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The Gospel Truth Paperback – October 1, 2014
2015 Governor General's Literary Award Winner!!
Caroline Pignat's The Gospel Truth is the powerful and poignant story of 16-year-old Phoebe, a slave girl in 1858 Virginia. Written in lyrical and elegant free verse, it is an unflinching look at the brutality of slavery and Phoebe's struggle for freedom and truth. Ultimately, this is a story of hope.
- Governor General's Literary Awards Jury
CLA Young Adult Book Award Honour Book 2015
The Gospel Truth is a novel in verse. It addresses human rights issues and racism with a tale from the time of slavery in the United States and the underground railroad to Canada. Several distinct voices are established as the story unfolds from multiple perspectives. Hope, bravery and kindness shine from characters in desperate circumstances. With flowing text that will be devoured by reluctant readers and subject matter fit for class discussion, The Gospel Truth is a powerful read.
- CLA Jury
Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People finalist, 2015
Amy Mathers Teen Book Award finalist, 2015
Ottawa Book Award: Finalist in the English Fiction category
2016 Red Maple Fiction Award nominee
Award-winning author Caroline Pignat's new historical novel recreates the world of a Virginia tobacco plantation in 1858. Through the different points of view of slaves, their masters and a visiting bird-watcher the world of the plantation comes to live in this verse novel.
Phoebe belongs to Master Duncan and works in the plantation kitchen. She sees how the other slaves are treated - the beatings and whippings, the disappearances. She hasn't seen her mother since Master Duncan sold her ten years ago. But Phoebe is trying to learn words and how to read and when she is asked to show the master's Canadian visitor, Doctor Bergman, where he can find warblers and chickadees she starts to see things differently. And Doctor Bergman has more in mind that just drawing the local birds.
Phoebe's friend Shad works on the plantation as well - but mostly he worries about his brother Will. His brother is the last member of his family and he is determined to escape from the master and the tobacco plantation. He has already been caught and beaten more than once. And the stories about life in Canada can't be true, can they? How does a man survive without the master there taking care of everything?
- Print length328 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherRed Deer Press
- Publication dateOctober 1, 2014
- Grade level9 - 12
- Reading age14 - 18 years
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.7 x 7.75 inches
- ISBN-100889954933
- ISBN-13978-0889954939
- Lexile measure630L
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Editorial Reviews
Review
-Pignat uses titled poetic recountings to tell this story from the perspectives of six characters, cleverly distinguishing each one's voice in the first person. Although Phoebe is mute with an old soul, her vocabulary and inner landscape are rich, her descriptions colourful. . . Young readers are drawn into the brutal and callous world that surrounds Phoebe but does not crush her gentle spirit.-
-- Canadian Children's Book News
-Hope, bravery and kindness shine from characters in desperate circumstances. With flowing text that will be devoured by reluctant readers and subject matter fit for class discussion, The Gospel Truth is a powerful read.-
-- CLA Young Adult Book Award Jury
-Stunning and heartbreaking, this poignant novel in verse is a searing portrait of a time and place, 1858 on a southern tobacco plantation where the Master struggles to hold on to the legacy -not people, they're negroes.- In poetry that is spare and beautiful, Pignat carefully, exquisitely depicts the reality of that time and of those lives. Here, the things that are left unsaid are as powerful as the harsh and simple truths that are clearly stated. The verse format serves this story well in Pignat's hands. In addition to using this format, she has also chosen to tell the story from multiple perspectives, providing an even more nuanced and multifaceted perspective. Readers are able to see how differently these individuals interpret truth, and even freedom; how each one -- in their own way -- struggles to do what they perceive to be the right thing; how each person's secrets, hopes and dreams are part of a larger picture. The Gospel Truth is an intricately and beautifully woven story whose characters are vividly and authentically depicted. Each voice is succinctly captured, and the story that the author tells is a realistic rendering of a piece of history that reveals timeless truths about humanity and the indomitable nature of the human spirit.-
Highly Recommended.-
-- CM Magazine
-The power of Caroline Pignat's words would compel me to cite so much of her text. She has the gift for novel in verse, not simply writing prose in verse form. Just as a good novelist doesn't tell everything, allowing the reader to interpret, surmise and read into the text, a great writer of novel in verse tells even more in fewer words. Pamela Porter, Martine Leavitt and now Caroline Pignat. As for the story, think The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill in free verse for younger readers and with more soul. A perfect bundle of story, voice and form?that's The Gospel Truth.-
-- CanLit for LittleCanadians
"Pignat uses titled poetic recountings to tell this story from the perspectives of six characters, cleverly distinguishing each one's voice in the first person. Although Phoebe is mute with an old soul, her vocabulary and inner landscape are rich, her descriptions colourful. . . Young readers are drawn into the brutal and callous world that surrounds Phoebe but does not crush her gentle spirit."
