19. The Loud Silence of Francine Green - Karen Cushman

Read by Anaka Shockley
2006
Unabridged Cd/Random House Audio
Rating: 5
for: Middle School and older

This was a totally delightful story. I listened to it, and the reader, Anaka Shockley, was just wonderful, portraying the voice of Francine beautifully. The setting is 1949 Los Angeles, California. Francine is in the eighth grade at All Saints School for Girls and loves Montgomery Clift. Her best friend, Sophie Bowman, is an unspoken questioner of all things wrong. But Francine has been taught to not question her parents or the nuns or the government. And it is the McCarthy error. Everyone is afraid of “the bomb” and “commies” and the end of the world. Sophie speaks out about free speech and asks lots of wonderful questions, but the girls are being rasied in the age where kids just don’t ask. The nuns put outspoken Sophie into the waste basket. She is taunted and bullied by Sister Basil AND the other girls in the class. Francine wants to stand up for her, but can’t seem to take herself past the upbringing that has taught her otherwise. And then when friends who have emigrated from Russia for the rights and freedoms found in the US and not in Russia are terrorized and threatened, Francine finally decides to take a stand.

What is freedom of speech? What is friendship? What is fear? This is the first time I’ve read a historical fiction about the McCarthy era. It’s magnificently done, too. Needed. How else are kids going to understand that part of America’s history?

I’m rereading Cushman’s Catherine Called Birdy and have fond, fond memories of The Ballad of Lucy Whipple. I’ve now decided that Karen Cushman is pushing her way to the top of my favorites list.

This is a book that is very, very Catholic. I understood it just from stories (horror stories....) I’ve heard from friends and family. Saints. Confession. Sin. I wonder how much my Jewish middle schoolers would understand about this aspect of the story. They’d certainly understand a lot just from the way it’s written, but there’s a lot they won’t understand, too.