Sunday, March 15, 2015

Back Home

The book I am reading is called "Back Home", by Michelle Magorian. This book has 448 pages. "Back Home" is the sequel to "Goodnight Mister Tom".

This book is about a girl named Virginia Dickinson who, at the age of seven, moved to the United States from England in order to escape the atrocities of the World War 2. Her mother stayed in England, with the rest of the family. The family thought that she would be safer in the U.S, until the war ends. She stayed with a family in Connecticut for five years, who nurtured her and treated her like their own. In 1945, after the second world war ended, Virginia is sent back to Devon, England, to be reunited with her mother. Upon her arrival, she immediately dislikes England and longs to go back to America and live with her "American Family". Her mother, who hasn't seen her in five years, is hurt to see the changes in her daughter. From being a shy, quit seven year old, Virginia has changed into an exuberant and confident 12 year old girl. After spending five years in America, Virginia developed an American Accent, which is despised and unwelcomed by her mother, and has started going by the nickname "Rusty", which her American Family started calling her. Her mother, who hasn't seen her in five years, is happy to see her safe and not traumatized by war, but at the same time she is hurt to have missed the most important years of her daughter's life and growing up.


While reading this book, I came across two new words, stymied (pg. 60) and pioneer (pg. 65).
Stymied means to prevent the progress of, to be an obstacle or to fustrate. A sentence using this word could be "She was stymied when the teacher asked her a question which she didn't know the answer to". Pioneer means the first person to explore an area/country, or to be the first to develop and use. A sentence using this word could be "They were the pioneers of this forest".



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