About This Book

Nory Ryan's family has lived on Maidin Bay on the west coast of Ireland for generations, raising a pig and a few chickens, planting potatoes, getting by. Every year Nory's father goes away on a fishing boat and returns with the rent money for the English lord who owns their cottage and fields, the English lord bent upon forcing the Irish from their land so he can tumble the cottages and clear the fields for grazing.

All day long, Nory dreams of food, coin [money], and a faraway place in America called Brooklyn, where no one is ever poor or hungry. But when a deadly disease strikes the Irish potato crop, the Ryans' dreams for a better life are destroyed. With her father and older sister far from home, Nory must be the one to find enough to eat, look after friends and family, and keep their hopes alive. Will Nory's family survive the Great Hunger?

About the Authors or Illustrators

Patricia Reilly Giff

Patricia Reilly Giff began her life in Brooklyn, New York surrounded by books! As a child Giff would prefer to have her nose in a book imagining the life of each character rather than playing with the other children. Some of her favorite childhood reads included Little Women, The Secret Garden, and the Black Stallion books, the Sue Barton books, and the Nancy Drew series. So it's no surprise that she knew early on that she wanted to be a writer.

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