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Storyteller    by Patricia Reilly Giff Amazon.com order for
Storyteller
by Patricia Reilly Giff
Order:  USA  Can
Wendy Lamb Books, 2010 (2010)
Hardcover, e-Book
* * *   Reviewed by Lyn Seippel

Elizabeth's dad is invited to Australia to sell his carvings. Elizabeth is being sent to stay with her aunt Libby in upstate New York. Her mother died when she was a baby and her dad says it is time she got to know her mother's family.

Aunt Libby is pleasant enough, although she can't cook and they finally resort to pop tarts for breakfast. On the wall there is a drawing of their ancestor, a girl called Zee. Zee, who lived during the Revolutionary War, was about Elizabeth's own age when the drawing was made. Elizabeth finds herself thinking about the girl and often talking to her picture.

Giff skips from the eighteenth century story of Zee to Libby in the twentieth century. Libby knows she and Zee look alike, but she'll never know how much alike they are in other ways.

Zee, dreamy and wistful, learns about her strengths on the battlefields where she follows her father and brother who are Patriot soldiers. Elizabeth, whose personality mirrors Zee's, realizes that being good at one thing is often enough.

This quiet book, filled with love and hope, is a treasure.

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