An accessible, historically rigorous tale.
Barnhart (The Big Divide, 2013) offers a YA novel about faith and courage, inspired by the true story of an immigrant who joined Kansas’ anti-slavery cause during the Civil War.
Former Kansas City Star television critic Barnhart previously published a travel guide to Civil War sites in the Missouri-Kansas region. This likable, teen-friendly novel ably resurrects a historical figure who participated in the abolitionist struggle there: Anschl (aka “August”) Bondi (1833–1907). Barnhart acknowledges his debt to two obscure works: Bondi’s posthumously published 1910 autobiography and Border Hawk, a 1958 novel by Lloyd Alexander. The story opens in Bondi’s native Vienna in 1848, with the 15-year-old fighting for freedom from despotic Prince Metternich. When his family sails to America, the same revolutionary spirit sparks his objection to the hypocrisy of slavery in the land of liberty. After a spell on a Texas riverboat, Bondi moves to Kansas Territory, a disputed slave region, to stake a claim and help his friend Jacob run his store. The biographical rundown can be somewhat tedious, but the pace picks up significantly at the halfway point, as Bondi meets famed abolitionist John Brown and his sons and war thunders closer. Although he feels uneasy about Brown’s methods, he admires his dedication to abolition: “We are fighting on the same side. If I do not agree with you, I do not judge you,” he reassures Brown. This is representative of the simple yet believable dialogue throughout. Moreover, Barnhart sets up a strong metaphorical connection between Bondi and the slaves, whose rights he later fights for in the Union Army’s Fifth Kansas regiment; because he experiences anti-Semitism himself, Bondi empathizes with the slaves’ persecution. Meanwhile, Jewish rituals provide a rich symbolic structure for Bondi’s coming-of-age journey. Reunited with his parents in Kansas, the family celebrates a Sabbath meal together. His wedding to Henrietta Einstein adheres to Jewish custom, and when he assumes he’s dying in battle, he recites the Shema, the ancient Hebrew declaration of faith. Maps (not seen) and a black-and-white photo of Bondi make this novel a potential supplement to U.S. history studies at the middle school or high school level.
An accessible, historically rigorous tale.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9669258-6-9
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Quindaro Press
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Abandoned by their mother, whose mental stability has been crumbling since her husband went west, Lyddie and her brother Charlie manage alone through a Vermont winter. But in the spring of 1844, without consulting them, the mother apprentices Charlie to a miller and hires Lyddie out to a tavern, where she is little better than a slave. Still, Lyddie is strong and indomitable, and the cook is friendly even if the mistress is cold and stern; Lyddie manages well enough until a run-in with the mistress sends her south to work in the mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, thus earning a better wage (in a vain hope of saving the family farm), making friends among the other girls enduring the long hours and dangerous conditions, and expanding her understanding of loyalty, generosity, and injustice (she already knows more than most people ever learn about perseverance). Knowing only her own troubled family, Lyddie is unusually reserved, even for a New Englander, With her usual discernment and consummate skill, Paterson depicts her gradually turning toward the warmth of others' kindnesses—Betsy reads Oliver Twist aloud and suggests the ultimate goal of Oberlin College; Diana teaches Lyddie to cope in the mill, setting an example that Lyddie later follows with an Irish girl who is even more naive than she had been; Quaker neighbors offer help and solace that Lyddie at first rejects out of hand. Deftly plotted and rich in incident, a well-researched picture of the period—and a memorable portrait of an untutored but intelligent young woman making her way against fierce odds.
Pub Date: March 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-525-67338-5
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
A delightfully captivating swatch of autobiography from the author of Kiss. Kiss, Switch Bitch and many others. Schoolboy Dahl wanted adventure. Classes bored him, there was work to be had in Africa, and war clouds loomed on the world's horizons. He finds himself with a trainee's job with Shell Oil of East Africa and winds up in what is now Tanzania. Then war comes in 1939 and Dahl's adventures truly begin. At the war's outbreak, Dahl volunteers for the RAF, signing on to be a fighter pilot. Wounded in the Libyan desert, he spends six months recuperating in a military hospital, then rejoins his unit in Greece, only to be driven back by the advancing Germans. On April 20, 1941, he goes head on against the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Athens. On-target bio installment with, one hopes, lots more of this engrossing life to come.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1986
ISBN: 0142413836
Page Count: 209
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 16, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1986
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