Unapologetically searing and catastrophically truthful, a reminder to readers that it demands much to meet harsh realities...
Spanning the conflict-laden years of Uganda’s recent history, this debut novel–meets-biography is based on the true story of a former enslaved child soldier who escaped and found his own salvation in providing sanctuary for children who suffered a similar fate.
Ricky Richard Anywar was abducted as a child soldier in 1989 to fight for the Lord’s Resistance Army, led by the infamous fugitive war criminal Joseph Kony, as continuing legacies of political corruption and economic instability set Uganda on a dark path to civil war. This powerful novel, which features scenes of sheer horror, does not depend on readers’ ability to decipher the overwhelming structural factors that have thrown Ricky’s Uganda into violent chaos. Rather, it is most significantly a story that stands up for the unrelenting power of the human spirit to reject evil, the nigh-impossible odds that must be conquered to escape enslavement, and the deep scars that remain for a lifetime. In 2006, Samuel, a composite character representative of the thousands of children helped by Anywar’s acclaimed Friends of Orphans charity, gives voice to this intimate process of recovery. Interleaved chapters tell Ricky’s story from 1989 to 1992. Through Ricky’s story, Samuel can find himself home again, before he was a rebel and a soldier, before he was a victim and an orphan, to the time when he “was a student and classmate. A cousin and friend. A brother and son.”
Unapologetically searing and catastrophically truthful, a reminder to readers that it demands much to meet harsh realities with impossible courage. (afterword) (Historical fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: June 13, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-374-30563-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Clear, simple tips to help young people embrace adulthood and lead more effective, happier lives.
Two fictional tweens outline important life skills for kids aged 10 to 12 in this self-help guide.
In her introduction, Boucher (A Simple Idea To Empower Kids, 2014) points out that she wrote her book in the voices of fraternal twins Emma and Elliot, “whose mission is to empower kids their own age.” Elliot introduces himself and his sister to readers, mentioning that they live on a farm in Canada and have a mother who writes books for kids. The narrative then proceeds in the twins’ first-person-plural voice, taking readers through nine chapters, each addressing specific, important life skills: “How to Speak Confidently,” “Start Each Day with Gratitude,” “Using Vision Boards, Big and Small,” “How to Get Rid of Anger and Frustration,” “Learning about Time and Focus,” “The Importance of Work Ethic,” “First Impressions and Interviews,” “Self-Talk Matters,” and “Start Each Day with Love in Your Heart.” Among the twins’ advice is to find at least one “coach” (and preferably more) in one’s quest to gain confidence; to realize that it takes 21 days to form a habit; to get enough sleep and stay hydrated in order to help manage stress; and to do tasks that one dislikes or dreads first, before any others. The twins make several references to quotes from other authors, including Eleanor Roosevelt (“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent”) and Tony Robbins. In this work, Boucher respectfully addresses and encourages the self-development needs of emerging adults. However, her use of the twins as narrators is sometimes awkward, particularly when they draw on sources that aren’t very typical for tweens or when they rather robotically repeat the phrase, “The author has given permission to use the following excerpt.” One could also argue that starting one’s day with gratitude and starting one’s day with love are very similar concepts. Overall, however, Boucher’s nine chapters encapsulate good habits to form and follow, even if they sometimes cover similar ground.
Clear, simple tips to help young people embrace adulthood and lead more effective, happier lives.Pub Date: May 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5043-5739-5
Page Count: 110
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A remarkably insightful, profoundly moving story of fraternal interdependence and unconditional love.
As she did in Charles and Emma (2009), her biography of the Darwins, Heiligman renders a nuanced portrait of the complex, devoted, and enduring relationship between the Van Gogh brothers.
Though Vincent and Theo unmistakably looked like brothers, they could not have been more opposite in habits and temperament; still, they pledged to each other as teenagers “to keep the bond between them strong and intimate.” Heiligman explains: “They will be more than brothers, more than friends. They will be companions in the search for meaning in life and meaning in art….And they will, when needed, carry each other’s parcels.” She reveals their unfailing devotion to this pledge by drawing on the hundreds of letters they exchanged in their tragically short lifetimes, quoting extensively and adeptly integrating them into the narrative. She frames the story of their relationship as a series of gallery exhibits (introducing each with a black-and-white reproduction of a representative piece) and varies her writing style to reflect Vincent’s work in different media such as sketching, drawing, and painting. Some depictions are vivid and richly textured, like Vincent’s oil paintings, while others are lean and sharp, like his sketches and drawings. Her exegesis of a lesser-known painting, The Laakmolen near The Hague (The Windmill), which she sees as essential to understanding the brothers’ relationship, features typically painstaking description and analysis. It and several others are reproduced in a full-color insert (not seen for review).
A remarkably insightful, profoundly moving story of fraternal interdependence and unconditional love. (timeline, author’s note, biography, source notes, index) (Biography. 14-18)Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9339-1
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
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