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Arilla Sun Down
by Virginia Hamilton
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Dell Pub Co (1979-02)
ISBN: 0440901650
EAN: 9780440901655
Binding/Media: Paperback
SKU: P0096-11
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: 2nd Laurel Leaf printing: Oct. 1979. Ex-school PB copy with stamp. Good+, appears unread.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Struggling for a sense of identity as a part African American, part Native American, young Arilla Adams is unable to identify with a single race like her perfect older brother, the handsome, talented Jack. Reissue. SLJ. H. K. C.
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Customer Reviews
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Confusing, but ultimately rewarding
Rating  (3)
Date: 2010-06-16
This is a subtle, moving story of a love/hate relationship between a twelve-year-old girl and her older brother. Arilla idolizes Jack, and at the same time resents and fears him. Seen through Arilla's eyes, Jack takes on an almost superhuman cast, thought more sophisticated readers will be able to see the vulnerabilities that underlie Jack's brave "Amerind" persona. Arilla's relationships with her parents are complex and multilayered, as are the relationships among Jack and the parents. There are no easy answers or obvious resolution in this novel, only the furthering of a young girl's maturity and understanding of the people around her.
"Arilla Sun Down" is marketed as a children's novel; the preteen protagonist should make it most appealing to middle schoolers. However, this apparent target audience may find this book difficult, if not impossible, to follow. The novel unfolds in a series of incidents, flashbacks, and memories, which are indicated only by subtle textual clues. Numerous details and several important plot points are implied rather than directly stated. There are reasonably intelligent adults I've known who don't have the literary sophistication to pluck the relevant details out of a text like this and draw the necessary inferences. Few middle schoolers will have the reading comprehension skills, or the patience.
What really gets on my nerves is. That Hamilton has this awful habit. Of chopping up sentences into fragments for no apparent reason. I'm all for literary license, but there seems to be no rhyme or reason to some of the sentence breaks in this novel. Poetic prose in a novel should serve to illuminate the characters' perceptions and experience, not draw attention to itself; the language in this book is often too self-conscious and awkward. This is unfortunate, because there are some truly beautiful passages of description ("All of the smells hang above the ridges and then seep down through the dark like a full-blown calamity") and insight ("it's the oddest feeling to go by a house that was yours once and have it not bother you particularly") that spotlight Hamilton's literary gifts. It's just too bad we have to wade through pages of sentences like "Now moves he and holding up stick through a fish" and "I can hardly stand the way it feels so real funny at first" to find them.
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Arilla Sun Down is the book I read.
Rating (3)
Date: 2003-03-21
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
If you like stories about the hardships of a teenage girl, then you'll like this book. This book jumps around a lot and does not stay in order of events but it is still pretty good. The reason for all the jumping around is because the events are memories of Arilla, a 12-year-old girl. Arilla try's to find herself but can't because of her older brother Jack Sun Run. Arilla is always in her brother's shadow and she can't stand it. Towards the end of the book that all changes because Arilla becomes the one on center stage, instead of her brother. As she saves her brother's life she realizes that she had finally found herself, and all it took was a little time.
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Arilla Sun Down is the book I read.
Rating (3)
Date: 2003-03-21
If you like stories about the hardships of a teenage girl, then you'll like this book. This book jumps around a lot and does not stay in order of events but it is still pretty good. The reason for all the jumping around is because the events are memories of Arilla, a 12-year-old girl. Arilla try's to find herself but can't because of her older brother Jack Sun Run. Arilla is always in her brother's shadow and she can't stand it. Towards the end of the book that all changes because Arilla becomes the one on center stage, instead of her brother. As she saves her brother's life she realizes that she had finally found herself, and all it took was a little time.
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Arilla Sun Down is the book I read.
Rating (3)
Date: 2003-03-21
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
If you like stories about the hardships of a teenage girl, then you'll like this book. This book jumps around a lot and does not stary in order of events but it is still pretty good. The reason for all the jumping around is because the events are memories of Arilla, a 12-year-old girl. Arilla trys to find herself but can't because of her older brother Jack Sun Run. Arilla is always in her brother's shadow and she can't stand it. But at the end of the book that all changes. Arilla becomes the one on center stage. As she saves her brother's life she realizes that she had finally found her self, and all it took was a little time.
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Complex but simply satisfying
Rating  (5)
Date: 1999-02-10
9 out of 9 customers found this reveiw helpful
If you like stories about teenager's struggling with difficulties in life that you learn from, you will love this book. This book does not go in chronological order it is told in little snippets of a little girls memory. Arilla who is trying to find her identity but is held back because of her crazy brother and being interracial. Her mother is African American and her father is Indian, so she wants to have an Indian name to show her place in the Indian community. When she goes to visit her father's family, she is called Moon. Ordinarily, she lives in the white community, but people talk about her family because they are interracial. She is trying to live a normal 12-year-old's existence until an accident happens that will forever change her life. Her brother Sun is wounded badly when he falls off horse they are riding together. She must save him and all the while she is saying Arilla, Sun is down on the ground. Read this intriguing, heartwarming, exciting, powerful, meaningful selection, and it will show what love, hate and life is really all about.
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