The Autumn People

For years, Romilly had listened to her grandmother's tales of Karasay Island, where the Graham family had always spent the summer. All the Grahams, that is, but Gran's own mother, the first Romilly. The modern Romilly could not understand the reluctance of her great-grandmother to visit what sounded like a perfectly splendid place. Yet only once, during the summer of 1901, had she gone there. The second Romilly could never know exactly what happened that fateful summer to Millie, the first Romilly. Even Millie herself could not begin to anticipate the fate that awaited her when she left London alone and made her way to the north of Scotland. Her future then was uncertain, clouded, and her own sense of herself was dark and wondering. By the end of the summer she had found and lost the most important dream that would ever come to her. And though her future was assured, her hope for joy was gone forever. On her first visit to Karasay, the second Romilly discovered some of this. Her trip was almost as frightening as Millie's, but the conseqauences were happier, and her own future seemed to hold a fulfillment of a promise from the past that had waited almost too long for completion. Once again Ruth Arthur creates a memorable story in a distinct place with a strong sense of a world that lies just beyond touch.


Genre: Children's Fiction