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Bibliography:
Cushman, Karen. 2006. THE LOUD SILENCE OF FRANCINE GREEN. New York, NY: Clarion Books an imprint of Houghton Mifflin. ISBN-12: 978-0-618-50455-8
Summary:
The time is 1949, the place is California, where you hear names like Montgomery Cliff, Gary Cooper, Clark Gable; you even hear the name Adolf Hitler. What does a name like Adolf Hitler mean for an eighth-grader at All Saints Catholic School for Girls? Nothing much to Francine Green, your typical good girl, who doesn’t like to get into trouble, who doesn’t like to make a fuss about anything and who does exactly what is expected of her, unlike Sophie Bowman who lives down the street and has been kicked out of nearly every school she’s attended and now she’s at Francine’s front door. That’s how it started, with Sophie coming to find out what the uniform requirements were for All Saints. Sophie was so much different than Francine, but they became friends. Sophie was one of those people who frequently spoke their mind, even when not asked. That would not work out here at All Saints.
Regardless of their differences, Francine and Sophie became best of friends, even when none of the other girls wanted anything to do with Sophie. This story is about the quiet yearnings of one girl, and the verbal yearnings of another and before the end, Francine’s yearnings would become verbal.
Critical Analysis:
1949 was a time when the United States prospered, even though there was a war going on across the ocean. Normal families were growing and teens were being teens, going to drug stores for root beer floats and girls going gaga over boys. Yet, it was a time when most people feared the color “red” because of the implications that were stirring amongst the government about Communism. In Hollywood, there were many people who were being looked at because of this reason or that reason and the government was on a hunt to find those within the United States who were believed to support Communism.
Karen Cushman has written a delicate story about a girl who on the outside appeared normal, proper and well behaved, yet, her “loudness” was screaming from within. Through her friendship with a girl who was her complete opposite, she learned that people might not always want to hear certain things, but they must be said, especially when you are being taught from a religious aspect. Francine’s father didn’t want to hear her opinions, while Mr. Bowman, Sophie’s father taught her that her opinion mattered and that it was okay to think about things.
In this story, we learn about bomb shelters that for a time, some people actually considered on building to keep their families safe. After Hitler was dead, they still feared “red” or Communism that was dominant in Russia and the bomb and end of the world. This fear affected even the littlest members of the family, such as Francine’s little brother, who upon hearing about the bomb shelter became afraid of “bum shelters” and “commanisks.”
Review/Excerpts:
Kirkus Reviews
It's 1949, and 13-year-old Francine Green lives in "the land of 'Sit down, Francine' and 'Be quiet, Francine' " at All Saints School for Girls in Los Angeles. When she meets Sophie Bowman and her father, she's encouraged to think about issues in the news: the atomic bomb, peace, communism and blacklisting. This is not a story about the McCarthy era so much as one about how one girl-who has been trained to be quiet and obedient by her school, family, church and culture-learns to speak up for herself. Cushman offers a fine sense of the times with such cultural references as President Truman, Hopalong Cassidy, Montgomery Clift, Lucky Strike, "duck and cover" and the Iron Curtain. The dialogue is sharp, carrying a good part of this story of friends and foes, guilt and courage-a story that ought to send readers off to find out more about McCarthy, his witch-hunt and the First Amendment. Though not a happily-ever-after tale, it dramatizes how one person can stand up to unfairness, be it in front of Senate hearings or in the classroom. (author's note) (Fiction. 10-14)
School Library Journal
