no idea what an indentured servant was, even by the end of the book.