MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER, THE HEROES AND I

by James Kruss ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 24, 1973

A few years later the young boy and the old boy of My Great-Grandfather and I (KR, 1964) are still turning out their brisk, well-turned, disarmingly pointed stories and rhymes in a wonderfully companionable sort of synergistic creativity. Between scribbling in the attic on the backs of wallpaper rolls, they read their efforts aloud to each other and to Uncle Harry, Upper Grandmother and Lower Grandmother. The Young Boy, now fourteen and home from school with a sore foot, and his Great-Grandfather, confined to a wheelchair and nearing the end of his life, fill the rest of the week this story spans discussing the question around which many of the fables turn: what makes a hero? With tact and understanding the old boy guides the young one to the conclusion that Siegfried was not a hero, that Hercules was and was not a hero, that war is not heroic and that risking one's life is not necessarily heroic. The Great-Grandfather's farewell note to the boy ends ""No hero I, yet I think true/ To my beliefs: may you be too,"" and he expresses confidence that whenever he dies his great-grandson will bring him immortality and preserve ""my small amount of wisdom"" by never again praising false heroes. ""I hope this book proves it,"" ends Kruss, the now grown great-grandson, and we believe that he can rest assured.

Pub Date: Oct. 24, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 244

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1973

Categories: FICTION