The YA Book Log

Historical fiction readers you might like TREMBLING EARTH by Kim L. Siegelson. It is set during the Civil War.
War between the North and the South was strong. Hamp, a swamper, lived in a time when fighting would never end. Hamp hopes for the South to win the war between states, even though he’s never seen a slave. Hamp’s father lost a leg and a part of his soul because of the war. He hated the Union army for turning his loving father into a man that he has never met before. Now his father always sits on the porch singing sad songs and pining away, as the war draws closer and the family gets poorer. Scrub, the neighbor, caught a family of Negroes and held them captive with no food and water. Neeta, Hamp’s sister, felt that this was wrong and convinced Hamp to rescue the family. But Hamp was more interested in a reward for a slave named Duff. He was a no-good slave who was accused of killing his own master and is now loose on the swamp. Hamp goes after him, figuring that the bounty is his by rights. But when Hamp meets up with Duff, Hamp realizes that right and wrong weren’t black and white as he thought they were.
Stephanie Zhang
Grade 8
WT Clarke Middle School