-- Canadian Children's Book News
"Hope, bravery and kindness shine from characters in desperate circumstances. With flowing text that will be devoured by reluctant readers and subject matter fit for class discussion, The Gospel Truth is a powerful read."
-- CLA Young Adult Book Award Jury
"Stunning and heartbreaking, this poignant novel in verse is a searing portrait of a time and place, 1858 on a southern tobacco plantation where the Master struggles to hold on to the legacy "not people, they're negroes." In poetry that is spare and beautiful, Pignat carefully, exquisitely depicts the reality of that time and of those lives. Here, the things that are left unsaid are as powerful as the harsh and simple truths that are clearly stated. The verse format serves this story well in Pignat's hands. In addition to using this format, she has also chosen to tell the story from multiple perspectives, providing an even more nuanced and multifaceted perspective. Readers are able to see how differently these individuals interpret truth, and even freedom; how each one -- in their own way -- struggles to do what they perceive to be the right thing; how each person's secrets, hopes and dreams are part of a larger picture. The Gospel Truth is an intricately and beautifully woven story whose characters are vividly and authentically depicted. Each voice is succinctly captured, and the story that the author tells is a realistic rendering of a piece of history that reveals timeless truths about humanity and the indomitable nature of the human spirit."
Highly Recommended."
-- CM Magazine
"The power of Caroline Pignat's words would compel me to cite so much of her text. She has the gift for novel in verse, not simply writing prose in verse form. Just as a good novelist doesn't tell everything, allowing the reader to interpret, surmise and read into the text, a great writer of novel in verse tells even more in fewer words. Pamela Porter, Martine Leavitt and now Caroline Pignat. As for the story, think The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill in free verse for younger readers and with more soul. A perfect bundle of story, voice and form?that's The Gospel Truth."
-- CanLit for LittleCanadians
"Pignat uses titled poetic recountings to tell this story from the perspectives of six characters, cleverly distinguishing each one's voice in the first person. Although Phoebe is mute with an old soul, her vocabulary and inner landscape are rich, her descriptions colourful. . . Young readers are drawn into the brutal and callous world that surrounds Phoebe but does not crush her gentle spirit."
-- " Canadian Children's Book News"
"Hope, bravery and kindness shine from characters in desperate circumstances. With flowing text that will be devoured by reluctant readers and subject matter fit for class discussion, "The Gospel Truth" is a powerful read."
-- "CLA Young Adult Book Award Jury"
"Stunning and heartbreaking, this poignant novel in verse is a searing portrait of a time and place, 1858 on a southern tobacco plantation where the Master struggles to hold on to the legacy "not people, they're negroes." In poetry that is spare and beautiful, Pignat carefully, exquisitely depicts the reality of that time and of those lives. Here, the things that are left unsaid are as powerful as the harsh and simple truths that are clearly stated. The verse format serves this story well in Pignat's hands. In addition to using this format, she has also chosen to tell the story from multiple perspectives, providing an even more nuanced and multifaceted perspective. Readers are able to see how differently these individuals interpret truth, and even freedom; how each one -- in their own way -- struggles to do what they perceive to be the right thing; how each person's secrets, hopes and dreams are part of a larger picture. "The Gospel Truth" is an intricately and beautifully woven story whose characters are vividly and authentically depicted. Each voice is succinctly captured, and the story that the author tells is a realistic rendering of a piece of history that reveals timeless truths about humanity and the indomitable nature of the human spirit."
Highly Recommended."
-- "CM Magazine"
"The power of Caroline Pignat's words would compel me to cite so much of her text. She has the gift for novel in verse, not simply writing prose in verse form. Just as a good novelist doesn't tell everything, allowing the reader to interpret, surmise and read into the text, a great writer of novel in verse tells even more in fewer words. Pamela Porter, Martine Leavitt and now Caroline Pignat. As for the story, think "The Book of Negroes" by Lawrence Hill in free verse for younger readers and with more soul. A perfect bundle of story, voice and form?that's The Gospel Truth."
-- "CanLit for LittleCanadians"
"Pignat uses titled poetic recountings to tell this story from the perspectives of six characters, cleverly distinguishing each one's voice in the first person. Although Phoebe is mute with an old soul, her vocabulary and inner landscape are rich, her descriptions colourful. . . Young readers are drawn into the brutal and callous world that surrounds Phoebe but does not crush her gentle spirit."
