Autumn Street

by Lois Lowry. (Dell, 1980 ISBN 0440403448 Hardcover Paperback) Novel. 188 pages. Grades 4+.
This book was first reviewed by Carol Otis Hurst in Teaching K-8 Magazine.

Review

Elizabeth has come with her sister and pregnant mother to live with her s in Philadelphia while her father is serving in World War II. The grandparents are people of wealth and respect in the community. Grandmother is severe and unyielding. Elizabeth's mother is kind and loving but it is Tatie, the black maid of the household who is Elizabeth's rock during this time and Tatie's grandson, Charles, becomes Elizabeth's best friend. It is Charles with whom she shares her fears and excitements. Together Charles and Elizabeth, who is coming down with pneumonia, go off to the forbidden and scary woods at the end of town which they believe is inhabited by giant turtles. Charles refuses to leave the woods with Elizabeth and she, overwhelmed by her sickness, abandons him there to his tragic end.

This book can be used in conjunction with other books about WWII to find out what life was like in the United States while the war was going on. The War in this novel is very much in the background, but the war that's fought in the novel is a personal one. Their next door neighbors are viewed with suspicion because of their German heritage. There is racial prejudice and even murder and its attendant guilt and suspicion in this taut, memorable book. It might be interesting to find out if Ms. Lowry ever lived in Philadelphia.

Related Areas of Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site

• Lois Lowry, Featured Author article
• Guided Reading Opportunities in Good Literature. Including Visualizing activities using Autumn Street.
• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, book review and classroom activities with related books.
• The Giver by Lois Lowry, book review
• US History and Children's Literature
• A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck. Book Review of another book about a grandmother and her children in 1924-1942.