TWIST OF GOLD

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Sean and Annie have one chance to escape the potato famine and plague in Ireland. They survive a shipwreck and land safely in America searching for their father. But their new land is one of hardship and they live in poverty on the streets of Boston. However, their adventure is just beginning.

An unforgettable tale of struggle, adventure and hope from War Horse author and former Children's Laureate, Michael Morpurgo. 'There's a plague, a fever, call it what you will, sweeping this country, and it's coming closer all the time.' Sean and Annie have one chance to escape the potato famine in Ireland, but they must leave their dying mother behind. They travel in search or their father, across rough seas, to a new land of hardship: America. It's a long and dangerous trip, but their family's survival depends on it. And the journey there is only the beginning ...

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

When, in the Ireland of 1847, ``a sudden blight . . . reduced the countryside to a pungent mass of black rot and left the people starving,'' an English dragoon helps Sean O'Brien, 13, and his 10-year-old sister, Annie, to leave their ravaged homeland. Following an eventful sea voyage from Cork to Boston, the youngsters struggle across a rough, new America to find their father in California. With only the family ``torc''--an ancestral golden medallion given to them by their dying mother--for protection, the children are dealt life lessons along the way in both the goodness and the inhumanity of man. Sentimental in the best sense of the word, this epic journey gathers momentum as the children draw ever nearer their destination. As the pace pours on, the story loses some of the beauty and lyricism of Morpungo's ( King of the Cloud Forests ; Waiting for Anya ) musical dialogue, and conflicts are resolved a little too conveniently; but the novel remains a colorful, engaging, Dickensian read to its happy and affecting conclusion. Ages 10-14. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Review

Gr 4-6-- History and wonder combine in this novel that uses the Irish potato famine of 1847 as its core. Readers will come away from it with an understanding of the dreadful conditions in Ireland that prompted so many to find a new life in America. What detracts from the story are the plot contrivances. The novel begins in County Cork where the O'Briens are suffering through the effects of the famine. Three siblings have already died and Sean and Annie's mother's death seems imminent. Their father has gone to America and has promised to send for the family when he reaches California. Rather than starve while waiting for him, the youngsters head to America with only their lucky family heirloom, a golden torc, to protect them. Their adventure begins on the ship crossing the Atlantic. Morpurgo's descriptions of the conditions on board and those they find in Boston and on their cross-country journey are realistic. The precious torc becomes the catalyst for the relationships that develop in their travels. Characters are either good or evil, and each time it seems that Sean and Annie have lost everything, a twist of fate and just the right person come along to move them toward their ultimate goal. The most outrageous turnabout comes at the end when the youngsters finally reach California, find their father, and discover their mother there as well. This book has much to offer as historical fiction, but the plot development is too artificial. Conlon-McKenna's Wildflower Girl (Holiday, 1992) is a more successful choice for fiction dealing with the same theme. --Renee Steinberg, Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Gr. 5-8. Coming to America becomes sentimental melodrama in this story of two kids who leave their dying mother in Ireland in the 1840s and travel across the sea and across the U.S. to find their father in California. The historical background is quite well drawn--the bitter famine and plague that drove the Irish from their country; the crowded, filthy conditions in steerage; the hardship in the slums of Boston; the lure of California; and the long, dangerous journey to get there. But the characters are either sweet saints or wicked "gargoyles." The plot relies totally on coincidence and consists of a string of picaresque adventures, with the kids, sensible Sean and impulsive Annie, being saved from utter disaster just in time by a series of eccentric, kindly adult mentors who have "hearts of gold under all that bluster." The kids keep losing and getting back from dastardly thieves a golden family torc that is their guardian and their soul and that guides them not only to their father, but also to their mother, who didn't die after all . . . . For those who can suspend disbelief, the combination of action and tears will make an entertaining adventure. ~--Hazel Rochman

Horn Book Review

Rescued from starvation during the Irish potato famine by a generous British Dragoon, Sean and his spunky little sister, Annie, are sent to America in the hope of finding their father. At every step of their journey, the children face nearly insurmountable odds, yet each time -- crossing the ocean on a ship ruled by a cruel captain; half starving in the streets of Boston; or cast out of their wagon train in a wasteland -- they are saved by the kindness of strangers. Interesting and sympathetic characters, but a contrived plot. From HORN BOOK 1993, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

Sean O'Brien and his sister Annie leave their dying mother in famine-and plague-stricken County Cork to head for America. As protection, they carry their mother's prayers, the cloak of a kindly British dragoon, and a gold torc (necklace) that's been in the family for ``1000'' years. Before reaching their father in California, Sean and Annie meet a sampling of late 19th-century America's best and worst: two good-hearted Bostonians (twin sisters); a black man, born free, and his bossy wife; an evil bounty hunter; a charming riverboat captain, a former Civil War colonel; mutinous pioneers; a gold prospector who is a fellow Irishman. The children lie at death's door a little too often and are aided by far too many miracles, while one particular bad guy crops up with remarkable frequency, given the vast landscape. Still, what the story lacks in credibility it makes up for in suspense; even if it is unbelievable that the children find their mother alive and well in California, it's also the kind of happy surprise that will keep readers avidly turning the pages. (Fiction. 10-12)