Reviews for Loud Silence of Francine Green

The average rating for Loud Silence of Francine Green based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-02-01 00:00:00 Mohmmad Kabir I have mixed feelings about this book. I usually love Karen Cushman, but felt the research was sloppy in this one. Would a K-8 Catholic school for girls in 1949 have a copy of A Tree Grow in Brooklyn in its library, and would it be considered a safe alternative for book reports? Would a Catholic high school put on a production of Oklahoma? Sure, those are classics today, but that just doesn't ring true for 1949-50 school year. Also, I don't know what to think about the ending. Sure, it packs a wallop, but at the expense of resolution. And while I guess that's appropriate in a book where all the sensible adults express confusion and doubt about modern life, the fact is that Sister Basil is a bully. It can't end well. That said, Francine and Sophie are great characters; I like that the adults Francine goes to with questions either give her more uncertainty or they give her platitudes, even the ones you are set up to expect understanding from. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not sure it's a book for kids, yet will teens pick it up? The characters are too young.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-02-18 00:00:00 Haewon Jeon I read this book to see if it would be a good selection for our mother-daughter book club for my tween daughter. When she first tackled it, she didn't know enough about the Red Scare period in history to make sense of what was going on. She tripped up on the cultural references that I lapped up. Montgomery Clift is dreamy, for example. Then we went to the MOHAI museum and there just happened to be an interactive game about the Washington state's own version of the Committee on Un-American Activites, the Canwell Committee. In the game, one person plays the interrogator and the other answers questions. You play to find out if you would be left alone, or have your friends and family hauled in for questioning or whether you'd go to prison. They were stunned and played the game over and over again. It was modernized to ask if you read a Dr. Seuss book (Yertle the Turtle?) or are involved in environmental groups. It inspired a lot of great questions and conversations. At that point I knew she would understand Francine Green, and she did. If we do this for the Mother-Daughter bookclub, it would be fun to make a three-column chart translating the cultural references > Montgomery Clift > Donny Osmond > Harry Stiles (well maybe not quite that, but you get the idea.) Other things I loved: * explores religious belief - tough, but inconclusive * explores the theme of free speech politically, but also among parents and kids, at school, between friends * the main character is rather timid and ordinary --that was a stroke of genius The ending was abrupt. My daughter found it unsatisfying. I'm mulling it over.