Gr 5-9-Cushman creates another introspective female character who is planted firmly in her time and who grows in courage, self-awareness, and conviction. This novel follows Francine's eighth-grade year, from August 1949 to June 1950, at All Saints School for Girls in Los Angeles, a year of changes largely inspired by a new transfer student, Sophie Bowman. While Francine is quiet and committed to staying out of trouble, happy to daydream of Hollywood movie stars and to follow her father's advice not to get involved in controversy, Sophie questions authority and wants to make a difference. Her questioning of the nuns' disparaging comments about "the Godless" communists frequently leads to her being punished and eventually to her expulsion from school. Francine begins to examine her own values, particularly when an actor friend of Sophie's father is blacklisted and Mr. Bowman loses his scriptwriting job. At the novel's end, Francine is poised to stand up to Sister Basil, the bullying principal, and exercise her freedom of speech. Cushman captures the era well, with references that range from Dragnet to "duck and cover" drills in schools and her father's aborted attempt to build a bomb shelter in their backyard. Francine Green is reminiscent of Jamie Morse, another 13-year-old and the protagonist of Ellen Levine's Catch a Tiger by the Toe (Viking, 2005), who is also coming of age in the shadow of McCarthyism and the beginnings of the Cold War. Readers will relate to the pervasive fear of the period as it resonates in our post-9/11 world.-Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Publishers Weekly
Cushman takes on many issues in this novel set in Hollywood at the peak of McCarthyism, unfortunately diluting the power of any one of them. As the book opens, narrator Francine learns that her neighbor Sophie Bowman will be joining her eighth grade class at All Saints School for Girls. The deliciously named Sister Basil the Great, the principal who doubles as their teacher, quickly singles out Sophie as the student to hold up as an example, sentencing the girl to stand in the wastebasket throughout class. Cushman draws parallels between the strict authority of the Catholic school and the constraints of McCarthyism on everyday citizens. Sophie's father, a screenwriter, allows readers to see the havoc wreaked upon his peers (one, a Jewish actor being shadowed by the FBI and pressured to give up names, commits suicide), and the Russian owners of a vandalized local store voice the irony of their situation ("That's why Petrov and I left Russia, to get away from such thugs"). Yet these connections may be a bit abstract for some readers, who will more likely respond to details of Francine's daily life-taking her younger brother past Newberry Five and Ten, ordering root beer floats at Riley's or having a crush on Montgomery Clift. The author introduces the idea of Sophie's tendency to egg on controversy but never fully develops it, and Francine remains quite aloof from the world. She is less sympathetic than Cushman's previous memorable heroines (in Catherine, Called Birdy; The Midwife's Apprentice). Ages 10-14. (Aug.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Awards:
Parents' Choice Silver AwardNew York Public Library, 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing
ABC Children's Booksellers Choice Award
CCBC Choices
NYPL Books for the Teen Age
Kansas State Reading Circle Recommendation
Connections:
This is a comprehensive discussion guide for teachers to incorporate with their reading of this book.
“ A Discussion Guide - The Loud Silence of Francine Green “
by Karen Cushman - http://www.karencushman.com/pdfs/DG_loudsilence.pdf
(Provided by “Author’s Note”) Researching the early 1950’s:
Michael Barson. Better Dead Than Red! A Nostalgic Look at the Golden Years of Russianphobia, Red-Baiting, and Other Commie Madness.
Sally Belfrage. Un-American Activities: A Memoir of the Fifties.
JoAnn Brown. “’A Is for Atom, B Is for Bomb’: Civil Defense in American Public Relations,” The Journal of American History, June 1988.
Civil Defense Office. National Security Resources Board Document 130, “Survival Under Atomic Attack.” At www.schouwer-online.de.
Dan Epstein. 20th Century Pop Culture.
Eric F. Goldman. The Crucial Decade—and After: America, 1945-1960.
Lois G. Gordon. The Columbia Chronicles of American Life, 1910-1992.
Joy Hakim. A History of Us: All the People, Book 10.
Stuart A. Kallen. A Cultural History of The United States Through the Decades.
Milton Meltzer. Witches and Witch-Hunts: A History of Persecution.
Howard Zinn. Postwar America: 1945-1971.
Other:
Research older newspapers, magazines, and comic books during this time period to compare to news, stories and teen readings that are available to teens today.
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