Fans of King-Smith’s light, wry animal stories (The Spotty Pig, 1997, etc.) will be shocked by this brutal Christian allegory. The creatures of Godhanger Wood go about, as is their nature, feeding on the helpless and unwary, keeping an eye out for the hunter ironically dubbed “the gamekeeper.” Meanwhile, on a great cedar of Lebanon perches the golden-feathered Skymaster, dispensing wisdom and cryptic warnings to the 12 birds who have been drawn to listen. Opening with a rabbit doe’s grisly death at the hands (literally) of the gamekeeper, the slaughter continues until, ultimately, the Skymaster is gunned down, to hang on a cross-shaped gibbet, just as the gamekeeper’s other trophies have; although an old raven later sees the Skymaster ascend heavenward, the implied promise is less likely to make an impression on readers than the ugly events leading up to it. Rendered with detail and drama reminiscent of Audubon’s, Davidson’s accomplished black-and-white wildlife portraits ennoble their animal subjects, and effectively capture the dark, tone of this radical change of pace from a popular, author. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-517-80035-7
Page Count: 151
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1998
High marks for ambition: Willard recasts Milton’s epic poem into measured, often powerful prose, preserving the original’s plot and themes, and at least a sense of its grand vision, but condensing or excising its long speeches, wordy descriptive passages, and sermons. Satan’s beguiling (to some) pride and courage still come through clearly (“Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven. Hail Horrors! Receive your new ruler”), as, later, does Eve’s culpability—“What if I’m banished? Adam will marry another Eve and live happily in Eden with her. No, Adam must share my fate”—and the Archangel Michael’s concluding recitation of Old Testament events and New Testament redemption. Tiny figures act out the story’s central moments with elfin grace in Daly’s small, occasional, delicately detailed paintings, adding a sort of distant elegance. Willard retraces Milton’s narrative arc, though she divides it into 17 chapters, rather than the original’s 10 (later 12), and closes with a biographical note. Readers expecting a radical or modernized retelling may be disappointed, but even in this reduced form, it’s still a huge and moving story. (Fiction. 11-13, adult)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-689-85097-2
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2004
A 17-year-old has a shallow religious epiphany followed by an equally shallow retreat from religion and political awakening. In the old days, Mia repeatedly assures us, she only wanted "to get high, make music and have sex." Now she's studying at a Jerusalem yeshiva; hoping for a spiritual reawakening, Mia has blindly decided she'll find it in Orthodox Judaism. Unfortunately, she connects neither with her classmates nor their religious or political beliefs. The more she learns about the ugly creation of Israel's national myth of a previously empty land being made green, the more barren she finds Orthodox Judaism. Her political self-education gets tangled up with her conviction that she is "sick of wearing ugly clothes," her disinterest in yeshiva studies and her lust for Andrew, the sexy guitar bum she meets in the streets of Jerusalem. The issues are vitally important, but the heroine's facile acceptance of a hot boy's pacifism is hardly convincing, the straw-man yeshiva students diminish the painful political realities and Mia just isn't likable enough to carry the tale. (Fiction. 12-13)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-55469-265-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2010
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