From School Library Journal YA-- It is the 1880s, and 16-year-old Joanna, the eldest of five children, leaves her lovely family farm to work for an Irish coal miner and his mother--both recently widowed. Sending her small wages home so her father can buy more farm land, she endures both the harsh life in the town and the deep sorrow in the home. Mrs. Flynn, the mother, is a vividly drawn character who is coping with leaving her homeland, a less vigorous life due to old age, and the loss of her beloved husband and daughter-in-law. Her son, Tim, suffers an injury and fights for the most basic of safety requirements for the men who endanger their lives daily in the mines, risking his own future in the process. The book covers a year in the lives of these people and gives a good picture, with just enough detail, of a situation in which life is seen as disposable and a good mule is more valuable than a good worker. Joanna is a strong character who struggles throughout to face the loss of her life on the farm, the harshness of mining, the memories that linger of Tim's wife, and her own growing love for him. An exciting, well-developed story. - Barbara Weathers, Duchesne Academy, HoustonCopyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. Product description Book by Gourley, Catherine From Publishers Weekly So that her father can save money to buy a new piece of river property, Joanna agrees to go to a mining town to work for an arthritic old woman and her recently widowed son, Tim. Her own work isn't hard, but Joanna hates the bare, scratched-out existence of the miners and their families. Safety conditions in the mines are abominable, and disaster and death are almost daily occurences. She longs for the quiet rhythms of her old life on the family farm. As she falls in love with Tim--and he with her--Joanna begins to understand that there is no "other" life than mining for him, and that fear will be written into every day and accepted. Gourley paces the story by moving between Joanna's inner concerns to the hopes and dreams of the others in her life. Endurance is the theme eloquently grafted onto each page of this book, a beautifully evoked piece about the lives of immigrants in 1883-1884. Ages 12-up. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.