by Virginia Pounds Brown ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1996
Fictionalizing Spanish records, Brown focuses on events of De Soto's expedition of 15391542 through what became the southeastern United States. She adopts the viewpoint of 16-year-old Cochula, daughter of the Alabama Indian chief of the village of Coosa, a person who, she states, ``we know in a roundabout way . . . did exist,'' and about whom she adds further specifics in a postscript. Occasional infelicities interrupt the flow of the book, but these are largely confined to the first third of the book; by the time Cochula meets the fair-haired, blue-eyed youth, Antonio, who befriends her, readers will want to follow the thread of their romance through the hardships and deprivations of those caught up in De Soto's quest for rumored gold. Along the way is much solid cultural information, and thus, the pill is competently sugared. (Fiction. 11+)
Pub Date: July 1, 1996
ISBN: 1-881320-40-5
Page Count: 158
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1996
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by Julius Lester ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2005
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Coretta Scott King Book Award Winner
On a day when rain came down “hard as sorrow,” George Weems sets out to sell more slaves at one time than anyone ever had. Pierce Butler must sell off hundreds of slaves to cover gambling debts and 12-year-old Emma is one of his victims. Named after Lester’s grandmother, whose mother was a slave, Emma is part of a large cast of characters—slaves, owners, businessmen and abolitionists—who tell their own stories, in their own voices. Interludes occasionally have characters return in old age to reflect on their lives since the auction, a brilliant technique that demonstrates, in some characters, the persistence of racist belief. Other, good-hearted, characters, white and black, act towards each other with respect and dignity and affirm the possibilities of conscience and common humanity even in the worst of times. This important novel, based on an actual slave auction in 1859, begs to be performed, though teachers and performers may be hesitant to utter the racist language of the day. Powerful theater and one of Lester’s finest works. (cast of characters, author’s note) (Fiction. 12+)
Pub Date: April 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-7868-0490-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2005
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by Jennifer A. Nielsen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 28, 2018
Sensitive subject matter that could have benefited from a subtler, more sober touch.
A Jewish girl joins up with Polish resistance groups to fight for her people against the evils of the Holocaust.
Chaya Lindner is forcibly separated from her family when they are consigned to the Jewish ghetto in Krakow. The 16-year-old is taken in by the leaders of Akiva, a fledgling Jewish resistance group that offers her the opportunity to become a courier, using her fair coloring to pass for Polish and sneak into ghettos to smuggle in supplies and information. Chaya’s missions quickly become more dangerous, taking her on a perilous journey from a disastrous mission in Krakow to the ghastly ghetto of Lodz and eventually to Warsaw to aid the Jews there in their gathering uprising inside the walls of the ghetto. Through it all, she is partnered with a secretive young girl whom she is reluctant to trust. The trajectory of the narrative skews toward the sensational, highlighting moments of resistance via cinematic action sequences but not pausing to linger on the emotional toll of the Holocaust’s atrocities. Younger readers without sufficient historical knowledge may not appreciate the gravity of the events depicted. The principal characters lack depth, and their actions and the situations they find themselves in often require too much suspension of disbelief to pass for realism.
Sensitive subject matter that could have benefited from a subtler, more sober touch. (afterword) (Historical fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-14847-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018
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