Too many potholes for a steady Progress.
A verse rendition of the 342-year-old quest fantasy’s first part.
Brasseur keeps the plot intact along with the Calvinist insistence on redemption through grace alone, not works, and cameos from pilgrim-eating giants Pagan and Pope. Except for New Testament quotations at each chapter’s head, however, he loses the original’s teeming, pace-killing Biblical references. Some of his other changes will strike readers as arbitrary: Erstwhile neighbors Obstinate and Pliable are “Sir Stubborn” and “Mr. Fickle,” and the Slough of Despond is, disappointingly, just a generic “marshland.” Still, he does somewhat modernize the original’s now-crabbed idiom: “Dad is being ridiculous; there’s nothing we should fear,” Christian’s children say. He sets most of Christian’s journey through the “narrow wicket-picket gate” in anapests, which creates a suitable sense of trotting along, but both meter and rhyme are inconsistent. In any case, this retelling doesn’t measure up in quality or feeling to Gary D. Schmidt’s magisterial John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1994), illustrated by Barry Moser. Longhi’s frequent full-page paintings likewise suffer in comparison, as her stiff, blocky figures never show other than theatrical emotions. Still, if Christian and most of the rest of the cast are White, Jesus sports an olive complexion, and Christian travels with brown-skinned companions Faithful (whose auto-da-fé is described but not depicted) and Hopeful.
Too many potholes for a steady Progress. (Verse fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7369-7948-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Harvest House
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
Harrowing and realistic but slanted toward sensationalism.
Thirteen-year-old Gentry feels trapped in a polygamous walled community ruled by the words of a prophet incarcerated in Texas.
Gentry and her older brother Tanner are excited to receive an invitation to play their violins at a local music festival, but when the Prophet calls to forbid women from leaving the compound, Gentry’s hopes are dashed. Tanner decides to sneak Gentry out to perform, but defying the Prophet carries consequences. Restrictions, harsh physical punishment, and ejection from the community are meted out at the whims of the leadership. Tanner and Gentry’s disobedience forces her family to make desperate decisions. Lifted straight from the headlines, Gentry’s tale is a harrowing reality for splinter groups of the LDS Church. Unfortunately, while the details are horrific, there is no attempt to qualify the judgment leveled against all Mormons. The story is compelling, but the use of stereotypes undercuts its power. The sadistic Prophet’s son, the pedophilic leader, and complicit women are predictable place holders for real characters. Gentry’s naiveté about the reality of the outside world is understandable, but she seems equally clueless about her own, all-white community. Violence against animals and children as well as sadistic treatment of a girl with Down syndrome might further make this a difficult read for younger children despite the publisher’s designation of a middle-grade audience for it.
Harrowing and realistic but slanted toward sensationalism. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0755-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
A German boy makes an extraordinary and life-affirming choice in this compelling Holocaust tale.
Two boys forge a brief and dangerous alliance in 1938 Germany.
Friedrich Weber is a 12-year-old member of the Jungvolk in Hannover. Membership is mandatory if quietly reluctant on his part. Emil Rosen is a 12-year-old Jewish boy in Hannover. Restrictions on Jewish life are coming into force, but Emil is still required to practice the piano and study for his bar mitzvah. The two cross paths at a remote spot on the Leine River, Emil finding peace there and Friedrich remembering that it was his papa who had shared this “special place, their secret.” But in the weeks leading up to Kristallnacht, each is caught up in the all-consuming anti-Semitism of their country as Jews are declared “non-German.” Friedrich becomes one of those throwing rocks at Jewish businesses as his parents embrace Hitler in the hope it will “keep [them] safe.” Emil’s family is torn between immigration to Paraguay and bewilderment; his vati fought for Germany in the Great War. The author has based her story on family history. She writes in alternating chapters that focus on each boy’s struggle to make sense of ominous events during increasingly oppressive times. Family loyalty, government opposition, bullying, and facing total upheaval in one’s life are dealt with memorably in this multilayered tale. The titular flowers, red poppies, have special meaning to each family.
A German boy makes an extraordinary and life-affirming choice in this compelling Holocaust tale. (author’s note, selected resources) (Historical fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-63246-094-3
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Ig Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
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