Rating: 
Summary: an acquaintance with darkness
Review: A young girl named Emily lives in Washington with her mom. Her mom is very sick and her dad was killed in war. Her mom dies and she's going to live with her Uncle Valentine. President Lincoln was just assassinated. People have gone mad. Her friends tell her that her uncle does bad things. Emily doesn't believe them until she sees her uncle do something very wrong! Does Uncle Valentine do bad things? Read this book and you'll find out!
Rating:
Summary: An Acquaintance with darkness
Review: A young girl named Emily that lives in Washington. Her Mother is sick with a cough that can kill her. Her Father died in the Civil war. She misses her Father so much because they were so close. The book only starts like this but it is a really good book. I like the book because I has sapience and horror, like the part when Abraham Lincoln dies and they blame it on... So it is one of the greatest books and you should read it.
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Summary: A great historical fiction
Review: This is one of my favorite books by Anne Rinaldi. While you read this novel your learning about the hard times during the Civil War, ... You should read this book if you like hitorical fiction or are looking for a good book to read.
Rating:
Summary: An Acquaintance With Darkness
Review: "An Acquaintance With Darkness" is suspenseful the whole way through. A historical fiction novel that is woven togther in a way that captures the hitorical aspects of Lincoln's assassination in a story. The book is about 14-year-old Emily Pigbush and her life is not so good. Her mother has just died and Emily is forced to live with her uncle who her mother hated. She finds out that her uncle is involved in some suspicious business. She does some sneaking around to find out what he is up to. Her sneaking around almost ruins her uncle's life work. He lies to her and she has no one to turn to not even her best friend Annie. Annie's mother was recently arrested for being involved with Lincoln's assassination. Annie is totally torn and will not listen to anyone. Then Emily tries to run away and ruins everything she detroys some of her uncle's greatest work and damages her relationship with her uncle forever.
This book is about how human emotions can always get the better of you. A girl relies on what she wants to happen instead of what is right. Ann Rinaldi touches on some life issues that you couldn't read in many other books. "An Acquaintance With Darkness" will keep you on the edge of your seat the whole way through. Once you start reading it you will not want to stop.
If you are interested in learning some history while reading "An Acquainteance With Darkness" is right for you. There is a lot of history in the book. It touches on what went on in Lincon's assassination and who was responsible for it. You also find out how hard it was for people to make it through such a tragedy. You learn how a town would react if the president was killed. People start to become untrusting and jumpy.
So if you like a good suspenseful book and if you're looking to learn a little along the way then "An Acquaintance With Darkness" is the right book for you.
Rating:
Summary: An Acquaintance with darkness
Review: this book is a roller-coaster ride all the way, and it keeps you in suspense, but it is one of the best books i have ever read.
The book shows inner strength in all of the characters and also delivers a historically accurate story of lincoln's assination
Rating:
Summary: An Acquitance with Ann Rinaldi
Review: This book was my first Ann Rinaldi book. I was stunned by it. It was just absolutly wonderful- filled with everything and just about anything you could want, (at least what I wanted). It was my favorite book. If you're a great historical fiction lover and/or Ann Rinaldi story lover this would be an extrememly nice addition for your reading buds.
The book's main character (whom you've probably already found out) is fourteen year old Emily Pigbrush, who experiences through many tragic events. First her widow mother dies and she decides to live with her best friend, Annie Surratts. But on the night before she moves out the greatest of all misfortunes happen - President Lincoln gets shot and suspicion falls on the Surratts. Forced to go and live with Uncle Valentine, Emily finds out more as to why her mother hated her brother so much. As to the rest, you really should find out yourself. In the end the story leaves you a strange feeling. One that signals the end but it leaves you kind of sad. Over all it's a great book.
