Water Street

Author Study Selection

Author:  Patricia Reilly Giff, 2006, Wendy Lamb Books

Water Street is another excellent piece of literature from Patricia Reilly Giff.  The main character, Bird, is only thirteen years old in 1875, but she has many responsibilities that make her seem older than she is.  She meets Thomas, a boy about her age, who moves into the apartment above her family.  Though neither of them wants to be forward about their feelings, she loves Thomas, and he certainly loves her, and that main theme runs throughout the entire story.  They are witnesses to the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, and Bird's father is a worker on the building crew.  Both Bird's and Thomas's families immigrated to the United States from Ireland at the time of the potato famine.  Bird is almost done with the 8th grade, and it will soon be time for her to work.  She has fancied the idea of becoming a healer like her mother, but she is not sure she can stomach all the blood.  Through twists and turns of life, Bird and Thomas both graduate from the eighth grade and attend high school--Thomas on a scholarship, and Bird on the money saved by her parents.  The hard road to this point is the crowning achievement in the lives of these children.

I thoroughly enjoyed every part of this book.  The author carefully integrated love, disappointment, heartache, joy, and family in a seemingly effortless way.  I thought the characters were accurately portrayed as having lived in the 1870s in America, and the real problems associated with this time period, including injury, poverty, and crime, were evident in the story.  This would be an excellent piece of historical fiction for middle schoolers to read.  I think teachers would also really like this book because it is another great story by a time-honored author.