book review UNDER THE HAWTHORN TREE

The book 'UNDER THE HAWTHORN TREE' is a children's historical novel by Marita Conlon-Mckenna. This book was a very interesting book to read. This book is a true story that tells of the adventures of Eily, Michael and Peggy during the famine in Ireland that is vividly retold. Under The Hawthorn Tree depicts the determination to live and the strength and love of three children in these difficult times. This severe famine that devastated Ireland took place around the 1840s which is thought to have stemmed directly from a blight that killed potato crops throughout Europe. The potatoes turned black and rotten, and the people had nothing to eat. Eily, Michael and Peggy are alone in their small home waiting for the return of their parents who are out looking for work and food. But their parents did not return home. Now, they have to fight for themselves. To avoid being sent to a shelter for the poor, they decided to go out and find their aunt who had never known them before but had heard it through their mother’s story. In the adventure, they witnessed the devastation caused by famine. Crowds scrambling for food, children abandoned, crowds lined up long in the soup kitchen for the poor and a few people who had died. Along the way they face many difficult problems. They had to find food to cover their stomachs, protect themselves and find their way to Castletaggart. From the book, we can sense the rotting smell that seemed to be everywhere and the sight of everything dying. At times, I'm sure they just felt like giving up. Most houses during this time were dirty and overcrowded and as time went by, most families didn't have enough food for all of their family. It was only a matter of time before people began to get exhausted and got the appearance of skeletons. Workhouses were opened but quickly became filthy and overcrowded. Disease and the fever spread throughout the country. By the end of the famine, more than one million people had died. Many emigrated to other countries such as America. When the famine was over, the people of Ireland worked together to build their country as they never wanted a disaster like this to happen ever again. In this book, I love Eily’s character. Eily was the eldest of O'Driscoll's three children. Throughout the book, Eily acts as a mother to her siblings. At the age of twelve, her mother had given her the responsibility of caring for her siblings. Eily is also a brave woman. She accepted the task of caring for her siblings while her mother searched for food. She remained strong and courageous and did everything in her power to keep her sisters safe. Along the way they face many difficult problems but Eily struggles and never gives up. Overall, I would say that Eily is a very mature, responsible and caring person. In difficult times, he met all of these characteristics and will be an outstanding role model in his day. This is shown many times throughout the novel. In my opinion, this book is really great because it really conveys the feeling of hunger. From this novel, we can really understand how a number of people survived this horrible time in Irish history. It is very mobile and easy to connect. All events are well described and detailed by the author, Marita Conlon-McKenna. The storyline of the novel is well thought out and put together. I think the idea of three kids wanting to survive on their own without parents to take care of them is a very impressive idea. Overall, this book is very unique and I really like this book. I recommend to everyone to read it especially to those who love historical stories. There are many lessons I can learn from this book. Among them is that this book taught me to be grateful for what we have and not waste food. This is because there are still many more people out there who are in dire need of food.