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Informative,
Interesting,
Slow

34 reviews

Caleb's Crossing: A Novel
by Geraldine Brooks

Published: 2012-04-24
Paperback : 318 pages
91 members reading this now
116 clubs reading this now
54 members have read this book
Recommended to book clubs by 31 of 34 members
A New York Times bestselling tale of passion and belief, magic and adventure from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author

Bethia Mayfield is a restless and curious young woman growing up in Martha's vineyard in the 1660s amid a small band of pioneering English Puritans. At age twelve, she ...

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Introduction

A New York Times bestselling tale of passion and belief, magic and adventure from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author

Bethia Mayfield is a restless and curious young woman growing up in Martha's vineyard in the 1660s amid a small band of pioneering English Puritans. At age twelve, she meets Caleb, the young son of a chieftain, and the two forge a secret bond that draws each into the alien world of the other. Bethia's father is a Calvinist minister who seeks to convert the native Wampanoag, and Caleb becomes a prize in the contest between old ways and new, eventually becoming the first Native American graduate of Harvard College. Inspired by a true story and narrated by the irresistible Bethia, Caleb’s Crossing brilliantly captures the triumphs and turmoil of two brave, openhearted spirits who risk everything in a search for knowledge at a time of superstition and ignorance.

Editorial Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, May 2011: When Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks came to live on Martha's Vineyard in 2006, she ran across a map by the island's native Wampanoag people that marked the birthplace of Caleb, first Native American to graduate of Harvard College--in 1665. Her curiosity piqued, she unearthed and fleshed out his thin history, immersing herself in the records of his tribe, of the white families that settled the island in the 1640s, and 17th-century Harvard. In Caleb's Crossing, Brooks offers a compelling answer to the riddle of how--in an era that considered him an intellectually impaired savage--he left the island to compete with the sons of the Puritanical elite. She relates his story through the impassioned voice of the daughter of the island's Calvinist minister, a brilliant young woman who aches for the education her father wastes on her dull brother. Bethia Mayfield meets Caleb at twelve, and their mutual affinity for nature and knowledge evolves into a clandestine, lifelong bond. Bethia's father soon realizes Caleb's genius for letters and prepares him for study at Harvard, while Bethia travels to Cambridge under much less auspicious circumstances. This window on early academia fascinates, but the book breathes most thrillingly in the island's salt-stung air, and in the end, its questions of the power and cost of knowledge resound most profoundly not in Harvard's halls, but in the fire of a Wampanoag medicine man. --Mari Malcolm

Excerpt

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Discussion Questions

Suggested by Members

Did you like the ending? How would you change the ending?
by sdriscoll3 (see profile) 09/11/14

Try LitLovers.com
by sumacc (see profile) 08/21/14

The Wampanoag and the Puritans have very different views on raising children. Describe the differences between the two. Are Caleb and Bethia the typical product of their respective societies?
Both Bethia and Caleb struggle against the limits and expectations placed on them by society. How are their experiences similar? How are they different? Who faces the greater challenge?
Why does Caleb say that the sound of their "boots, boots, and more boots" (p. 143) moved him to cross cultures and adopt Christianity? Contrast this with Tequamuck's reaction to the settlers' arrival (p. 295).
by debbie1962 (see profile) 09/18/12

women's role in society of the era
American Indians - were they romanticized too much in the book?
education and how it has developed through the centuries
by tac48 (see profile) 04/16/12

Was this tale totally believable?
by dcokingtin (see profile) 07/06/11

Notes From the Author to the Bookclub

No notes at this time.

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Member Reviews

Overall rating:
 
 
by Tonya C. (see profile) 05/31/18

 
by Erica C. (see profile) 05/10/17

 
by Marcia H. (see profile) 12/09/15

 
  "Hard to understand"by Audrey A. (see profile) 04/20/15

Our group struggled with the "old English". There were words that we didn't know the meaning of and the dictionary had no explanation of what the words mean.

 
  "Caleb's Crossing"by Susan D. (see profile) 09/11/14

Our book club loved this book. The story was very compelling and beautifully written.

 
  "Caleb's Crossing"by Suzanne M. (see profile) 08/21/14

Geraldine Brooks chose to write this novel in language of the 17th century and from the point of view of a young girl of the times. The language challenges the reader, slowing the reading down so that... (read more)

 
by Ginger K. (see profile) 04/03/14

 
by Kathy B. (see profile) 04/02/14

 
  "Caleb's Crossing"by Sue W. (see profile) 04/02/14

 
  "Calebs Crossing"by Julie N. (see profile) 02/10/14

This is my favorite Geraldine Brooks novel so far! Her research into a real life episode is fascinating. Her imagination to complete the picture is phenomenal.

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