Bosse (Deep Dream of the Rain Forest, 1993, etc.) continues his series of vivid works of historical fiction in this story of two brothers traveling across Ming Dynasty China to pursue their destinies. Lao Chen is a young Confucian scholar headed for the ultimate glory of the palace examination and top-level civil service; Lao Hong, loyal and worldly younger brother, is determined to escort Chen to Beijing and the highest honors. Through his cunning, Hong acquires enough money to get the two brothers to Chengdu for the provincial examination, which Chen passes easily. From there they must travel the long and treacherous road to Beijing—over the Yellow River, through drought- plagued provinces—for the next stage of the test. In addition, each brother is carrying a secret missive—Chen's from his teacher for an ostracized inventor, and Hong's from one member of the subversive White Lotus society to another. The brothers are separated when their junk is captured by pirates, who discover Hong's letter and torture him to discover its meaning, but Hong escapes, finds Chen, and the brothers continue on their way. When Chen passes the municipal and then the palace examination, his future is secure, and Hong is finally free to seek his own fortune through a career in the military. Bosse renders a graphic picture of 16th-century China- -its violence, ceremony, scholarship, and strict class order—in this stimulating and timeless story. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-374-32234-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Horrific atrocities—and the ghastly realities of any war—seen through the eyes of a child with heartbreaking cognitive...
The education of a young Nazi, from fetus to 9-year-old.
One of the lesser-known Nazi atrocities, the Lebensborn program, aimed to increase the numbers of so-called Aryans; the program encouraged sexual contact between SS officers and unmarried (sufficiently blonde) white women while also Germanizing 200,000 kidnapped European children. Max is a fictional Lebensborn child, born in 1936 of unmarried parents. He begins his narrative in utero, determined to be born on April 20, the Führer’s birthday. Platinum blond and with icy blue eyes and a perfectly Aryan dolicephalic head, he plans to become an ideal Nazi, full of Draufgängertum—a hotheaded lack of self-preservation. As a fetus and an infant, Max’s point of view is that of an adult true believer, full of grotesque crudeness, endless sexual violence, and unremitting anti-Semitism. He’s eager to serve the Reich, even as a toddler, and he gladly helps his eugenicist keepers identify appropriately Nordic-looking children to kidnap. Though he’s intellectually convinced of Hitler’s philosophies, Max’s visceral discomfort with Nazi atrocities expresses itself through stomach troubles (described in scatological detail). A dysfunctional friendship with a blond, blue-eyed teenage Polish boy with a terrible secret only accelerates Max’s poor digestion. After a slow start, readers will find Max’s story reminiscent of M.T. Anderson’s National Book Award–winning The Pox Party (2006).
Horrific atrocities—and the ghastly realities of any war—seen through the eyes of a child with heartbreaking cognitive dissonance pack a wallop. (Historical fiction. 15-18)Pub Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62672-071-8
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Neal Porter/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
Exhilarating, romantic, and illuminating; has the potential to turn casual readers into Tudor history buffs.
Hampton Court curator Worsley’s debut novel for teens digs into the danger that lies just beneath the glamour of Henry VIII’s court.
Newly trained maid-in-waiting Elizabeth Camperdowne is sent to court to find a rich husband and save her father, Lord Anthony, from financial ruin. Wild-natured, red-haired white Elizabeth and her “luxuriantly plump and sloe-eyed” cousin Katherine Howard arrive at court in time for the lecherous Henry’s marriage to wife No. 4, Anne of Cleves, whom they will attend. After Henry sends Anne into exile for failing to consummate their marriage, the narrative proceeds to follow Katherine’s rise from mistress to fifth wife and her subsequent execution for adultery. Elizabeth, the fictional narrator, must remain vigilant; one wrong move can cost her her life, but she does have a choice, which gives her more power than she thought she possessed. She can seize the opportunity to save her family by becoming the king’s mistress, or she can risk everything to be with the man she loves, bastard-born page Ned Barsby. The novel is a satisfying blend of fact and artistic liberty: the women’s duties as maids of the court are drawn from history, but Katherine’s illicit lover is an amalgam of her two real-life lovers. The retention of British spellings and the inclusion of lesser-known customs of the period add further authenticity.
Exhilarating, romantic, and illuminating; has the potential to turn casual readers into Tudor history buffs. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 15 & up)Pub Date: March 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7636-8806-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2017
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