The author of Stealing Freedom (1998) again runs a strong-minded young person headlong into barriers of custom and racial prejudice. Inspired by the camaraderie and quiet heroism of the life-saving crew, with which he shares North Carolina’s lonely Pea Island, Nathan dreams of joining the US Life-Saving Service (a predecessor of the Coast Guard) rather than to be a fisherman like his father. The odds are long—LSS jobs tend to stay within the same local families and in this post-Reconstruction era, the Pea Island crew is the only African-American one on the entire coast. But as Nathan is allowed to take part in life-saving drills, then to watch and even become involved in rescuing the passengers and crews of ships driven onto the area’s rocks by storms, his desire only grows. Carbone draws the crew, their techniques, and the shipwrecks straight from historical records, and though her protagonist is fictional, the harsh attitudes he encounters are all too real. In the end, his ex-slave grandfather’s wise observation, that “sometimes your dreams show up dressed a little different than you thought they’d be” proves prophetic. Nathan finds that his skill in tending to the injured, and his mastery of the station’s first-aid guides, has opened a road to medical school. While every bit as rousing a tale of men against the sea as Donna Hill’s Shipwreck Season (1998), another tribute to the US Life-Saving Service, Nathan’s narrative also creates a vivid picture of his time’s harsh racial storms. (afterword) (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-375-80664-4
Page Count: 170
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Taking a page from Avi’s The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (1990), Kehret (I’m Not Who You Think I Am, p. 223, etc.) pens a similar story of a girl who goes to sea. Determined not to be separated from her seriously ill mother, Emma, 12, embarks on a plan that results in the adventure of a lifetime. Sent to live with Aunt Martha and her arrogant son, Odolf, Emma carefully plots her escape. Disguising herself in her cousin’s used clothes, she sneaks out while the household slumbers and stows away on what she believes to be a ship carrying her parents from England to the warmer climate of France. Instead, the ship is the evil, ill-fated Black Lightning, under the command of the notorious Captain Beacon. Emma finds herself sharing quarters with a crew of filthy, surly, dangerous men. When a fierce storm swamps the ship, Emma desperately seizes her chance to escape, drifting for several days and nights aboard a hatch cover and finally carried to land somewhere on the coast of Africa. Hungry, thirsty, and alone, Emma faces the daunting prospect of slow starvation, but survives due to a relationship she builds with a band of chimpanzees. This page-turning adventure story shows evidence of solid research and experienced plotting—the pacing is breathless. Kehret paints a starkly realistic portrait, complete with sounds and smells of the difficult and unpleasant life aboard ship. (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-671-03416-2
Page Count: 138
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
PLB 0-531-33140-7 Ketcham’s first book is based on an allegedly true story of a childhood incident in the life of Johann Sebastian Bach. It starts with a couple of pages regaling the Bach home and all the Johanns in the family, who made their fame through music. After his father’s death, Johann Sebastian goes to live with his brother, Johann Christoph, where he boasts that he is the best organist in the world. Johann Christoph contradicts him: “Old Adam Reincken is the best.” So Johann Sebastian sets out to hear the master himself. In fact, he is humbled to tears, but there is hope that he will be the world’s best organist one day. Johann Sebastian emerges as little more than a brat, Reincken as more of a suggestion than a character. Bush’s illustrations are most transporting when offering details of the landscape, but his protagonist is too impish to give the story much authority. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-531-30140-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1999
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