As I previously mentioned, I bought this children's book believing it was an authentic diary. Instead, it's an entry in the Dear America series of American history. The series features girls' diaries of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, slavery, westward expansion, Titanic, immigration, and Native American life.
Amelia Martin is a teenager who helps her father, the Assistant Lightkeeper at the Fenwick Island, Delaware Lighthouse. In 1860, Amelia's Uncle Edward gives her a diary for Christmas present for her long nights on watch. Here Amelia records weather information as well as her daily activities and her concerns.
Hesse based Amelia Martin on Ida Lewis. Lewis worked at the Lime Rock Light off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island during and after the Civil War, taking over her father's duties when he became ill. Lewis saved twenty-two people from deadly storms during her career.
By placing Amelia in Delaware, Hesse plays with the contradiction of Delaware being a slave state that did not join the Confederacy. Hesse uses the conflicts between the northern and southern areas of Delaware to mirror the conflicts between the north and south of the country as a whole. Hesse also describes the northern/southern conflict between Amelia's parents
The language in A Light in the Storm reflects its narrator but is not overly simplistic. However, much of the Historical Note section is.
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