My America: The Starving Time: Elizabeth's Jamestown Colony Diary, Book Two

by Patricia Hermes

Book Overview

In Pat Hermes' sequel to Our Strange New Land, Elizabeth faces harsher times as she records the colony's daily struggle for survival. The My America series will be relaunched with new covers. The... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0439199980
• ISBN13: 9780439199988
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Scholastic
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 7 to 10 years
• Grade Range: Grades 2 to 5

Customer Reviews

The great book.

When I first got this book I didn't want to let it go . It was so interseting that I didn't want to go to sleep.The part I liked was that Elizabeth's mom had a baby. Also that Elizabeth and Jessie asked Captain John Smith if he can go back to England and say hi to Caleb. I had fun reading this book.If you heard about this book then check it out.

~*~Great Story, Perfect For School Reading!~*~

Taking place in 1609, Elizabeth Barker, a 9 year old immagrint from England writes about her suffering life in Jamestown, Virginia. After Captain Smith and her old friend, Jessie Bolton return to England, she lives in missery until she meets Mary, a fourteen year-old girl. Everyone is starving terribly. A few have even died. Men are sent out of their town to find food, some do not return... Elizabeth has even caught her mother eating worms! Life is harsh... Soon Elizabeth's mother dies and almost everyone grows ill, even Elizabeth her self! Many families leave the town and travel into the wild, hoping for more luck. Now, only a few families remain. Soon, Her brother Caleb will come on the supply ship in Spring. Many pray they will survive until then... I recommend this book to any one who enjoys history and adventure!...

I'm 6 and I loved it!!!

I read the book to my mom. It was interesting. I really liked it and I think alot of other peolple would too. I learned alot about Jamestown but I don't think Elizabeth had a very good childhood.

Book Two an excellent sequel

The Starving Time opens up exactly where Elizabeth left off writing in Book One. She is terribly saddened over the departure of her best friend Jessie who is going back to England with her father after the loss of his wife, and Captain John Smith who had also been a good friend. She finds friendship in a girl named Mary, who is in love with a boy named John, who she loathes more than anyone in the whole colony. But that is just the little things. Elizabeth and the rest of the colonists have to endure so many things; the title tells exactly what the book is about. She even sees her mother eatting worms because she is so starved. But most of all what gets Elizabeth through this terrible ordeal is knowing that come spring, her twin brother Caleb will be on the new ships coming to Jamestown with so many good things in tow. I recommend this book to anyone providing you have the read the first though. You will not be disappointed.

Elizabeth's story continues in this wonderful sequel.

It's October, 1609. Although her best friend Jessie Bolton has returned to England with her grieving father following her mother's death, nine-year-old Elizabeth Barker is hopeful. The small colony of Jamestown, Virginia, is finally beginning to feel like home. The birth of Lizzie's baby sister, Abigail, has brought the Barker family joy. And Lizzie's twin brother, Caleb, will join the family come spring. But nothing can prepare Lizzie, her family, and the other colonies for the hardships they will face over winter. There isn't nearly enough food to last until the next ship arrives in the spring, and as soon as the first snow falls, disease once again breaks out among the colonists. Lizzie fears for her life, for her parent's lives, but especially for the life of little Abigail, whom Lizzie fears may not be strong enough to survive the winter. Lizzie and her new friend Mary cling to each other for comfort and pray for deliverance, yet even their strong spirits may not be enough to keep their families alive. As Lizzie struggles through the death of friends and loved ones, family and strangers, and starvation and sickness, she fights to keep her hope alive and to never give up. Told through Lizzie's spirited diary entries, this book continues the story begun in Our Strange New Land. Both that book and this one reveal what life might have been like for a young girl during the difficult winter of 1609-1610 in Jamestown Colony. I highly reccomend this book to all fans of the Dear America series, especially those that loved the first book about Lizzie.