Historical Fiction: The River Between Us

Bibliography
Peck, Richard. 2003. THE RIVER BETWEEN US. New York: Dial Books. ISBN 0-8037-2735-6

Plot Summary
THE RIVER BETWEEN US starts in 1916 with Howard Leland Hutchings describing a trip his father is making with him and his brothers to meet his grandparents for the first time. As Howard is telling the story his father told him, the scene flashes back to 1861 and his grandmother, Tilly Pruitt, becomes the narrator.

Tilly lives with her mother, twin brother Noah and psychic sister Cass in southern Illinois. New Orleans is about to be taken by Confederate soldiers and two girls, Delphine Duval and Calinda come to town under suspicious circumstances. Tilly’s mother invites the young women to board at her house while they wait for a chance to move one to St. Louis.

Tilly relates how her twin can’t wait to join the war and her sister Cass’s visions are destroying her. The town is split between the Union and the Confederacy and the Pruitt home is inside out and upside down by these two strange and intoxicating visitors. Delphine is breathtaking and a handful and Calinda, another of Cass’s kind may be her slave.

Tilly’s world seems to be moving along just fine when her brother finally runs off to join the Army. Tilly’s Mama goes mad with worry and sends Tilly off with a command to not come home without him. Tilly and Delphine board a train to go south to find him bringing with them many kinds of snake oils to cure the boys. Delphine’s secret is finally revealed and so is the family secret of Howard Leland Hutching.

Critical Analysis
Richard Peck starts off somewhat slow in this novel, taking the reader on a journey of a father and his three boys. What the reader doesn’t know is this is only a frame for the real story that is about to be told and that Howard, the originating narrator, is in for the shock of his life.

Although the story seems to be about this outcast family and their mysterious boarders, it is more about the effects of war on those left at home and the prejudices that existed in those times. When Noah joins the Army, his mother goes insane and we find out later she kills herself when she can no longer take the suffering of her loss. Tilly, still a young teenager, is sent away by her mother and told not to come back without him. This young girl travels further from home than she ever has before in search of her brother and comes to learn firsthand the harsh realities of war. The reader can only imagine the fear and pain such a young girl must be feeling dealing with such complex realities.

The reader is shocked to learn that Delphine, and her sister Calinda, are in fact black. Through this revealing, Peck educates the reader not only about the prejudices that existed, but also about an unspoken society within New Orleans that creates another class of people between the whites and the blacks of town. If nothing else, this is an interesting history lesson often left out of the books.

Peck’s writing is clever, with unexpected twists throughout the story. One cannot even begin to predict the plot as it seems to keep changing, but somehow he manages to tie it all together and shock the reader even in the end when young Howard learns the truth about his father’s heritage and the realization of what it means for him.

Awards Won And Reviewed Excerpt(s)
National Book Award: Finalist
Scott O'Dell Award
ALA Notable Book
ALA Best Book for Young Adults
Booklist Editor's Choice
IRA Book Award
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL review: “Peck masterfully describes the female Civil War experience....”
BOOKLIST review: …”riveting story…”
Starred review in THE BULLETIN OF THE CENTER FOR CHILDREN”S BOOKS: “Historical fiction fans should enter this at the top of the must-read list.”

Connections
*The story can lend itself to a discussion about racism then and now.
*Students can discuss customs in their own families and communities and then write about how those customs play a role in their own lives.
*Discussion about women’s roles in history and their experience during times of war. History lessons often leave out those left behind, but they play an important role as well as seen in the story.
Other books about the Civil War and women on the homefront:
Mattern, Joanne. THE BIG BOOK OF THE CIVIL WAR: FASCINATING FACTS ABOUT THE CIVIL WAR, INCLUDING HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPHS, MAPS, AND DOCUMENTS. ISBN 978-0762428564
Rinaldi, Ann. AMELIA'S WAR. ISBN 978-0439326667
Rinaldi, Ann. AN UNLIKELY FRIENDSHIP: A NOVEL OF MARY TODD LINCOLN AND ELIZABETH KECKLEY. ISBN 978-0152063986