Friday, March 6, 2009

The Year the Swallows Came Early

The Year the Swallows Came Early by Kathryn Fitzmaurice
After her father is sent to jail, eleven-year-old Groovy Robinson must decide if she can forgive the failings of someone she loves.
I moved closer to him and put my arm around his shoulders.
I waited for a while.
Then I breathed in deep.
The way Mama does so that everybody around her
will get ready to listen...
"People are just who they are, " I said...-p. 260

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

...In this daring, emotionally complex story, both Groovy and Frankie try to figure out how to accept people, especially parents, for who they are without abandoning their own needs and their own developing notions of right and wrong. As in real life, not everything is resolved in the end, and many questions remain, but things have achieved a fragile balance...

Kathryn Fitzmaurice said...

This has always been one of my favorite passages. Thank you very much for posting it!

La-la said...

I love this book. I give it 5 *****'s
It is a great story about friendship and family.
I love this line from page 223.
"But he won"t ever pay you back," I told Luis. I'd had experience about not getting paid back.
Luis leaned closer to me. Then, in a quiet voice so only I could hear, he said, "People are just who the are."