by Mark David Smith ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 15, 2016
Combining the timeless allure of action and young-love romance with the historically accurate and turbulent life of the...
Late Renaissance Italy comes to life in this upper-middle-grade novel featuring the painter Caravaggio and a young friend.
Fifteen-year-old Beppo, sold two years earlier into indentured servitude by his debt-ridden stepfather to an unsavory wine merchant, doesn’t think he can get any more miserable. But then the wine merchant is murdered, and Beppo is wrongly accused. He runs away and, searching for a safe place to hide, stumbles into a brawl between the famous (and famously temperamental) painter Caravaggio and the man who actually committed the murder. Beppo and the wounded Caravaggio flee together and, as the story’s adventures continue, form a strong friendship. While Beppo is a fictitious character, Caravaggio is not. Narrated by Beppo, the story stays true to what is known about Caravaggio’s tumultuous life (with a few details chronologically reordered, a license addressed in the appended historical note). Rich and copious details of early-17th-century Italian life—how medicinal herbs are used, how paint pigments are mixed and canvases stretched, how to fight with a sword, and Caravaggio’s (purported) use of the camera obscura to paint his distinctive paintings, among many others—give great depth and validity to the narrative. Beppo’s happy-ending romantic storyline adds additional appeal.
Combining the timeless allure of action and young-love romance with the historically accurate and turbulent life of the painter Caravaggio, this story succeeds on all levels. (Historical fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: April 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-896580-05-0
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Tradewind Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016
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by Mark David Smith ; illustrated by Kari Rust
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by Mark David Smith ; illustrated by Lily Snowden-Fine
by Patricia McCormick ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 8, 2012
Though it lacks references or suggestions for further reading, Arn's agonizing story is compelling enough that many readers...
A harrowing tale of survival in the Killing Fields.
The childhood of Arn Chorn-Pond has been captured for young readers before, in Michelle Lord and Shino Arihara's picture book, A Song for Cambodia (2008). McCormick, known for issue-oriented realism, offers a fictionalized retelling of Chorn-Pond's youth for older readers. McCormick's version begins when the Khmer Rouge marches into 11-year-old Arn's Cambodian neighborhood and forces everyone into the country. Arn doesn't understand what the Khmer Rouge stands for; he only knows that over the next several years he and the other children shrink away on a handful of rice a day, while the corpses of adults pile ever higher in the mango grove. Arn does what he must to survive—and, wherever possible, to protect a small pocket of children and adults around him. Arn's chilling history pulls no punches, trusting its readers to cope with the reality of children forced to participate in murder, torture, sexual exploitation and genocide. This gut-wrenching tale is marred only by the author's choice to use broken English for both dialogue and description. Chorn-Pond, in real life, has spoken eloquently (and fluently) on the influence he's gained by learning English; this prose diminishes both his struggle and his story.
Though it lacks references or suggestions for further reading, Arn's agonizing story is compelling enough that many readers will seek out the history themselves. (preface, author's note) (Historical fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: May 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-173093-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
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by Patricia McCormick ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno
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by Malala Yousafzai with Patricia McCormick
by Rae Carson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2011
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
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