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A Matter of Life or Death
It's 1849, and twelve-year-old, Lucas Whitaker is all alone after his whole family dies of a disease called consumption which has swept through the community. Lucas is grief-stricken and filled with guilt. He might have saved his mother, who was the last to die, if only he had listened to news of a strange cure for this deadly disease.
Unable to manage the family farm by himself, Lucas finds work as an apprentice to Doc Beecher, doctor, dentist, barber and undertaker. Doc amputates a leg as easily as he pulls a tooth, yet when it comes to consumption, he remains powerless, unwilling to try the cure he calls nonsense. Lucas can't accept Doc's disbelief, and he joins others in the dark ritual they believe is their only hope. The startling results teach Lucas a great deal about fear, desperation, and the scientific reasoning that offers hope for a true cure.
The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker is a 2008 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.
After his family dies of consumption in 1849, twelve-year-old Lucas becomes a doctor's apprentice.
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Natasha Dawdy
reviewed The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker on August 14, 2013
The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker
MACABRE CON IN CONNECTICUT OR SHOCKING REVELATION?
Did residents of New England actually practice a form of vampirism in the mid 19th century? The conclusions drawn by individual readers will vary, but the hypothesis is both fascinating and chilling. Newly orphaned and the only survivor of a family which was wiped out by tuberculosis (known as Consumption) Lucas Whittaker at 12 signs articles which apprentice him to a respected medical doctor in the community. Lucas diligently learns the primitive medical basics from Dr. Beecher (who also serves a barber, druggist and undertaker), but privately wonders if the local superstitions reguarding vampire protection might be even more effective.
What is shocking about this story is the graveyard "proof" which
recently came to light as cemeteries were excavated. Were the farm folks in Connecticut little better than Bram Stoker's superstitious Romanians? The plot underscores how basic human desperation and grief can work an overwrought mind or vulnerable conscience into a state of near insanity. Did Salem's witch mania merely go underground for two centuries? Even more bizarre than Fleischman's PATH OF THE PALE HORSE, this book examines the extreme reactions which result from self-inflicted guilt--combined with the terrors of a tortured human heart. Despite the protagonist's youth this is a very Adult YA--albeit gripping--read.
(June 12, 2011. I welcome dialogue with teachers.)
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Add The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker, A Matter of Life or Death It's 1849, and twelve-year-old, Lucas Whitaker is all alone after his whole family dies of a disease called consumption which has swept through the community. Lucas is grief-stricken and filled with guilt. He might have, The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker to your collection on WonderClub |
