cares about the waiters. Jim Compeau: Minnie's husband. He loves Minnie and their twins. Mr. Baxter: Miss Wilcox's husband who doesn't approve of her "free" writing style. Mr. Frank Loomis: Father of Royal and his brothers, who is cheating on his wife with Emmie. Mrs. Iva Loomis: The stuck-up mother of Royal and his brothers. Mattie says she understands why Mr. Loomis is cheating on her. Grace Brown: The body that shows up in Big Moose Lake. A girl who is killed by Chester Gillette and was pregnant with his child. Chester Gillette "Carl Grahm": Grace Brown's murderer. He kills Grace by hitting her with a tennis racket to render her unconscious and drowns her in Big Moose Lake by tipping their boat over. No one suspects that it was him. Pa (Michael Gokey): The father of Mattie, Lawton, Lou, Beth, and Abby. He is bitter and depressed from the loss of their mother. His French name is Michel Gauthier. He was beaten by his step father and still has many scars to prove it. Lawton Gokey: The eldest of the Gokey family children. After getting in an argument with Pa, he left and hasn't been seen since. Aleeta Smith: Weaver's mother. Loving and kind, she supports Weaver's wanting to go to Columbia. Uncle Fifty: Mattie's uncle who is an alcoholic but is very kind. Sometimes he promises false things while he is drunk, and he travels around the world as a French river man who visits the Gokey family very rarely. He always brings great presents for every member in the family. He promises Mattie money for college but goes back on this promise and spends the money on alcohol and pleasure. Awards Beside the British Carnegie, A Northern Light won the 2003 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature. The American Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) named it one of the year's Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults and it was a runner up for best book in that category, the Michael L. Printz Award. See also Notes References External links —immediately, a library record for the first British edition, with front cover image 2003 British novels 2003 children's books American young adult novels American historical novels Children's historical novels Carnegie Medal in Literature winning works Novels set in New York (state) Herkimer County, New York Fiction set in 1906 Harcourt (publisher) books