Jip, His Story

Bibliography:
Paterson, Katherine. Jip, His Story. New York: Puffin Books, 1996. ISBN-10 0140386742

Plot Summary:
Jip is the story of a boy who grows up on the Poor farm because he fell out of a wagon when he was approximately two and therefore became, essentially, an orphan. It tells the story of his development as a person, through his relationships with others, and his questions about where he comes from. His past is revealed near the end of the book, to his dismay.

Critical Analysis:
Katherine Paterson did a wonderful job of creating in Jip a character people understand and sympathize with. Because of his sweet nature, and the fact that he could be the boy down the street, the change in attitude of the townspeople after his past is discovered is even more shocking. The most potent example of the attitude adjustment comes when Lucy tells Jip that her mother would turn him in if she caught him. While the Booklist review below claims that the characters are on the extreme ends of good and bad, I feel that those extremes are needed to help shock the reader into understanding the harsh realities of certain aspects in United States history.

Review Excerpts:
School Library Journal – “Paterson's story resonates with respect for the Vermont landscape and its mid-19th-century residents, with the drama of life during a dark period in our nation's history, and with the human quest for freedom.”
Booklist – “What a story. It's not often that the revelations of the plot are so astonishing--and yet so inevitable--that they make you shout and think and shiver and cry. Paterson has taken the old orphan foundling tale, set it in Vermont in the 1850s, and made it new. Jip (as in ‘Gypsy’ ) doesn't know where he came from; they say he fell off the back of a wagon and was found on the road somewhere when he was about two years old. Now, as a young boy, he lives and works on the town poor farm with the other paupers and strays… At school, Teacher reads aloud from Oliver Twist, and Jip wonders, as he always has, whether he might have a loving parent far away somewhere. Is Jip somebody's lost boy? The answer is devastating. There are some problems with this book. Jip is idealized, too saintly to be true; in fact, as in Dickens, most of the characters are either totally good or totally bad. But the time and the place are drawn with powerful realism. Paterson's simple sentences lay bare the dark historical truth and the transforming light of love.”

Connections:
Here are some books that also deal with the era during the Civil War:
Paterson, Katherine. Lyddie. ISBN 9780142402542 (prequel to Jip)
Keith, Harold. Rifles for Watie. ISBN 9780064470308
Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. ISBN 9780812504798
Parry, Owen. Faded Coat of Blue. ISBN 9780380797394 (First in a series of mysteries)