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
A superbly crafted tapestry of medieval heartbreak. After a childhood full of affection and light, Eloise is married off to a gruff older man who lives far from her home. Robert adores her but can’t show it. Several characters circle within their own spheres of pain as the days and seasons circle around them all. Robert’s blind mother pads around the fortress, touching everything with her fingers. Eloise’s Uncle John paints holy images as penance for an old sin. Thomas, who knew Eloise when they were children, becomes a trobar (troubadour) and sings his way to Eloise’s castle; their romance is a rush of relief in Eloise’s life but bitterly brief. Religious rituals, references to famous medieval stories, and ongoing reminders of seasonal change (“In August, the night is ten hours long, the day fourteen”) mournfully broaden this short, complex piece beyond its own specifics. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2003
ISBN: 1-886910-90-1
Page Count: 136
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2003
In 1965, Hurricane Betsy ran the banana freighter Amaryllis aground on Singer Island, Florida, and now the monstrous hulk looms there, a symbol of Frank Staples’s experience in Vietnam: hurt, far from home, and “stuck with my nose in the sand.” The war has blown him off course, and now in a series of letters, he tells younger brother Jimmy what the war is like—friends killed, pot to ease the boredom, heroin to kill the pain, and letters to keep alive some connection with “the World.” Jimmy’s first-person narrative details memories of Frank: surfing, camping in the Everglades, rescuing a boy attacked by a shark, and coping with the family dynamics that turned Frank away. Crist-Evans weaves two pitch-perfect voices into a story that is immediate and emotionally honest, never reaching for easy answers or neat resolutions—but ultimately, with its almost painful realism, this is the finest depiction of war we’ve yet seen for young readers. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-7636-1863-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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