An Acquaintance with Darkness - Ann Rinaldi

by Tristi Pinkston | More from this Blogger

06 Nov 2007 11:04 AM

"An Acquaintance with Darkness" is the story of Emily Pigbush, a fourteen-year-old girl who lives in Washington D.C. with her mother at the close of the Civil War. Her father was killed and her mother was left with nothing. With the wasting disease upon her, Mrs. Pigbush knows she will soon die, leaving her daughter alone in the world.

Emily's good friend Johnny Surratt comes to say goodbye, telling her that he's headed for Canada. Deep in her heart she knows she will never see him again, that he's mixed up with something sinister. When she meets an actor by the name of John Wilkes Booth, a friend of the Surratt's, the ominous feeling returns.

Emily's mother passes away and she wants to take the Surratt's up on their offer to live with them, but her Uncle Valentine pursues legal action and has himself made her guardian. She hates living at his house - she has little freedom to come and go as she would like, but she does have enough to eat, which she hasn't for a long time. But something strange is going on at Uncle Valentine's. He's a doctor and a researcher, but rumors are flying all over town that he's a body snatcher, stealing bodies out of graves in order to experiment on them. Emily's not sure what to think, but as she grows closer to Robert, her uncle's assistant, she doesn't want to believe that anything so evil could be going on.

I liked how this book wove the historical elements in with the fabric of the story. This is one way in which Ann Rinaldi shines - you get so caught up in the story, you don't realize you're learning history at the same time.

(This book was published in 1997 by Harcourt, Brace, and Company.)

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Learn more about Tristi Pinkston

I've been a blogger for Families.com since August of 2006.

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