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I REMEMBER THE ALAMO

This novel from Love (Three Against the Tide, 1998, etc.) wonderfully enlivens Texas history but falls prey to a few flat characterizations and obvious plot manipulations. Jessie is 11 when her father, Luther, suddenly moves the family from Kentucky to Texas. In San Antonio, she meets Angelina, a Mexican girl who immediately gives Jessie her most precious possession as a measure of her sympathy for the death of Jessie’s baby sister, Callie. Luther and Jessie’s older brother, Yancy, leave to fight the Mexicans, while Jessie, her mother, and her little brother take refuge in the Alamo. After the battle, which takes up four pages, they join the trek of the refugees in “the Runaway Scrape.” Jessie again meets Angelina, and, afraid to be seen with a Mexican, denies their friendship. Undaunted, Angelina takes Jessie to Yancy whom she saved after he escaped a battlefield massacre. Luther is dead, but only after winning a large farm through gambling, ensuring his family’s future. Several episodes in the book, especially the journeys, evoke the life of the early “Texians” quite well, and Love deftly weaves real people from history into the story. Her characters, however, frequently act without ready motivation and develop personal qualities rather serendipitously to satisfy various plot points. The pacing is fast, and the historical details captivating; some readers will ride right over the bumps. (chronology) (Fiction. 8-12)

Pub Date: Dec. 15, 1999

ISBN: 0-8234-1426-4

Page Count: 156

Publisher: Holiday House

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1999

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THE SECRET JOURNEY

Taking a page from Avi’s The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (1990), Kehret (I’m Not Who You Think I Am, p. 223, etc.) pens a similar story of a girl who goes to sea. Determined not to be separated from her seriously ill mother, Emma, 12, embarks on a plan that results in the adventure of a lifetime. Sent to live with Aunt Martha and her arrogant son, Odolf, Emma carefully plots her escape. Disguising herself in her cousin’s used clothes, she sneaks out while the household slumbers and stows away on what she believes to be a ship carrying her parents from England to the warmer climate of France. Instead, the ship is the evil, ill-fated Black Lightning, under the command of the notorious Captain Beacon. Emma finds herself sharing quarters with a crew of filthy, surly, dangerous men. When a fierce storm swamps the ship, Emma desperately seizes her chance to escape, drifting for several days and nights aboard a hatch cover and finally carried to land somewhere on the coast of Africa. Hungry, thirsty, and alone, Emma faces the daunting prospect of slow starvation, but survives due to a relationship she builds with a band of chimpanzees. This page-turning adventure story shows evidence of solid research and experienced plotting—the pacing is breathless. Kehret paints a starkly realistic portrait, complete with sounds and smells of the difficult and unpleasant life aboard ship. (Fiction. 8-12)

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-671-03416-2

Page Count: 138

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999

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BACH'S BIG ADVENTURE

PLB 0-531-33140-7 Ketcham’s first book is based on an allegedly true story of a childhood incident in the life of Johann Sebastian Bach. It starts with a couple of pages regaling the Bach home and all the Johanns in the family, who made their fame through music. After his father’s death, Johann Sebastian goes to live with his brother, Johann Christoph, where he boasts that he is the best organist in the world. Johann Christoph contradicts him: “Old Adam Reincken is the best.” So Johann Sebastian sets out to hear the master himself. In fact, he is humbled to tears, but there is hope that he will be the world’s best organist one day. Johann Sebastian emerges as little more than a brat, Reincken as more of a suggestion than a character. Bush’s illustrations are most transporting when offering details of the landscape, but his protagonist is too impish to give the story much authority. (Picture book. 5-9)

Pub Date: March 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-531-30140-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Orchard

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1999

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