The concept is full of promise, but the product ultimately disappoints.
Since her father left China to work years ago on building a Canadian railroad, then disappeared, teenager Li Jun tries to fulfill a promise made to her dying mother to find him.
To escape the economic limitations imposed on females, she dresses as a boy and finds work in a fireworks factory, then discovers there is only one likely way to get to Canada: as a railroad worker herself. Now called Little Tiger, she is quickly attracted to the railroad owner's son, James, who is recruiting workers in China, setting up an eventual, improbable romance. Following a brutal cross-Pacific sea voyage, she experiences the horrific conditions thousands of Chinese railroad workers suffered through. Literate and fluent in English, she uncovers in the railroad camp evidence of a criminal conspiracy, although she only slowly puts clues together. While the depiction of the workers’ conditions is enlightening, little else about this novelization of the film and miniseries Iron Road works well. The plot is predictable, and dialogue is trite. Li Jun's English is inconsistent—sometimes she’s fully fluent, but other times she displays a stereotypical immigrant awkwardness. That she could successfully conceal her gender, especially during months in a ship's hold devoid of any privacy, stretches credulity to the limit.
The concept is full of promise, but the product ultimately disappoints. (Historical fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4597-3142-4
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Dundurn
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2015
A bone-chilling tale not to be ignored by the universe.
If Anne Frank had been a boy, this is the story her male counterpart might have told. At least, the very beginning of this historical novel reads as such.
It is 1939, and Yanek Gruener is a 10-year old Jew in Kraków when the Nazis invade Poland. His family is forced to live with multiple other families in a tiny apartment as his beloved neighborhood of Podgórze changes from haven to ghetto in a matter of weeks. Readers will be quickly drawn into this first-person account of dwindling freedoms, daily humiliations and heart-wrenching separations from loved ones. Yet as the story darkens, it begs the age-old question of when and how to introduce children to the extremes of human brutality. Based on the true story of the life of Jack Gruener, who remarkably survived not just one, but 10 different concentration camps, this is an extraordinary, memorable and hopeful saga told in unflinching prose. While Gratz’s words and early images are geared for young people, and are less gory than some accounts, Yanek’s later experiences bear a closer resemblance to Elie Wiesel’s Night than more middle-grade offerings, such as Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars. It may well support classroom work with adult review first.
A bone-chilling tale not to be ignored by the universe. (Historical fiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: March 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-45901-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2013
A wartime drama with enough depth and psychological complexity to satisfy budding bookworms.
Three plucky orphan siblings are in search of a mother in wartime England.
When their grandmother dies, 12-year-old William, 11-year-old Edmund, and 9-year-old Anna are left in London in the care of an elderly housekeeper. As part of the World War II evacuation of children to safety, they are relocated to the countryside, something the family solicitor hopes may lead to finding adoptive parents. However, they are billeted with the Forresters, an unpleasant family reminiscent of the Dursleys. Bullying by their hosts’ two sons, who despise them; the ever present fear of German attack; and the dread of homelessness test their mettle to the limit. The orphans long to find a home of their own, and good boy William is stressed by his responsibility as head of the small family. Edmund’s desire for revenge against the Forresters and a prank involving a snake get them evicted from their billet, and they end up in a much worse situation. They find sanctuary in the village library and a savior in the librarian, who is married to a German and therefore ostracized by the locals. Mrs. Müller provides them with moral support, a listening ear, and true appreciation and love. The classic books she chooses for them—The Wind in the Willows and Anne of Green Gables, among others—may generate ideas for further reading. All characters are White.
A wartime drama with enough depth and psychological complexity to satisfy budding bookworms. (reading list) (Historical fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4705-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
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