In a remarkable departure, Temple (A Taste of Salt, 1992; Grab Hands and Run, 1993), turns from powerful, harrowing novels of today's Third World to a captivating 13th-century idyll. Elenor dreads the return of her betrothed, Thomas, from a crusade; remembering him as an arrogant tease, she fears losing her autonomy and even (like her mother) her life, in childbirth. She confides her distress in Father Gregory, who also hears Thomas's confession when he comes home deeply troubled by a mission whose horrors have destroyed his ideals and having no wish to wed ``The Brat'' to further his father's territorial schemes. Wisely, the old priest sets a penance for both: a celibate pilgrimage to Santiago, in Spain. During the long journey from England the two befriend a series of other pilgrims with whom they exchange help, songs, and stories (some with a strong resonance with the present); both learn the joy of giving and doing while their distrust is transformed into an affection ``so fine, so frail'' that one friend wants to ``cup his hands around it [like] a tinder spark, to give it every chance''; and then a deep tenderness, warmed by the passion to come. Like Marchette Chute's, this is an innocent wayfaring; no lusty Wife of Bath or vicious Pardoner mars the pair's discovery of their fellow humans' rich variety (including an Albigensian heretic and a Muslim), of each other, and of the changing landscape that Temple describes with singularly unpretentious beauty. Varying her point of view from one sharply realized character to another in lively cinematic vignettes, she recreates medieval Europe at its best—a place where faith, trust, and generosity could be rewarded in kind. A throwback with a contemporary sensibility; an enchanting pilgrimage to self-realization, service, and love. (Fiction. 11+)
Pub Date: April 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-531-06836-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1994
Drawing on her experience with a relief organization on the Thai border, Ho tells the story of a Cambodian family, fleeing the rival factions of the 80's while hoping to gather resources to return to farming in their homeland. Narrator Dara, 12, and the remnants of her family have arrived at a refugee camp soon after her father's summary execution. At first, the camp is a haven: food is plentiful, seed rice is available, and they form a bond with another family- -brother Sarun falls in love with Nea, and Dara makes friends with Nea's cousin, Jantu, who contrives marvelous toys from mud and bits of scrap; made wise by adversity, Jantu understands that the process of creation outweighs the value of things, and that dead loved ones may live on in memory. The respite is brief: Vietnamese bombing disrupts the camp, and the family is temporarily but terrifyingly separated. Later, Jantu is wounded by friendly fire and doesn't survive; but her tragic death empowers Dara to confront Sarun, who's caught up in mindless militarism instigated by a charismatic leader, and persuade him to travel home with the others—to plant rice and build a family instead of waging war. Again, Ho (Rice Without Rain, 1990) skillfully shapes her story to dramatize political and humanitarian issues. The easily swayed Sarun lacks dimension, but the girls are more subtly drawn—Dara's growing courage and assertiveness are especially convincing and admirable. Touching, authentic, carefully wrought- -and with an unusually appealing jacket. (Fiction. 11-15)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-374-31340-7
Page Count: 163
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1991
After witnessing the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany, Daniel is suddenly transported, at age 14, from his comfortable life in Frankfurt to a Polish ghetto, then to Auschwitz and Buchenwald—losing most of his family along the way, seeing Nazi brutality of both the casual and the calculated kind, and recording atrocities with a smuggled camera (``What has happened to me?...Who am I? Where am I going?''). Matas, explicating an exhibit of photos and other materials at the new United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, creates a convincing composite youth and experience—fictional but carefully based on survivors' accounts. It's a savage story with no attempt to soften the culpability of the German people; Daniel's profound anger is easier to understand than is his father's compassion or his sister's plea to ``chose love. Always choose love.'' Daniel survives to be reunited, after the war, with his wife-to-be, but his dying friend's last word echoes beyond the happy ending: ``Remember...'' An unusual undertaking, effectively carried out. Chronology; glossary. (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-590-46920-7
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1993
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