First Quarter Book Report
We are doing a Book Report every quarter.
An Acquaintance with Darkness
By Ann Rinaldi
The novel An Acquaintance with Darkness, by Ann Rinaldi, is the story of 14-year-old Emily Pigbush and her struggle to find truth as her world crumbles. During the last days of the Civil War and President Lincoln’s assassination, her hometown, Washington, D.C., is in a state of turmoil. After her mother’s death, Emily is sent to live with her uncle Valentine, a well known doctor who lives nearby. Emily suspects that her uncle has been lying to her about his strange doings, and with a few risky adventures, and a little prodding from a mean girl at school, her suspicions are confirmed. Emily’s friendship with Annie Surratt takes a turn for the worse when Annie’s mother is sentenced to death for being an accomplice to Lincoln’s murderer. Although, in many ways, Annie is still a good friend to Emily, she is so preoccupied with her own troubles that she doesn’t help Emily out when Emily comes to her for reassurance. Because Annie is the last person who Emily thinks still cares for her, Emily is distraught. Emily desperately needs someone to trust, and someone to comfort her, and finding no one, she feels more alone than ever.
Since uncle Valentine’s house is full of secrets, Emily’s curiosity is aroused, and she decides to try to find out the reason for the secrecy. Some people, including Emily (although she doesn’t want to), suspect uncle Valentine of body snatching, and she thinks this might be the reason for the secrecy. Her uncle told her there were no bodies in his office, so she doesn’t protest too much when Myra Mott, a mean girl from school who doesn’t like Emily, takes the whole class to see the office after school. She comes along because she wants to prove to herself, and Myra that her uncle is not involved in body snatching. She is reluctant to sneak into the school where her uncle works, and peak through the window of his office, but when Myra claims that her father (a reporter) told her there are dead bodies in the office, she decides to have a look. When her findings lead her to discover that there are bodies in the office, and that her uncle has been lying to her all along about his work, she is extremely angry and feels betrayed. This conflict is eventually resolved when Emily and her uncle finally sort things out. Uncle Valentine tells Emily that he couldn’t explain about the body snatching for fear of someone else finding out, because he would have been arrested if they had. She pardons him, and decides that the body snatching that he is doing is all right because it is for medical research (finding cures for physical injuries), the good of others, and doesn’t harm anyone. In the end, all of the secrets in the house are revealed and explained. Emily and her uncle are very open with each other, and there is no need to hide things from each other anymore.
Readers who enjoy historical fiction and learning about the history of the United States will enjoy this novel because of the detailed descriptions of the chaos surrounding the murder of Abraham Lincoln from an insider’s point of view. Also, readers who are interested in medical advances in the later 1800s will be interested in this story because the author explains about all of the medical progress made during the Civil War. I would recommend this novel to readers who have the patience to read a long, detailed book, and who enjoy mysteries.
Pictures:
Abraham Lincoln in 1865, the year he was assasinated; Ford’s Theatre, which is where President Lincoln was assasinated; and a map of Washington, D.C. in 1865, which is the year during which this story takes place.
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