Rating: 
Summary: An Acquaintance with Darkness
Review: Emily Bransby Pigbush finds herself in the midst of turmoil in Washington DC at the end of the Civil War. For a poverty-stricken girl nursing a mother dying of tuberculosis, she is very much in the thick of events. Everything starts to go wrong for Emily. Her proud, genteel mother scorns family and friends, so Emily is the sole caretaker in the end. Emily's mother was an assistant to Mrs. Lincoln's dressmaker, and Emily's friend, Johnny is conspiring for the Confederacy with John Wilkes Booth.When Emily is orphaned, she goes to live in luxury with her uncle (whom her mother always hated). This uncle is a prominent doctor and medical researcher with extensive war experience and a scientific mind. To further medical science, he must supply his medical students with cadavers-which are mainly available through grave robbery. Emily is characterized with a nice blend of strength and naivete, appropriate for her age as a child about to blossom into womanhood. The relationships to her friends-both the fierce loyalty for one and an extreme antipathy for another-are not well fleshed out, which is a failing, since the friends and enemies are so influential to the life paths she takes. The story is a good one, but it really needed to be either longer, or shorter. Emily seems to be connected by only 1 or 2 degrees of separation to all the important events of the day, rather than the usual 6 or so. Everything seems to touch her life-John Wilkes Booth and the theater, confederate soldiers and spies, science and superstition, recently freed slaves and former slave owners, jails, executions, herbal lore, night blooming plants, etc. Rinaldi packs too many historical threads in the book without fleshing them out sufficiently with characters and stories. An Acquaintance with Darkness is a good book for leisure reading. It would also be well placed as assignment to provoke curiosity about the end of the Civil War. There are certainly enough topics to springboard into many different research projects, and each student could pick up the thread that interested them most. Rinaldi supplies a bibliography and historical note which students could use to segue into those topics.
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Summary: One of the Best
Review: This is my favorite Ann Rinaldi book. It was the most mysterious and had so many different themes. I also learned a lot about what America was like just after the Civil War.
Rating:
Summary: An Acquaintance with Darkness
Review: Ann Rinaldi perfectly captured the scene of President Lincoln's assassinaqtion and focusing on the troubles that followed the event. "An Acquatiance with Darkness," was an extremely entertaining historical novel with a twist of evil. As someone who never found an interest in a historical novel before, this book, based around Lincoln's assassination left me turning pages eagrly. His assassination lead to many problems in the life of Ms. Emily Pigbush. Rinaldi leads you day by day through her life and explains her feelsings towards the trials of her friend's mother, the search for her beloved friend who disappeared, and the secrets that she uncovers about her highly respected uncle, Dr. Valentine. As much as the story seems plainly laid before you,you later find out that it is not as simple as it seems. This book is filled with hate, love, evil, and an all over feeling of jealousy. Even though thi book is a historical, Rinaldi did not dwell on the actual assassination, but its effects. The time peroid was very vividly described giving you a feeling that you are actually there when the4 soldiers return home from fighting the Civil War. Even though it is mostly about Emily, that doesn't mean in any way that the story is girlish or based on her adolescent problems. The book is perfectly appropriate for a girl or a boy. This book may not be for everyone, but I strongly encourage anyone looking for a book about a very important time in history with a twist of lies and evil I would suggest, "An Acquaintance with Darkness." Another plus to this book would be that knowing that it is a historical novel, the events did take place. AT the very end of the book, the author wrote a little section about what really happened to all the characters after she stopped writing. She also explained more about what was going on at the time period in detail. This book was very enjoyable and I would suggest it to anyone at any age level.
Rating:
Summary: An Aquaintance with Darkness
Review: If you like suspense and historical fiction, then this is the book for you! Emily is a girl who lives in Washington D.C. during a time when the whole country is in turmoil about the assassination of President Lincoln.As if that isn't enough, Emily has even more to deal with. Her mother has died and her plans to live with her best friend were abruptly changed as she woke up one morning to hear her Uncle Valentine say that the President is dead and that the only people she trusted were under suspicion for being accomplices of the murderer. She is forced to stay with the uncle her mother had not trusted nor liked. Emily struggles with the change and her suspicions only grow stronger about her uncle's secret life as the days go by. This book will keep you on the edge of your seat just wondering what will happen next!
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