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JAMES PRINTER

Name: JAMES PRINTER
Author: Paul Samuel Jacobs
ISBN: 0-590-16381-7

A NOVEL OF REBELLION

by Paul Samuel Jacobs ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1997

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Jacobs (Sleepers, Wake, 1991) makes clear the tragedy of an artist inhibited by the circumstances of his birth in this unusual historical novel, set during a brutal English-Indian war in 17th-century Massachusetts. James Printer is a Nipmuck Indian who is taken in and reared by Master Henry Dunster at Harvard College after the boy's mother dies. The day he first sees a book, ``a thing covered in leather and divided into thin, white pieces like leaves,'' is ``the first day of my life.'' He becomes an apprentice in the printing shop of Samuel Green, whose 11-year-old son, Bartholomew, narrates. Wise, dignified, and gentle, James is caught in the war and forced to flee. Bartholomew struggles with his own mastery of printing, dotes on his cousin Annie, and documents the penny-pinching complaints of his father in a manner suggestive of contemporary children rolling their eyes at their parents. He witnesses the extreme brutality of warfare: hangings and beheadings, with heads perched on sticks as gruesome trophies. Through Bartholomew, Jacobs elucidates the nature of war, of good men, and evil ones, and makes his discussions intensely accessible to readers. The story moves swiftly to the gratifying depiction of the production of the second Indian Bible. In an afterword, Jacobs describes his contact with one of Printer's books, an encounter that only makes this novel more vital. (Fiction. 10-14)

Pub Date: May 1, 1997

ISBN: 0-590-16381-7

Page Count: 220

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1997

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION

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REFUGEE

by Alan Gratz ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 25, 2017

Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense.

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Awards & Accolades

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Our Verdict

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Kirkus Reviews'
Best Books Of 2017

New York Times Bestseller

Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner

In the midst of political turmoil, how do you escape the only country that you’ve ever known and navigate a new life? Parallel stories of three different middle school–aged refugees—Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo—eventually intertwine for maximum impact.

Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Each traverses a landscape ruled by a dictator and must balance freedom, family, and responsibility. Each initially leaves by boat, struggles between visibility and invisibility, copes with repeated obstacles and heart-wrenching loss, and gains resilience in the process. Each third-person narrative offers an accessible look at migration under duress, in which the behavior of familiar adults changes unpredictably, strangers exploit the vulnerabilities of transients, and circumstances seem driven by random luck. Mahmoud eventually concludes that visibility is best: “See us….Hear us. Help us.” With this book, Gratz accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant, offering a skillfully wrought narrative laced with global and intergenerational reverberations that signal hope for the future. Excellent for older middle grade and above in classrooms, book groups, and/or communities looking to increase empathy for new and existing arrivals from afar.

Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense. (maps, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)