Cadnum revisits the medieval setting of In a Dark Wood (1998) for this tale of a young squire’s experiences in the first crusade, but once again, his storytelling lacks conviction. Having seen his master’s arm struck off at the order of the Sheriff of Nottingham, strapping apprentice Edmund is saved from the same fate by Nigel and Rannulf, two knights preparing to follow King Richard to the Holy Land. It’s a long, grubby journey, from London to Venice, thence to the siege of Acre, and the subsequent battle of Arsuf, replete with mud, blood, filth, disease, violence, rough humor, moments of beauty, and even fugitive kindness. Edmund views his world, and his own acts, with a detachment that robs his narrative of immediacy, particularly at climactic moments. In the end, he gets a glimpse of Jerusalem, then accompanies Nigel, whose arms have been crushed, back to England. Cadnum builds on a sturdy historical framework, and the naturalistic detail adds plenty of color, but few readers will be truly caught up in Edmund’s adventure. The author’s confessed bafflement over “caring, responsible” adults behaving with such brutality seeps into the story, making it emotionally inaccessible. (Fiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-670-88386-7
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1999
Grand passion, terror, desire, comfort—it’s all here, and much of it is actual history, in Skurzynski’s spirited retelling of the story of Abelard and Eloise. The author can be forgiven some purple prose and melodramatic posturing on the narrator’s account: Aran is a mute shepherd rescued by Abelard himself from the horrors of an abusive family and then from a man who produces freaks on demand. Abelard, the mesmerizing 12th-century theologian and scholar, has need of a silent servant, as Aran—now called Spider—learns, because he is passionately in love with his student Eloise and their lessons have turned carnal. Spider keeps watch during their trysts, and travels with them when the pregnant Eloise goes to live with Abelard’s noble family. Eloise’s brilliance and beauty glow in these pages, along with Abelard’s reckless, self-centered intensity, and the harshness of peasant life. Spider is helpless to prevent Abelard’s castration by Eloise’s uncle, but that trauma leads him to find, eventually, a voice of his own. A great deal of information about medieval France, gore that won’t disturb the more hardened in the audience, and a famed love story will hold readers and send them to the sources cited at the end. (map) (Fiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-82149-2
Page Count: 198
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
In a funny, warmly romantic tale from Howe (Shoot for the Moon, 1992, etc.) an impulsive decision leads an average teenager into fulfilling his desire to be “Secret champion of the underdog, modest seeker of truth, fearless innovator of the unknown.” David, after announcing on his 16th birthday that he’s officially naming himself after a comic book hero, is catapulted into a string of situations requiring quick, clever action, from a killer bee attack on the principal to the impending demise of the privately funded school newspaper due to a certain very explicit illustration showing how to don a condom. Meanwhile, discovering in himself a new streak of boldness, David—now Blue—connects with Omaha Nebraska Brown, a soul mate capable both of cogently arguing determinism vs. free will and delivering knee-buckling kisses. Howe sweeps her smart, wide-open characters through an irresistible tumble of twists and coincidences, Big Ideas, and unanswerable questions, pausing for an occasional set piece before ingeniously furnishing a grand climax; having already achieved national fame, both for his principal’s rescue and for solving the “weeping meringue” problem (his recipe for “Blue Avenger’s Weepless Wonder Lemon Meringue Pie” is included), Blue reaches higher glory still by introducing the city council to a new gun control measure. It’s unabashed, cockle-warming wish fulfillment in a novel that has priceless moments and is the perfect respite from all the bleak YA fiction out there. (Fiction. 13-15)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8050-6062-6
Page Count: 230
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
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