by A. LaFaye
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| List Price: | $5.99 |
| Amazon Price: | $5.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
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Product Description
Before the accident Nathaniel's life seemed pretty good. His help around the farm made his father proud. But now, with a busted leg, Nathaniel can't do farmwork anymore, so his father adopts another son through the Orphan Train. Feeling replaced and useless, Nathaniel attends school for the first time. Meanwhile, sturdy and strong John is able to do the work that earns Pa's attention.But the truth is, John Worth has his own set of troubles. He is treated more like a servant than a son. Kept awake at night by nightmares of his family's death, he remembers having a pa who took pride in him. But now he has no one, until a community battle and a special book reveal a potential friend -- and a chance for understanding.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 a different twist on an orphan story, 2008-12-17
Nathaniel Peale's life is turned upside down when his leg is crushed in an accident; he feels useless now that he is unable to help out on the family's Nebraska farm. When his father takes in an orphan named Worth from the famous "Orphan train" to help out with the farm work, neither Nathaniel nor his mother is happy about the situation. However, over time, the two boys learn to respect and even like each other and work together to help solve a local battle between farmers and ranchers.
Although this book is short, it is succinct and the characterizations are well-rounded. There are so many stories about orphans out there; this one is really different by telling the tale from the point of view of a child in the family where the orphan comes to live. It is a very moving story about both boys coming to terms with a great deal of loss in their own ways.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Finding Worth, 2007-07-12
John Worth is an Orphan Train child, the sole survivor of the fire which killed his family. Nate Peale is a child of the prairie; his family struggles to homestead on the Nebraska plains. Neither boy has the ideal life; the question the book obviously asks is how will each find worth, value in the difficulties each has been handed. It is a deep study, this developing sense of worth, and the book handles it from the viewpoint of Nate, in a straightforward, no-nonsense, abrupt manner reflective of the rather harsh plains setting. I have met these people, having grown up in the High Plains myself, and the harsh view of life during the period is as real as the colorful country figures of speech. LaFaye creates country diction wonderfully and creates a great heroine in Mary Eve, Nate's mother, who at first refuses to love the orphan, John Worth out of a sense of loyalty to her own son and is, herself, an enterprising tinker. Gabriel, Nate's pa, struggles with his guilt over Nate's injury and faces down overwhelming odds to produce enough to keep his farm. One wishes that the issues of love, loyalty, women's roles were all explored more deeply rather than leaning on the fence-cutting dilemma and the long-lasting feud between ranchers and farmers to carry the story. But this is a children's book, and a good one. It is reminiscent of Karen Hesse's Out of the Dust which also reveals the endurance which High Plains life demands. For an outdoor drama featuring the rancher-farmer feud, see Texas, a play in Palo Duro Canyon near Amarillo, Texas. The Peale's could be featured as strong farmers in that musical.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3rd Grade Reading Group, Newport Oregon Elementary School, 2007-06-13
A compilation of various students:
I really liked the book. It is kind of sad in the beginning. I loved this book...it got sadder and sadder but it had a very good ending. The book is `actiony', funny and it makes you want to read it over and over. Worth is the most dramatic action filled, dark gory story I ever read. It lost my 5th star because it has blood and pain, there is a lot of drama. If you don't like blood don't read this. I like the Greek myth stuff. The only thing I didn't like was it didn't have enough Greek myth stuff. My favorite character was Anemone.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 Worth was a okay book, 2007-04-12
The book Worth is about a poor farming family trying to survive in Nebraska. After Nate crushed his leg in a farming accident, he was unable to help out around the farm. His father went to the orphan train, which was a train that brought homeless children from the East to find new homes, to get a boy to help with the farm work that Nate could no longer do. The boy's name was John Worth. Nate's father's actions hurt his feelings because he felt like he was being replaced by John. He became very jealous of John. John grew up in New York City, so he was not used to farm work. His entire family died in a fire, so like Nate, he had his own problems to deal with. The story follows the relationship between the two boys. The ongoing battle between the ranchers and the farmers connect the two boys as they try to save the farms in the area.
In my opinion the book was not great because it was not a happy story. I didn't like the fact that there was a lot of talk of death in it. John was always talking about how his family died in a fire, and Nate was always talking about how his little sister, Missy, choked on some bread. I also didn't like the fact that the book didn't use proper English. It was written in an uneducated, rural Nebraska manner, so it was hard to read and understand at times. In one sentence Nate says "Didn't do me no good" when he was describing how he was trying to keep up with the pain he was feeling.
At the end, the book started getting better. Nate and John were stopping the fence cutters, who were people who cut fences to let the cattle out. They went to help Widow Kerensky, a customer of John's parents', by chasing away the fence cutters. Widow Kerensky pulled a gun on John thinking he was a fence cutter, but then took the gun away when she saw Nate because she knew him. I liked this part because it was filled with action and I felt like I was hiding in the grass there, watching them.
The book Worth was not one of my favorite books. I would not want to read the book again, but I would recommend it to anyone looking for a historical fiction book. Although I learned a lot about the hardships of living on a farm, it did not have enough action to hold my attention. All in all I didn't really like the book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A Storm, 2007-03-03
The main character of the book Worth is named Nathaniel.
First, Nathaniel is a hard working boy especially when he brings the hay in to the barn. Second, he is boy that can take pain. A storm hit their farm and he was on a tractor thing and fell off and hurt his leg. Third, Nathaniel is one of those boys that are nice on the outside but sometimes mean on the inside. He doesn't like people that take away his dad. Fourth, Nathaniel is always helping his mom. He puts things that were broken back together that broke. Does that character relate to you?
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