Betty Horvath

It is the fall of 1938, and sixth-grader Emily Ann Campbell wants to leave her mark during her last year at Park School. Her new teacher, Mr. Van, sets her to writing poetry each day, and Emily Ann comes to discover her inborn gifts as a writer as she also develops a deeper understanding of the class issues of her community and completes a successful sixth-grade year. Set in Missouri at the end of the Great Depression and on the eve of World War II, "Sir Galahad, Mr. Longfellow, and Me" draws a picture of a community where some people are rich enough to own dozens of Sears Roebuck dresses while others are poor enough to dream of being able to afford to eat chicken every day. These class issues form the background to Emily Ann's year, as she develops new friendships and deals with a crush on her teacher, all the while secure within a loving, lower-middle class family. The first-person narration enables the reader to come to know Emily Ann, an engaging and likable narrator, deeply, and to understand her process of writing poetry. This book will appeal to fifth through eighth graders, especially lovers of historical fiction or those who, like Emily Ann, are budding writers themselves.… (mehr)