Remarkably wide-ranging yet tightly cast, Sutcliff's cross-cultural chronicle takes her orphaned hero Justyn Englishman from a Celtic outpost to Saxon Britain, on to Viking slavery in Dublin, and then, freed, home to Norseland with his former master Thormod—and with him across the Baltic and down river to Constantinople, drafted en route to fight for Byzantine Basil II. The blood feud of the title is thrust upon Thormod on his return home from Dublin, making him the sworn enemy of his former best friends—two brothers whose father's accidental death began the feud and whom Thormod, to avenge his father's death, now pursues to Constantinople. Justyn becomes blood brother with Thormod and takes up his feud as well, but it is not until Thormod is killed much later that he feels it as his own—and not until the end, when Justyn is peacefully learning medicine in Constantinople, that he consciously passes up his chance for vengeance. It is the feud that impels the action and charts the voyage, but the action is never separated from the historical/cultural context. What impresses once more is the way Sutcliff integrates individual contingencies and choices with the larger currents and Clashes, and contains it all in each sharply differentiated, immediately visualized scene.
Pub Date: June 10, 1977
ISBN: 0525267301
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1977
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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