Nancy's Story: 1765

Colonial Williamsburg: Young Americans #3

by Joan Lowery Nixon

The year is 1765, and there's a lot going on in Williamsburg, Virginia. The Stamp Act has just been passed, and many colonists are protesting it because nobody knows what it will mean to the colonies as a whole. Twelve-year-old Nancy Geddy is concerned that the act will make her friend Tom lose his apprenticeship at the Geddy family's foundry.

Besides that, Nancy has her own problems. Her stepmother, Elizabeth, is making Nancy's life miserable with her constant complaining and criticism. Nothing Nancy does is good enough for her. Now Elizabeth's difficult pregnancy is threatening to ruin Nancy's opportunity to attend her grandmother's Christmas ball. Will Nancy find a way to accept Elizabeth's different ways and come to love her as a mother?

Genres: Historical Fiction, American Revolution

160 pages, Hardcover

First published October 10, 2000

About the author

Author of more than one hundred books, Joan Lowery Nixon is the only writer to have won four Edgar Allan Poe Awards for Juvenile Mysteries (and been nominated several other times) from the Mystery Writers of America. Creating contemporary teenage characters who have both a personal problem and a mystery to solve, Nixon captured the attention of legions of teenage readers since the publication of her first YA novel more than twenty years ago. In addition to mystery/suspense novels, she wrote nonfiction and fiction for children and middle graders, as well as several short stories. Nixon was the first person to write novels for teens about the orphan trains of the nineteenth century. She followed those with historical novels about Ellis Island and, more recently for younger readers, Colonial Williamsburg. Joan Lowery Nixon died on June 28, 2003—a great loss for all of us.

Reviews

[Mamiko · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been reading this series these last few weeks, and I've liked all of them so far. I like how the author chooses young characters who had some challenges that they had to overcome (but do not resolve within the novel). Nancy, the protagonist of this volume, had to adapt to and accept her new stepmother, while her family's business could have been at risk due to Stamp Act. I felt that the storyline of this particular volume was a bit convoluted (too many actors and too many concerns), but I still found it to be an interesting story that kept me going. What I like about this series is that, while it's optimistic and all the volumes in this series ended in hopefulness toward the future, the lives of the children in this novel do not end "happily ever after" - I like the optimism in the reality of everyday and the particular time of the novel.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting look into the early era of the colonies and the Stamp Act opposition. There was not one word about God, religious freedom and the important role played in our country's early days.

[Doris Raines · Rating 3 out of 5]

I LIKE THIS BOOK.