A fine, old-fashioned-feeling coming-of-age tale set in the World War I skies.
Sixteen-year-old Edward Simpson dreams of being a pilot, and World War I affords him the opportunity.
It’s the early days of flying machines, and Edward’s uncle Horst, who builds various kinds of airplanes to fly the Saskatchewan skies in 1914, is in the thick of it, saying, “We will soar like the birds and laugh at the poor people on the ground below.” He arranges for Edward to go to flight school in Montana. From there, Edward goes to the Royal Flying Corps in England and off to war. H.G. Wells had predicted air battles in the clouds and bomb-carrying flying machines capable of destroying whole cities, and soon Edward sees firsthand the killing capabilities of his beloved flying machines. But he literally feels above it all, thinking, “If only I could stay up here forever, free from the insanity below.” Though he loses friends and acknowledges the death and destruction below, he is able to put the war at a distance and be realistic about his role in it: “It’s what I am, and I cannot deny that.” Wilson writes eloquently about one boy’s love of flight and his dream of flying. Though dialogue is sometimes used didactically to teach readers the history of flight, Edward’s narrative is thoroughly engaging.
A fine, old-fashioned-feeling coming-of-age tale set in the World War I skies. (Historical fiction. 9-14)Pub Date: July 22, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-38567-830-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2014
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
In 1841, 14-year-old Manjiro joined four others on an overnight fishing trip. Caught by a severe storm, their small rowboat was shipwrecked on a rocky island. Five months later, they were rescued by the crew of a whaling ship from New Bedford. Manjiro, renamed John Mung, was befriended by the captain and eventually lived in his home in New Bedford, rapidly absorbing Western culture. But the plight of his impoverished family in Japan was never far from Manjiro’s mind, although he knew that his country’s strict isolationist policy meant a death sentence if he returned. Illustrated with Manjiro’s own pencil drawings in addition to other archival material and original art from Tamaki, this is a captivating fictionalized (although notably faithful) retelling of the boy’s adventures. Capturing his wonder, remarkable willingness to learn, the prejudice he encountered and the way he eventually influenced officials in Japan to open the country, this highly entertaining page-turner is the perfect companion to Shipwrecked! The True Adventures of a Japanese Boy, by Rhoda Blumberg (2001). (historical note, extensive glossary, bibliography.) (Historical fiction. 9-13)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-8109-8981-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2010
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