Forge
Laurie Halse Andersen
The cover
Forge by Laurie Halse Andersen
Isabel and Curzon were fighting on how they were going to save Isabel's little sister Ruth, who has been purchased by another family as a slave. Isabel six months later, takes Curzon's money and tries to buy her little sister Ruth back from the family herself. On the way going down South a Colonel recruits Isabel to go to the Army for the civil war and she has no choice but to go. Curzon, on his way down South to find where Isabel went, gets recruited to a different regiment by Colonel. Isabel and Curzon takes their separate ways for a while due to their different regiments.
Isabel gets very sick during the winter at Valley Forge since she hasn't been eating. She has drastically loss weight. Curzon hasn't been doing what he needed to do and did a solo mission and attacked the British when he was told not to. Curzon was later caught by the Colonel and could not be trusted. Then they had fellow soldiers watch him outside of his tent while he slept and dressed. Eben, a soldier in both regiments, knew Isabel and Curzon were runaway slaves and have been both missing. Eben wrote a letter to Belingham stating that he found Isabel and Curzon. Belingham came to the base and took them back to New York.
Curzon said,"Isabel was ungrateful, peevish and vexatious" (Pg. 1). Curzon stated this because he and Isabel got into a big fight. Curzon also stated, "we argued about going after Ruth the we fought about it and finally in May she ran away from me taking all of of our money" (Pg. 1). "Are you going to puke?" "No." "I lied." Isabel said.(Pg.50). Isabel said no because she did not want anyone to know she was sick."He acted the part of the kindhearted master who was secretly armed to hurt Isabel." Curzon, exclaimed.(Pg.194). Curzon was scared for Isabel so he watched what he said and watched his actions.
In conclusion, Isabel and Curzon both escaped Master Belingham and teamed back up to try and save Ruth. They want to get away from Belingham because he wants to kill Isabel for disobeying his orders. Belingham is furious that Isabel and Curzon escaped again and Belingham has guards on search for them. If Isabel and Curzon get Ruth back they agreed to find a way to make enough money to find a home or shelter. This shows that Isabel and Curzon valued their friendship because they both come back together at the end of the story to escape from Belingham.