All the Truth That's in Me by Julie Berry

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Bibliographic Information:

All the Truth That's in Me by Julie Berry

ISBN: 

Plot Summary:

Judith is abducted from her family at 14 and held captive. She is returned, alive but scarred, 2 years later. This story carries on after Judith has been home for a few years. She does not speak because her tongue has been cut out by her captor.

Her colonial settlement is threatened by homelanders and their arsenal has disappeared, so Judith chooses to expose her captor because she knows he has the missing arms. With the help of Captain Archibald, who had held Judith for 2 years, the settlement is able to defeat the homelanders.

After the battle, more questions arise about how Captain Archibald appeared. Settlers wonder if his son, Lucas, knew of his whereabouts the whole time. The community suspects Captain Archibald is guilty of Judith’s disappearance and the murder of her best friend.

In the meantime, Judith begins learning to speak again and she attends school. The evil teacher abuses her and then accuses her of trying to seduce him.  The public trial causes Judith to gain the courage to speak out and she is able to create her own happy ending.

Critical Evaluation:

This book is told in a third person narrative, as a letter from Judith to Lucas. The unusual narrative choice limits what the audience knows to what Judith is willing to tell Lucas. This creates a fantastic atmosphere of suspense in the story.

Judith slowly lets the audience see that her captor did not hurt her. He kept her locked up and never violated her, but that is only disclosed through Judith’s willingness to share that with Lucas.

Unfortunately, her captor did cut out her tongue. The culmination of the novel’s action seems to be when Judith finally realizes why Captain Archibald cut out her tongue. In a distorted attempt to keep her safe, as she could not talk and expose the evil man who caused the death of her friend.

Some of the imagery in the novel is expressed through the setting, both the topography and the weather. As winter sets in, Judith and her family are more isolated by the snow, but the snow also exposes the footsteps of someone who is following Judith.

The topography of their setting helped hide the home that Captain Archibald made for himself. Such an isolated place is unusual to imagine in the 21^st Century. It is this place that Judith considers running away to, but not during the winter, because the cold requires that she be prepared with firewood and food.

In this way, the setting is another character in the novel, controlling the plot with factors outside human control.

Reader’s Annotation:

She has a truth that can free her, if she can find her voice.

Author Information:

I grew up on a 50-acre farm in Western New York as the youngest of seven children. We grew much of our own food and harvested eggs from our chickens. We also kept turkeys, pigs, rabbits, and oodles of dogs and cats. I was free to ramble around our pond full of frogs and turtles, and wade in our crick full of minnows and crawdads. I was lucky to be the caboose kid in a big family full of avid readers, with a mother who loved poetry.

After my fourth son was born, I decided that since my family dreams were now well underway, it was time to pursue writing novels. I went back to school and earned an M.F.A. in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of the Fine Arts, where I learned from many talented and committed writers for young people. The Amaranth Enchantment was the second novel I wrote in school, and the first one to sell to a publisher. Since then I’ve written Secondhand Charm, All the Truth That’s In Me, and the Splurch Academy for Disruptive Boys series with my older sister, Sally Faye Gardner, as the illustrator. All the Truth That’s In Me, my first YA novel, is my most recent release. It’s a 2013 Horn Book Fanfare title, a School Library Journal Best of 2013 book, and a Kirkus Best Teen Read for 2013. It has been named a Junior Library Guild Selection and has been nominated for a Carnegie Medal and a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults award, and will be published in 12 countries internationally. My next novel, a middle grade titled The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place, will be published in September 2014 in the US by Roaring Brook, in Germany by Theinemann Verlag GmbH, in the UK by Piccadilly Press, and in Brazil by Editora Rocco.

Retrieved from http://www.julieberrybooks.com/about on 8/05-2015

Genre(s):

Historical Fiction, Suspense

Curriculum Ties: Literature

Booktalk Ideas: 

This book would pair well with a discussion on The Scarlet Letter and Puritan values.

Reading level: Grade 8+

Interest age: 13+

Challenge Issues: No apparent challenge issues at this time.

Why I chose this book: 

This book is a good example of historic fiction for our collection. It was included in the curriculum for LIBR 265.