Myers overlays a melancholy love story on top of the Salem Witch Trials. Drucilla and Gabe, unrelated orphans raised as siblings, have been separated for the first time in their lives. Gabe is taken in as servant to Joseph Putnam, while Drucilla goes to the home of Joseph’s enemy and kinsman, Thomas Putnam. Mistress Putnam seems affectionate to Drucilla, asking to be called “mother.” Nevertheless, Drucilla senses something is wrong, as her mood swings lead to frequent accusations of evil against servants, the minister and other villagers. Dragged along with the machinations of Mistress Putnam and her daughter Ann, Drucilla soon finds herself smack in the middle of the hysterical accusations of the trials. It’s easier for Drucilla to go along with the accusations than to fight them, despite her own terribly contemporary outlook which recognizes “the power of suggestion,” mob mentality and guilt-induced hysteria. Try Donna Jo Napoli’s Breath (2003) for a far less anachronistic view of hysteria and witchcraft; Drucilla and Gabe are too modern for this tale. Nevertheless, it’s a moodily readable take on a story that continues to fascinate. (Historical fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8027-9820-6
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2009
From England’s Children’s Laureate, a searing WWI-era tale of a close extended family repeatedly struck by adversity and injustice. On vigil in the trenches, 17-year-old Thomas Peaceful looks back at a childhood marked by guilt over his father’s death, anger at the shabby treatment his strong-minded mother receives from the local squire and others—and deep devotion to her, to his brain-damaged brother Big Joe, and especially to his other older brother Charlie, whom he has followed into the army by lying about his age. Weaving telling incidents together, Morpurgo surrounds the Peacefuls with mean-spirited people at home, and devastating wartime experiences on the front, ultimately setting readers up for a final travesty following Charlie’s refusal of an order to abandon his badly wounded brother. Themes and small-town class issues here may find some resonance on this side of the pond, but the particular cultural and historical context will distance the story from American readers—particularly as the pace is deliberate, and the author’s hints about where it’s all heading are too rare and subtle to create much suspense. (Fiction. 11-13, adult)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-439-63648-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2004
The best day of Michael Mackenzie's life becomes the worst when the bullet he exuberantly fires into the air during his 17th birthday party comes down a mile away and kills a man. When he hears the story on the radio, the news hits him like a lightning bolt. Numbly following the advice of his best friend, Joe, he buries the rifle and tries, without much success, to get on with life. So does the victim's 15-year-old daughter, Jenna, who had been present when the bullet struck. Switching between Michael's point-of-view and Jenna's, McDonald (Comfort Creek, 1996) sends the two teenagers dancing slowly toward each other, using mutual acquaintances, chance meetings at parties and the community pool, and glimpses at a distance. Both go through parallel phases of denial, both are tortured by remorse, exhibit behavior changes, and experience strange dreams; both eventually find ways to ease their grief and guilt. When the police close in, Joe takes the blame, giving Michael the nerve to confess. In the final chapter, McDonald shifts to present tense and brings Michael and Jenna to a cathartic meeting under a huge sycamore said in local Lenape legend to be a place of healing—an elaborate and, considering the suburban setting and familiar contemporary characters, awkward graft in this deliberately paced but deeply felt drama. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-385-32309-3
Page Count: 245
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1997
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