Hopkinson completes her Prairie Skies trilogy with another satisfying episode in Charlie Keller’s new life in Bleeding Kansas. Charlie is growing up and his circumstances have forced him to be a responsible, self-reliant member of his family and community. Charlie and his Papa are in Lawrence for supplies when Missouri vigilantes interrupt their shopping expedition and burn down the Free State Hotel in retaliation for an earlier altercation with Mr. Keller and friends. Papa decides to lay low for a while and sends Charlie home. On the way, Charlie finds a runaway slave, Lizzie, and takes her home. The Underground Railroad is also laying low and Lizzie, unable to continue her journey to Canada, needs a safe place to stay. Dramatic cliffhanging chapters, brisk action, and exciting historical situations mesh together into a memorable, exciting tale. Readers of the earlier entries in the series (Pioneer Summer, p. 570; Cabin in the Snow, p. 1133) will enjoy following Charlie’s growth into a mature, reliable young man. Those new to the series will have no trouble following the clearly written story line. Hopkinson introduces her young audience to John Brown, Sheriff Samuel Jones, and Charles Robinson with this seamless, exciting story made up of fascinating bits of history. A winner. (recipe, author’s note, Web sites) (Fiction. 7-10)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-84353-4
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2002
With war an ever-present possibility and uncertain of their future, Hope and her family struggle to survive in Philadelphia in 1776. Part of the My America series and a sequel to Five Smooth Stones: Hope’s Diary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1776 (not reviewed), Hope’s latest journal entries find her family in the country having fled from the turmoil of the city. Hope’s brother has run off to fight with the Red Coats and was thrown into prison as a spy. Her father is fighting as a patriot, but he has not been home in more than a year. With a new baby to care for and worries about the state of their home, Hope’s mother returns all of them to the city where they must survive persecution from the invading British troops and the continuing threat of war. Desperate to have some normalcy in their lives, they reopen their bakery, and Hope returns to school. Soon, British soldiers overrun their home and Hope’s father returns from the front with stories and scars from the battles he has seen. Hope learns that her father has joined the Sons of Liberty, and she fears that they may not survive the coming months. Strong imagery and well-researched details make this an engrossing as well as educational selection. Readers will eagerly await the next installment. (Fiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-439-21039-9
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A turgid animal fantasy features Spanish cat musketeers crossing swords with thuggish dog invaders. Fearful but resolute Askia, chubby but loyal Paco, and fearless but female Lacy find themselves in an elite circle of cat conspirators plotting resistance to the foul-breathed Fidorean Guards. The wise and ancient Pietro is the heart and soul of the cat underground, and he sets the three friends to a series of tasks that test them and their fitness to take part in the cat revolution. The tasks seem curiously unrelated to the goal—busy work accomplished easily despite narrative bluster—and the inevitable and eventual defeat of the Fidorean Guards is assured when an enormous cat host masses against the inept hounds, begging the question, how was is it that the Fidorean Guards managed to mount a successful invasion in the first place? Actually, many questions go begging in this slim volume that never seems to end: Where did the Fidorean Guards come from? Why does Pietro, Spanish patriot, have an Italian name? How is it that Speirs’s (The Little Boy’s Christmas Gift, not reviewed, etc.) busy pen-and-ink washes depict costumes from a time 200 years after the 1420 setting? How is it that Myers (Patrol, p. 663, etc.), so sure a wordsmith most of the time, can produce the clunky prose that causes the narrative to trip on itself with almost every turn of the page? “Askia was angry when he left Omar, but he knew that his anger would not be enough to save Lacy. Tava had called him young and hot-blooded, but now was the time for him to be more, to reach inside himself and discover who he really was.” Is it possible that the chapter-book crowd is secretly crying out for a medieval animal fantasy? This, alas, cannot possibly be what they are hoping to get. (Fiction. 7-10)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-8234-1676-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2002
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