Newbery Honor author Engle (The Surrender Tree, 2008) spins three intertwined tales in frequently lyrical free verse. In the Caribbean in 1509, the cruel pirate Bernardino de Talavera has captured brutal Alonso de Ojeda, governor of Venezuela and a former conquistador. Mixed-race slave boy Quebrado, whose name means “broken,” works on Talavera’s ship as a translator and deckhand. When a hurricane sinks the ship, the three find themselves washed up individually on an island inhabited by naturales, native Ciboney Indians. Caucubú, a chieftain’s daughter, wants desperately to avoid an arranged marriage and to pursue her love for Naridó, a fisherman. Engle continues to explore issues of captivity and freedom in the historical setting of her ancestors. She tells her tale in the alternating voices of her five main characters, all of whom are historical figures save Quebrado. Quebrado warns the Ciboney about the dangerous Spaniards, and the two are cast out. He helps the young lovers flee and claims true and total freedom for himself. Taken individually the stories are slight, but they work together elegantly; the notes and back matter make this a great choice for classroom use. (bibliography) (Historical fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: March 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9240-0
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2011
Stands out neither as a folk-tale retelling, a coming-of-age story, nor a Holocaust novel.
A Holocaust tale with a thin “Hansel and Gretel” veneer from the author of The Devil’s Arithmetic (1988).
Chaim and Gittel, 14-year-old twins, live with their parents in the Lodz ghetto, forced from their comfortable country home by the Nazis. The siblings are close, sharing a sign-based twin language; Chaim stutters and communicates primarily with his sister. Though slowly starving, they make the best of things with their beloved parents, although it’s more difficult once they must share their tiny flat with an unpleasant interfaith couple and their Mischling (half-Jewish) children. When the family hears of their impending “wedding invitation”—the ghetto idiom for a forthcoming order for transport—they plan a dangerous escape. Their journey is difficult, and one by one, the adults vanish. Ultimately the children end up in a fictional child labor camp, making ammunition for the German war effort. Their story effectively evokes the dehumanizing nature of unremitting silence. Nevertheless, the dense, distancing narrative (told in a third-person contemporaneous narration focused through Chaim with interspersed snippets from Gittel’s several-decades-later perspective) has several consistency problems, mostly regarding the relative religiosity of this nominally secular family. One theme seems to be frustration with those who didn’t fight back against overwhelming odds, which makes for a confusing judgment on the suffering child protagonists.
Stands out neither as a folk-tale retelling, a coming-of-age story, nor a Holocaust novel. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-399-25778-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Nebula Award–winner and Hugo-finalist Friesner disappointingly offers humdrum fare based on Greek mythology. Meet Helen of Sparta, not yet of Troy. True to Spartan history, she’s a strong female (literally), and prepped by her mother to one day be queen. Though it’s true that the real Helen was probably a legitimate wrestler, Friesner has her spunky, stubborn and contrarian heroine dressing as a boy to be trained in sword-fighting beside her brothers Castor and Polydeceus. She then sneaks off with them to participate in the historic hunt of the Calydonian Boar . . . and at the end of the volume, prepares readers for a sequel by tagging along with Jason’s Argonauts. Friesner uses these legends as a backdrop for a Xena Warrior Princess–type of character of 21st-century sensibilities—with entertaining and popular results, but not uniquely or distinctively, and without much respect for or elucidation of the actual mythology. Some may enjoy the romp. (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: April 24, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-375-87528-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2007
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