Readers coping with shattered contemporary realities will recognize themselves in a child’s fears and growing empathy.
When a 12-year-old’s tiny country is invaded, everyone is touched by war.
Beni doesn’t like his new home on the moshav in this Israeli farming community. He misses Jerusalem, and he’s bullied by the other boys. But everything changes on the Yom Kippur holiday in 1973 when his country is unexpectedly invaded. Beni lives only a 10-minute drive from the border with Syria, and his home takes heavy fire from mortar shells. After hours in a shelter, Beni emerges to rubble and burning fields. Evacuated to his grandparents’ house, he can’t stop worrying about his brother, Motti, headed to the Egyptian front in a tank. But life goes on, even in a national crisis. Beni learns about fixing cars, becomes friends with the boys who were once his enemies, and always, always, worries about Motti. When Beni’s family receives devastating and terrifying news, he just wants to feel less helpless. And so Beni embarks on a quest to help his brother. His rage at Egypt conflicts with his emerging questions about Egyptian prisoners of war: Do they eat the same food, have the same fears as the Israelis? 1970s Israel is fully realized with loving attention to detail, and subplots about daily human concerns further round out the characters. The Jewish characters are cued as Ashkenazim.
Readers coping with shattered contemporary realities will recognize themselves in a child’s fears and growing empathy. (historical note) (Historical fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5415-7886-9
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Kar-Ben
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
“By March 5, 1770, it was dangerous to be a soldier in Boston.” In a few lines of terse prose illustrated with densely hatched black-and-white pictures, Decker lays out the causes of the tension between Bostonians and British troops, and then delivers a blow-by-blow account of events on that March night and the ensuing trials. Along with casting a grim tone over all, his dark, crowded illustrations capture the incident’s confusion and also add details to the narrative. Despite some questionable choices—he names most of the soldiers but none of the casualties, and except for a row of coffins in one picture, never mentions how many actually died—the author leaves readers with a general understanding of what happened, and with a final scene of John Adams (who defended the soldiers in court) pondering the necessity of protecting true Liberty from the “lawless mob,” some food for thought as well. (Informational picture book. 9-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-59078-608-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Calkins Creek/Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2009
Shame on you, Gerald Morris, for treating the Matter of Britain with insufficient solemnity.
Prophecies. A young knight learns that they’re just not to be trusted in this fourth of the light-hearted Arthurian Knights’ Tales.
A seeress’ ominous prediction that he would grow up to be known as the noblest knight in England but bring misfortune to all his companions and deliver the Dubious…er, Dolorous Stroke weighs heavily on Sir Balin of the Two Swords—but, in the end, proves less accurate than his own mother’s prediction that he’d grow up to marry a nice northern girl. This last happens after much knightly questing, a certain amount of slaughter, plenty of side banter and fateful meetings with both Balin’s skeptical brother Sir “Oh, put a cork in it!” Balan and levelheaded Lady Annalise, the Questing Lady. Said banter shows off to excellent advantage Morris’ability to put a 21st-century spin on the ancient legends: “ ‘I bring this enchanted sword, seeking the one knight who is able to draw it from its sheath!’ ‘Stuck, is it?’ asked Sir Kay. ‘I used to have a sword that would do that,’ said another knight. ‘Have you tried jiggling the hilt?’ ” Renier liberally salts the short chapters with scenes of armored knights looking startled or vigorously clobbering one another.
Shame on you, Gerald Morris, for treating the Matter of Britain with insufficient solemnity. (Snicker.) (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: April 3, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-547-68085-9
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
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