Product Description FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Judith can't speak. But when her close-knit community of Roswell Station is attacked by enemies, Judith is forced to choose: continue to live in silence, or recover her voice. From School Library Journal Gr 8 Up‰ÛÒThe village setting of this novel evokes the rigid religious communities of Colonial times, but Berry cleverly sets her story in an unnamed time and place so the protagonist's anguish and the town's mystery are the focus. Sixteen-year-old Judith is still in love with Lucas, even after his father held her prisoner for two years and violently silenced her by cutting out part of her tongue. Another girl went missing at the same time and her body was found washed down a stream. Only Judith knows the truth of what happened to Lottie, but her muteness leaves her an outcast in the village, even from her own mother, and the truth stays bottled up inside her. Told from Judith's narrow, troubled perspective, the story unwinds in taut chapters that peel back what happened two years before and gradually allows Judith to find her voice again. The austerity of the village and its harshly judgmental inhabitants help sustain a mood of dread. Judith does find tenderness in surprising places, and these secondary characters relieve not just her isolation but also offer readers moments of fun and promise as well. Lyrical language, a good mystery, and a compelling heroine‰ÛÒthis is a page-turner with substance.‰ÛÒMartha Baden, Prescott Public Library, AZë±(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. Review Praise for "All the Truth That's in Me" "effectively combines elements of traditional genre literature to create a distinctive novel that includes a powerful message about the value of women's voices and what is lost when they are silenced." --"New York Times "Book Review "Twines lyrical writing with the sharp pull of suspense to tell a riveting tale of a young girl's struggle to reclaim her life."--Judy Blundell, author of "What I Saw and How I Lied" "Powerful."--Rita Williams-Garcia, author of "One Crazy Summer" "While it is deeply poetic, the story reads like a thriller."--Tim Wynne-Jones, author of "Blink & Caution" "Every now and then, a novel comes along with such an original voice that readers slow down to savor the poetic prose. This is such a story." --"Kirkus", starred review ."..suspenseful and haunting. [Julie's] poetic narrative will draw readers in, and the gradual unveiling of secrets will keep them absorbed." --"Publishers Weekly", starred review "Lyrical language, a good mystery, and a compelling heroine-this is a page-turner with substance." --"School Library Journal", starred review "heart-wrenching and...heart-pounding" --"BCCB", starred review "Berry keeps her readers on edge, tantalizing us with pieces of the puzzle right up until the gripping conclusion." --"Horn Book", starred review From Booklist Like all things in this cunningly stylized novel, the setting is left undefined; a rough guess is mid-1800s America. The characters and plot, too, are mysteries in need of unfolding, and Berry‰۪s greatest accomplishment is jumbling the time line with confidence, thereby sprinkling every page with minor (or major) revelations. These trappings gild a not-that-unusual melodrama: 18-year-old Judith pines for Lucas, who has chosen another girl. Perhaps this is because Judith is mute, her tongue having been cut off by a madman‰ÛÓwho just happened to be Lucas‰۪ father. A few frustrating misunderstandings aside, the story gracefully incorporates everything from the right to education to the horrors of war to the freedom that comes along with acquiring language. What will stick in most readers‰۪ minds, though, is the first-person prose, which ranges from the unusually insightful (‰ÛÏWe were four people: the children we‰۪d been, and grown strangers now‰۝) Dimensions: 17 x 198 Author: Julie Berry ISBN: 9781848771727 Format: Paperback Pages: 272