A straightforward vehicle for a single viewpoint of recent history; supplement with other perspectives for a more complete...
The Six-Day War, told from the point of view of an Israeli seventh-grader in 1967.
Motti lives in Jerusalem in a country that’s only 19 years old—just like his older brother, born on Israel’s first day of independence. Pale-eyed, freckled Motti identifies as one of the “native Israeli Sabras,” born in Jerusalem like his father, though his mother’s Yiddish-inflected Hebrew implies an Eastern European origin. His Jerusalem neighborhood is populated by Jews from Hungary, Germany, Iraq, and Iran. The neighborhood even features Ethiopian monks. Indeed, all that’s lacking is Muslims, as 19 years ago the Jews and Muslims of Jerusalem fled to the sectors defined by their new national border. As the governments of Israel and her neighbors jockey for position, Motti’s father and older brother are called up for active duty. Soon war begins, and Motti huddles in air raid shelters; it’s a claustrophobic week for an energetic boy, even given that it’s one of the world’s shortest wars. All the anger against Israel in Motti’s world emanates from disembodied armies and governments; the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem welcome the conquering Israelis like friendly neighbors: “smiling shyly” and waving; the Palestinian childhood friend of Motti’s father even serves mint tea and cookies. Occasionally, narrator Motti’s voice slips entirely into a textbook-style description of the war.
A straightforward vehicle for a single viewpoint of recent history; supplement with other perspectives for a more complete story . (Historical fiction. 11-13)Pub Date: April 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5124-5871-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Kar-Ben
Review Posted Online: Jan. 31, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
This weave of perceptive, well-told tales wears its agenda with unusual grace.
Two young people of different generations get profound lessons in the tragic, enduring legacy of war.
Raised on the thrilling yarns of his great-grandpa Jacob and obsessed with both World War II and first-person–shooter video games, Trevor is eager to join the 93-year-old vet when he is invited to revisit the French town his unit had helped to liberate. In alternating chapters, the overseas trip retraces the parallel journeys of two young people—Trevor, 12, and Jacob, in 1944, just five years older—with similarly idealized visions of what war is like as they travel both then and now from Fort Benning to Omaha Beach and then through Normandy. Jacob’s wartime experiences are an absorbing whirl of hard fighting, sudden death, and courageous acts spurred by necessity…but the modern trip turns suspenseful too, as mysterious stalkers leave unsettling tokens and a series of hostile online posts that hint that Jacob doesn’t have just German blood on his hands. Korman acknowledges the widely held view of World War II as a just war but makes his own sympathies plain by repeatedly pointing to the unavoidable price of conflict: “Wars may have winning sides, but everybody loses.” Readers anticipating a heavy-handed moral will appreciate that Trevor arrives at a refreshingly realistic appreciation of video games’ pleasures and limitations. As his dad puts it: “War makes a better video game….But if you’re looking for a way to live, I’ll take peace every time.”
This weave of perceptive, well-told tales wears its agenda with unusual grace. (Fiction/historical fiction. 11-13)Pub Date: July 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-29020-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
With the likes of Peter Raven, Tom Cringle and even Jacky Faber roaming the literary sea lanes, not even the frequent...
In a nautical tale that leaks from stem to stern, a printer’s son survives one unlikely adventure after another after being shanghaied by British privateers.
First orphaned, then sold into indenture on a false charge, then clubbed and carried off to sea, 13-year-old Jameson finds himself sailing into the Caribbean aboard the Destiny, Captain “Attack Jack” Edwards commanding. Jameson inexplicably worms his way into the captain’s good graces despite being sullen, accident-prone and so slow on the uptake that he has to be told twice why the ship doesn’t fly British colors in enemy waters. He goes on at Edwards’ behest to bury a packet of maps in a secret cave during a wild storm for no good reason (except perhaps the general paucity of dramatic scenes), then, before sailing off to deliver the aforementioned maps to Queen Anne (this is 1713), he rescues the captain from being hanged as a pirate by forging a Letter of Marque. The author displays an incomplete knowledge of nautical terminology and the techniques of letterpress printing, and the climactic courtroom scene is so contrived that even Perry Mason would wince.
With the likes of Peter Raven, Tom Cringle and even Jacky Faber roaming the literary sea lanes, not even the frequent references to dung, dirt, blood and noxious foods are enough to float such an underresearched, arbitrarily plotted clinker. (Historical fiction. 11-13)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-56145-633-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2012
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