Silver Rain by Lois Peterson

Peterson, Lois Silver Rain, 181 pgs. Orca Book Publishers, 2010. $9.95. Language: G, Mature Content: G, Violence: G- Elsie, a smart eleven year old girl living in Canada, only has her out-of-work uncle, mother and grandmother after her father leaves them without a word as the Depression gets worse. As her family struggles to even get food on the table, they even have to move into the garage of their old house, leaving all the luxuries of a normal home. Elsie, with the help of her best friend Ernest, desperately looks for her father in the city with no luck. As they look for Elsie’s father, Ernest and Elsie find out about a dance marathon that offers one-thousand dollars if you dance for thirty days straight. But as Ernest and Elsie try to learn more about the dance marathon, her family starts to fade away even more as her mother supposedly leaves to help a friend Elsie’s never heard of and her uncle leaves to work in a cranberry field. How will Elsie be able to tie her family back together when everyone is untying themselves from her life? Will she have the strength to do it? I thought this book was a pretty good book. The writer, Lois Peterson, really brought out the character’s personality and made you feel as if you were there with Elsie. On the other hand, I also thought some spots of this book went kind of slow and were a bit boring. However, I know this book will surely catch some people’s attention, but it will need some help finding an audience. EL MS - OPTIONAL Student Reviewer: JW