Wonder at the Edge of the World

I couldn't put this book down! I have read reviews disappointed in the main character and the plot development, and while the points are valid, my opinion of the book was different. It is an easy YA read. I found the main character rude and proud at first, but loved watching her grow on her journey.......more

3.5 stars Hallelujah Wonder ("Lou") wants to be an explorer and scientist like her father before they ran off to Kansas and became hog farmers. Lou carefully guards her father's treasures collected around the world and hidden in a cave underneath the flat Kansas plain. When the man who killed her fat......more

Hallelujah Wonder (Lu) lives with her mother and sister on the Kansas prairie. Her father was a great explorer and scientist who found Antarctica, but was later discredited by his partner Captain Greeney. Captain Greeney had her father hung and is on the hunt for the treasure Captain Wonder hid away......more

This is a very long book; it took two months for me to read it to the girls. One would think I would've developed some attachment to the characters in so many pages, but I didn't. The nuts and bolts of the plot are that--after her scientist father is murdered--a white girl, a black (slave) boy, and......more

In the author's note she indicates that she and a friend some years back were struck by the need for young peoples' books with a strong female protagonist. Apparently she is out of touch with the young adult books on the market today or didn't remember the two literary Alices, Nancy Drew, etc. That......more