I REMEMBER THE ALAMO

This novel from Love (Three Against the Tide, 1998, etc.) wonderfully enlivens Texas history but falls prey to a few flat characterizations and obvious plot manipulations. Jessie is 11 when her father, Luther, suddenly moves the family from Kentucky to Texas. In San Antonio, she meets Angelina, a Mexican girl who immediately gives Jessie her most precious possession as a measure of her sympathy for the death of Jessie’s baby sister, Callie. Luther and Jessie’s older brother, Yancy, leave to fight the Mexicans, while Jessie, her mother, and her little brother take refuge in the Alamo. After the battle, which takes up four pages, they join the trek of the refugees in “the Runaway Scrape.” Jessie again meets Angelina, and, afraid to be seen with a Mexican, denies their friendship. Undaunted, Angelina takes Jessie to Yancy whom she saved after he escaped a battlefield massacre. Luther is dead, but only after winning a large farm through gambling, ensuring his family’s future. Several episodes in the book, especially the journeys, evoke the life of the early “Texians” quite well, and Love deftly weaves real people from history into the story. Her characters, however, frequently act without ready motivation and develop personal qualities rather serendipitously to satisfy various plot points. The pacing is fast, and the historical details captivating; some readers will ride right over the bumps. (chronology) (Fiction. 8-12)