BIBLIOGRAPHY
Paterson, Katherine. 1996. Jip: his story. NY: Lodestar Books. ISBN 0525675434.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Jip, short for Gypsy, lived on the poor farm where he was primarily responsible for the crops and livestock due to the manger’s laziness and inefficiency. Jip reportedly fell off the back of a gypsy’s wagon and was taken to the farm as an infant. Jip’s intelligence and compassion make living on the farm tolerable for himself and the other residents. When a raving lunatic is transferred to the farm, Jip finds himself also the primary caregiver for the lunatic, Put. Surprisingly, the “lunatic” is actually a wise man who befriends Jip and, when not suffering from an “episode”, helps Jip run the farm.
Paterson creates wonderfully complex characters who could very easily be transported to any time or place. Put could just as easily be a homeless man from any city, and the lazy manger could be any bureaucrat living off the toil of others. Paterson’s plot, too, is amazingly complex for such a short work and is suitable for a range from lower grades to college level. Her style is direct -- easy for the lower grades or older second language learners.
As the plot unfolds, the reader learns that Jip’s story is not as simple as it appears. Jip gets to attend school for a short while and is hungry for knowledge. There he is exposed to Dickens’s OLIVER TWIST and his dream of a family searching for him is fanned to full flame. When a stranger comes to town and hints that Jip does have a father who is searching for him, Jip is sure that his dreams will soon come true. Through hope and loss, Jip learns some hard truths about his past and the world he lives in which is just on the brink of a civil war.
Paterson reveals what ultimately happens to Jip in an endnote, and though the journey cost him dearly, Jip finally has his happy ending. It is just an ending that neither Jip nor the reader could have foreseen.
REVIEW EXCERPTS
This historical novel about a maltreated orphan "is full of revelations and surprises," said PW's starred review; "first-rate entertainment." -- Publisher's Weekly
Paterson's companion novel to Lyddie (Lodestar, 1991) rewards readers with memorable characters and a gripping plot…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. Fans of the previous book will relish meeting up with Lyddie and Luke again at a somewhat later period in their lives. Readers will be talking and thinking about this book long after they finish the last chapter.-- School Library Journal
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. …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.--starred review Booklist
… As usual for Paterson, all the characterizations are penetrating--even the villains are interesting... Unfortunately, the ending is abrupt...and it is not clear what lesson Jip derives... Regardless, this is fine historical fiction.-- Kirkus Reviews
CONNECTIONS
*Create a Venn diagram of “then and now” on subjects found in the novel. These could include the following: treatment of orphans, the mentally ill, or the poor, OR attitudes toward education, schools, or teachers. Based on http://literacy.kent.edu/Oasis/Pubs/0300-25.pdf
*Have students compare the slaves on the Underground Railroad to the Jews trying to escape the Holocaust
*Locate and display other books about slavery and the Underground Railroad
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