Leaving Gee's Bend: Amazon.ca: Books

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

(What's this?)

Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.

african-america n(1)

historical fiction(1)

Agree with these tags?

See all 3 tags...

Customer Reviews

1 Review

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most helpful customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Touching Southern Fiction Debut, Jan 31 2010

By

Nicola Manning (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME) (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Leaving Gee's Bend (Hardcover)

Reason for Reading: I love books set in 1930s Southern USA.

Summary: Ludelphia Bennett is ten years old, her family is part of a sharecropping community. Ludelphia wears a patch over one eye as she accidentally went blind in it when a tiny sliver of wood flew into it when she was younger. She has a passion for quilting and is working on a special quilt now for her Mama that will tell Ludelphia's story to her. Mama is ill with a terrible cough and large with a baby on the way but when Mama goes into labour early and the baby is born healthy after 3 previous stillborn, Mama's health turns worse. She can hardly breathe and now she's coughing up blood. Ludelphia decides she must do more for Mama and embarks on a 40 mile journey to get the nearest doctor and medicine to save Mama's life. It's a dangerous journey for one-eyed, ten year old Ludelphia, who has never been out of Gee's Bend, and never seen a white person before but she takes her quilting with her to keep her hands busy and on the way comes across scraps of cloth to add to the quilt and her story.

Comments: This is a sweet, touching story. I fell in love with Ludelphia from the first page. She is a feisty girl, full of questions, not one to accept an answer without fully understanding and agreeing with it. She has a fine heart, loving all those around her and giving all the benefit of the doubt, she has a way with animals and is the only one who can get along with the stubborn mule they own. A very enjoyable character to read about.

The book takes the reader inside the daily life of a struggling sharecropper family during the depression. How the small rows of houses form a community and everyone looks after each other. They share the good times and they weather the strife and hardship together. I read this book quickly and really enjoyed it. It is a heart touching story and one roots for Ludelphia as she works her way through each challenge ultimately not only to save Mama but to save Gee's Bend itself. The story presented here is fictional but the author has woven a real life event from Gee's Bend's history into the novel.

The only thing that I felt book needed was an illustration at the end of Ludelphia's finished quilt. It's making is so integral to the book's plot, I felt a bit let down not being able to see the finished product and search within it for some of the pieces of cloth she found along the way.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See the customer review...

Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com ^(beta)

Amazon.com: 4.4 out of 5 stars (24 customer reviews)

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great reading for all generations, Jan 17 2010

By Judith K. Wittmier - Published on Amazon.com

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Leaving Gee's Bend (Hardcover)

A perfect read for a cold winter's day by the fire or a lovely summer's day in the hammock! Ms Latham has recreated for us a time and social culture we should never forget and thanks to her marvelous Ludelphia, I don't think I ever will. Such love and determination quietly moves in the face of ignorance and discrimination helping us to understand why it is important to remember stories such as this. A must read for my grandchildren and my friends. I'm looking forward to more from Irene Latham.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Ludelphia's living her story quilt, April 23 2010

By Kimberly Bower "Reference Librarian" - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Leaving Gee's Bend (Hardcover)

Ten-year-old Ludelphia Bennett had never set her bare feet on any dirt outside the small sharecropping community of Gee's Bend, Alabama. There was never a need for it. While her daddy and brother were in the fields pulling cotton, Ludelphia helped her mama around the house. When there wasn't work to be done she pulled the small scraps of cloth and needle from her pocket to work on her story quilt. Stitching the tiny pieces together settled her thoughts and comforted her.

As time passed, Mama needed her help more often. It seemed that the bigger the baby grew inside Mama, the weaker she became. One morning, a series of coughing fits seized Mama and caused her to collapse on the floor. She couldn't get back up. It was all Ludelphia could do to get Mama across the room and onto the cornshuck pallet she used for a bed. It was too soon for the baby to be born but it couldn't be helped. Without a doctor or time to spare, Ludelphia and her neighbor, Etta Mae, did everything they knew how to do.

When her mama's health takes a turn for the worse and her family says there's nothing else they can do, Ludelphia takes matters into her own hands. She decides that her mama's only hope is for her to leave Gee's Bend in search of a real doctor with real medicine. The perilous journey to Camden is over 40 miles long and danger lurks at every turn. Ludelphia's greatest strength is her ability to draw on the words of wisdom her mother instilled in her over the years. Will this inner strength be enough to carry Ludelphia to Camden and back in time to save her mother's life?

Leaving Gee's Bend is set in 1932 in the dirt-poor sharecropping community of Gee's Bend, Alabama. The language used is authentic to the period and people. The characters and landscape are vivid. The author moves smoothly between Ludelphia's inner thoughts and the world around her. Although the protagonist is only ten, Leaving Gee's Bend will appeal to more than a middle-grade audience and is reminiscent of Wilder's Little House series.

Latham has successfully woven together a novel that reflects the deep faith and inner strength of the people of Gee's Bend and offers a glimpse into the area's rich quilting history.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read!, Jan 9 2010

By Trina Lester - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Leaving Gee's Bend (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed the colorful characters in this wonderfully written book. You feel like you have been transported back in time with Ludelphia. She is a simple girl who is driven to do extraordinary things for the family she loves.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 24 reviews 4.4 out of 5 stars