Turn Homeward, Hannalee

"Turn Homeward Hannalee" is the most exciting and surprising Historical Fiction book I have ever read! The book is so realistic that you can actually see Hannalee and the rest of the characters walking around the room! This book is based mainly on the Civil War and what happened to the young and old southern mill workers. One mill worker, Hannalee, and her brother Jem are sent up North by the Union and then find their way back to Roswell, Georgia, with their momma's persimmon seed button. Now get reading!- Anna, age 10

I really loved this book.The story is set in a small southern town during the Civil War. Most of the town is employed in the mill. The first part of the book is based on actual events. The second part is conjecture on the part of the author since there are no records. A very compassionate book and a look at yet another part of the Civil War that I had not known.

you have to read this book. Great read, it really tells the truth. I love this book and really enjoyed it.God bless you

Turn Homeward Hannalee, a book by Patricia Beatty is more than a story about a family separated and in hard times. It is also a brilliant piece about the Civil War.This story is about a 12 year old mill hand named Hannalee. Her Pa is dead and brother Davey has gone to war. The setting is Roswell, Georgia. Soon her government is burning the town. "The Yankees are coming!" they shout. Soon Yankees are roaming the town, burning the mill, and taking Hannalee and her little brother Jem to Indiana because they worked in the mill that made Confederate cloth.Hannalee and Jem need more than hope and courage to get back home to Mama. As they are leaving Mama tears off a button on her dress and gives it to Hannalee. Hannalee knows then, she must get back home.In Kentucky, after many days of riding the train, and walking, Hannalee and Jem are put in prison. People come to buy them as servants and Hannalee is separated from Jem.Find out what happens as Hannalee sets out on an adventure that takes courage, heart, and hope, to get Jem and go home to Mama.

This story puts into proper perspective the differing (and still different) cultures of the North and South, without making it all to be 'the South's fault' (which it wasn't). the author brings you into the world of children, torn apart from their family, their land, and their own culture, to show how unfeeling the Abolitionists, and the Unitarian/post-Calvinist 'HW Beecher' north really was, toward those who were their own 'kinfolk,' during the WBTS.The child for whom it was assigned liked the novel very much. I read and cried, in reading it to talk about it with the class.We need honest books like this for children.

Patricia Beatty books were a highlight of my childhood, so I was happy to find a couple on Amazon for my kids. Sweet historically based stories that can be enjoyed over and over again.

I've loved this book since I was a child. It made such an impact on me that I never forgot. It was a library book that I never got to check out again but I can replay the story in my mind. Great, to have Hannalee come home.

I read this book several times when I was younger. I gave it to my 12 year old niece for Christmas and she loved it too!