-- " Canadian Children's Book News"
"Hope, bravery and kindness shine from characters in desperate circumstances. With flowing text that will be devoured by reluctant readers and subject matter fit for class discussion, "The Gospel Truth" is a powerful read."
-- "CLA Young Adult Book Award Jury"
"Stunning and heartbreaking, this poignant novel in verse is a searing portrait of a time and place, 1858 on a southern tobacco plantation where the Master struggles to hold on to the legacy "not people?they're negroes." In poetry that is spare and beautiful, Pignat carefully, exquisitely depicts the reality of that time and of those lives. Here, the things that are left unsaid are as powerful as the harsh and simple truths that are clearly stated. The verse format serves this story well in Pignat's hands. In addition to using this format, she has also chosen to tell the story from multiple perspectives, providing an even more nuanced and multifaceted perspective. Readers are able to see how differently these individuals interpret truth, and even freedom; how each one -- in their own way -- struggles to do what they perceive to be the right thing; how each person's secrets, hopes and dreams are part of a larger picture. "The Gospel Truth" is an intricately and beautifully woven story whose characters are vividly and authentically depicted. Each voice is succinctly captured, and the story that the author tells is a realistic rendering of a piece of history that reveals timeless truths about humanity and the indomitable nature of the human spirit."
Highly Recommended."
-- "CM Magazine"
Book Description
2015 Governor General's Literary Award Winner!!
"Caroline Pignat's The Gospel Truth is the powerful and poignant story of 16-year-old Phoebe, a slave girl in 1858 Virginia. Written in lyrical and elegant free verse, it is an unflinching look at the brutality of slavery and Phoebe's struggle for freedom and truth. Ultimately, this is a story of hope."
— Governor General's Literary Awards Jury
CLA Young Adult Book Award Honour Book 2015
— CLA Jury
Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People finalist, 2015
Amy Mathers Teen Book Award finalist, 2015
Ottawa Book Award: Finalist in the English Fiction category
2016 Red Maple Fiction Award Honour Book
2016 Diamond Willow Nominee
2017 Rocky Mountain Book Award nominee
On CBC Books' 25 great Canadian #BlackGirlBooks,
a reading list inspired by the #1000blackgirlbooks project created by 11-year-old Marley Dias.
On CanLit for Little Canadians' list of Exceptional Novels in Verse for Young Readers
About the Author
Caroline Pignat graduated from the University of Ottawa with a Bachelor of Education. After working with children and youth for more than 15 years as a teacher mentor and coach, she embarked on a writing career. She lives in Ottawa with her family.
Product details
- Publisher : Red Deer Press; 1st edition (October 1, 2014)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 328 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0889954933
- ISBN-13 : 978-0889954939
- Reading age : 14 - 18 years
- Lexile measure : 630L
- Grade level : 9 - 12
- Item Weight : 15.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.7 x 7.75 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #6,229,123 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Caroline Pignat is the two-time Governor Generalʼs Literary Award winning author of seven
highly acclaimed novels and of the forthcoming picture book, Poetree. She
writes contemporary, historical fiction, and free verse novels for young adults
that explore character and conflict through multiple forms and points of view.
Back in high school, Caroline wrote a short story that later became her novel
Greener Grass, winner the 2009 Governor General’s Literary Award. The
Gospel Truth, a novel in poetry, won her a second Governor General’s
Literary Award in 2015.
Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonTop reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2016Pignet fictionalizes the typical all "white people' are bad, except for a small minority, and all "people of color" are noble and misunderstood false narrative. What you really have is a privileged white woman exploiting blackness for personal gain. I don't see her writing about the exploitation and brutalization of women and children in Asia or work shops employing children in India. Why? That doesn't buy Prada shoes for her privileged lifestyle? What, did she watch "Roots" and say I can make some money off of a predictable and boring narrative that lacks any intellectual credibility? This book is dangerous as it doesn't address in any meaningful way issues of marginalisation and disparity between racial groups, rather Pignet is another privileged marketer that misrepresents and commodifies serious issues for profit. This was a painfully boring and ridiculous book. Shame Ms. Pignet! Shame! (less)
Top reviews from other countries
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in Canada on February 7, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome characters, and an excellent story which seems to ...
Awesome characters, and an excellent story which seems to capture the essence of struggle for Blacks gaining freedom and recognition on many levels. Caroline Pignat's wonderful use of language makes this story seem very real.
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in Canada on March 19, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read from beginning to end
Excellent read from beginning to end! Writing style makes for an interesting and easy read. In my opinion, captivates audiences of any age.