The River Between Us--Richard Peck

RICHARD PECK

THE RIVER BETWEEN US

The River Between Us tells the story of the Pruitt family and the impact that the upcoming Civil War has on their lives. With his father gone, sixteen-year-old Noah Pruitt can’t wait to leave home and fight to preserve the Union.  His mother and two sisters, Tilly and Cass, fear the day that he ultimately joins the army. Cass is especially anxious because her powerful psychic visions allow her to see the bloody devastation that war will bring to their simple town of Grand Tower on the Mississippi River.  One evening, a boat from New Orleans unexpectedly arrives, and two mysterious female passengers disembark.  Every citizen is mesmerized by the glamorous Delphine and a young girl name Calinda that many suspect to be Delphine’s slave.  Everyone is shocked when Mrs. Pruitt invites the girls to stay with them until they can find their way to safety.  In no time, the townspeople begin to gossip.  Are the girls Confederate spies?  Are the Pruitts Southern sympathizers? Without question, when Delphine and Calinda enter the lives of the Pruitt family, things will never be the same.

As expected, Richard Peck’s historical fiction novel allows readers to view the horrors of the American Civil War.  Unexpectedly, however,  Peck also takes readers into the world of plaçage, an arrangement where wealthy white southern men took mistresses of African American descent.  Delphine explains the New Orleans custom to Tilly:

We cannot marry white men...The Spanish make a law against such marriage.  The French 

        make a law. There is a law now.  But New Orleans prefer its customs to the law.  Our white 

        fathers buy our mothers fine homes in all the best streets, in Chartres Street.  And if 

        there is a daughter, she is brought up by her mother to find a future with a white 

        gentleman of her own.  A man of substance.  We have a name for this.  It is plaçage.  

        A respectable arrangement.

When I selected The River Between Us, I never dreamed Peck would take readers on an adventure exploring a topic rarely discussed in young adult literature.  As a history major, I applaud his creativity.  

I enjoyed The River Between Us, but I wish Peck would have developed the unique character of Cass.  I found myself wanting to know more about her.  Perhaps in another book!