Biography
Donnelly, Jennifer. A Northern Light. 2003. New York, NY: Harcourt Inc. ISBN 0-15-216705-6
Critical Analysis
Jennifer Donnelly's novel A Northern Light has something for everyone- romance, mystery, history, murder and more. Mattie Grokey's story grips readers from the first page and keeps them hanging on until the very last. Donnelly goes back in forth through two stories so eloquently that they intertwine seamlessly in the end. Mattie, a sixteen year old aspiring to be a famous writer and a college graduate, lives on a farm with her father and three sisters that she has taken care of since her mother died of breast cancer. Mattie is constantly stuck between a rock and a hard place with an influential teacher encouraging her bright future at a college that she has already been accepted to and a father who needs her help at home and doesn't appreciate her desire to learn. It doesn't help when Royal Loomis, a wealthy and handsome young man, sets his sites on Mattie creating yet another dilemma in her already complicated situation. These types of issues are what make A Northern Light easy to relate to despite it being set in 1906. The situations Mattie deals with in the twentieth century are nearly identical to what teens face in the twenty-first century. She wants to go to college but cannot afford it. She loves to read and her friends and family don't understand why. Her mother passes away after battling breast cancer. Examples such as these that jump the time gap are prevalent throughout the book.
Although the story is mostly Mattie's, readers will find themselves wanting to know more about Grace Brown, a young pregnant woman found dead in the lake by the hotel that Mattie is working at for the summer. As Mattie uncovers more about her by reading the letters that Grace had asked her to burn hours before her untimely death the audience slowly puts the puzzle pieces together. Donnelly's skillful alternation between Mattie's story before working at the hotel and her summer working there creates an anticipatory buildup leaving the reader hanging on every word, anxiously awaiting to figure out the truth.
Book Group Ideas
Mattie and her best friend Weaver have "word duels" often throughout the book where they start out with a word and go back and forth with synonyms of that word. Have a word duels with the list of characters below. Write down the words as you say them and go back and discuss why you chose that word to describe the character afterwards.
Mattie, Weaver, Royal Loomis, Lawton, Aunt Josie, Miss Wilcox, Emma Hubbard, Mr. Gokey, Cook, Minnie, Daisy, Pleasant
External Assessment
Michael L. Printz Honor Book
"Mattie Gokey, 16, a talented writer, promised her dying mother that she would always take care of her father and younger siblings. She is stuck on a farm, living in near poverty, with no way of escaping, even though she has been accepted at Barnard College. She promises to marry handsome Royal Loomis even though he doesn't appear to love her. Now, Mattie has promised Grace Brown, a guest at the Adirondack summer resort where she works, to burn two bundles of letters. Then, before she can comply, Grace's body is found in the lake, and the young man who was with her disappears, also presumably drowned. This is a breathtaking tale, complex and often earthy, wrapped around a true story. In 1906, Grace Brown was killed by Chester Gillette because she was poor and pregnant, and he hoped to make his fortune by marrying a rich, society girl. Grace's story weaves its way through Mattie's, staying in the background but providing impetus. The protagonist tells her tale through flashback and time shifts from past to present. Readers feel her fears for her friend Weaver-the first freeborn child in his family-when he is beaten for being black and his college savings are stolen, and enjoy their love of words as they engage in language duels. Finally, they'll experience her awakening when she realizes that she cannot live her life for others. Donnelly's characters ring true to life, and the meticulously described setting forms a vivid backdrop to this finely crafted story. An outstanding choice for historical-fiction fans, particularly those who have read Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy."-Lisa Prolman, School Library Journal
Although the story is mostly Mattie's, readers will find themselves wanting to know more about Grace Brown, a young pregnant woman found dead in the lake by the hotel that Mattie is working at for the summer. As Mattie uncovers more about her by reading the letters that Grace had asked her to burn hours before her untimely death the audience slowly puts the puzzle pieces together. Donnelly's skillful alternation between Mattie's story before working at the hotel and her summer working there creates an anticipatory buildup leaving the reader hanging on every word, anxiously awaiting to figure out the truth.
Book Group Ideas
Mattie and her best friend Weaver have "word duels" often throughout the book where they start out with a word and go back and forth with synonyms of that word. Have a word duels with the list of characters below. Write down the words as you say them and go back and discuss why you chose that word to describe the character afterwards.
Mattie, Weaver, Royal Loomis, Lawton, Aunt Josie, Miss Wilcox, Emma Hubbard, Mr. Gokey, Cook, Minnie, Daisy, Pleasant
External Assessment
Michael L. Printz Honor Book
"Mattie Gokey, 16, a talented writer, promised her dying mother that she would always take care of her father and younger siblings. She is stuck on a farm, living in near poverty, with no way of escaping, even though she has been accepted at Barnard College. She promises to marry handsome Royal Loomis even though he doesn't appear to love her. Now, Mattie has promised Grace Brown, a guest at the Adirondack summer resort where she works, to burn two bundles of letters. Then, before she can comply, Grace's body is found in the lake, and the young man who was with her disappears, also presumably drowned. This is a breathtaking tale, complex and often earthy, wrapped around a true story. In 1906, Grace Brown was killed by Chester Gillette because she was poor and pregnant, and he hoped to make his fortune by marrying a rich, society girl. Grace's story weaves its way through Mattie's, staying in the background but providing impetus. The protagonist tells her tale through flashback and time shifts from past to present. Readers feel her fears for her friend Weaver-the first freeborn child in his family-when he is beaten for being black and his college savings are stolen, and enjoy their love of words as they engage in language duels. Finally, they'll experience her awakening when she realizes that she cannot live her life for others. Donnelly's characters ring true to life, and the meticulously described setting forms a vivid backdrop to this finely crafted story. An outstanding choice for historical-fiction fans, particularly those who have read Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy."-Lisa Prolman, School Library Journal
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