Miracle at Clement's Pond

by Patricia Pendergraft

Book Overview

This first novel shows a faultless ear for southern rural dialect and narrative style as it relates, in the words of a young boy, how three friends find an abandoned baby, leave it secretly on the porch of a warm-hearted spinster, and suffer the inevitable drama of the community's acknowledging not a 'miracle' but an illegitimate child . . .--Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399214380
• ISBN13: 9780399214387
• Release Date: May 1987
• Publisher: Philomel Books
• Length: 199 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

Country people in time gone by, people who had values, love

When a baby appears out of the blue, the whole town gets involved in it's life. One woma n, an elderly spinster takes care of it, hoping to keep it always. but the mother appears and the whole town is in an uproar. It is really a gentle book, with children in it who come alive on the page. These children get into all sorts of antics trying to take care of the baby and loving it. Sylvie demands that it be hers and no one else can have it. She is l3 years old and has a mind of her own. The other children try to talk her out of it. Anyone would love this book! I recommend it highly. And so does my daughter!

excellent reading for mothers and daughters

I bought this book for my daughter and we read it together. We loved it and had never met such wonderful characters as we met in Clement's Pond. I bought books for my daughter's girlfriends and they read it with their mothers. We all agreed that it was a wonderful book for children as well as adults. The girls are ages l2 to 14.I would recommend this book highly.

How I happened upon this magnificent story.

My dad brought this book home from the library a couple of years ago, and told me to read it. At first I did not think I would like it, but once I started reading it I could not put it down! It was so intriguing, especially with all of the sneaking around that the kids did. I especially enjoyed the parts towards the end when you really find out what's going on.

REWARDING EXPERIENCE FOR ALL AGES> WONDERFUL

I happened upon this wonderful book by accident and read it all the way through in one setting. I fell in love with the home spun characters, the rural setting, the appealing dialect. The message is clearly one of love and toerance. And I wondered why, when I closed the pages for the last time, this book is out of print. It should be on the bedside table of every child, eight to eighty! The characters, from Lyon, Sylvie, Justin and Taffy, aunt Ester and Bear are outstanding. This book was made into a movie for tv..retitled Miracle Child. The movie could not do justice to the book. In praise of good reading and a darned good experience...I am grateful to the author for writing it!