In the Okefenokee, swampers and outlanders don’t mix much, and 12-year-old Hamp Cravey has never met a Yankee, his father’s never owned slaves, and he’s never had to examine the complexities of “what hain’t true and what is.” But when he and his little sister Neeta discover runaway slaves in a neighbor’s smokehouse and Neeta takes the initiative in helping them escape, Hamp must decide where he stands in relation to God, the Confederacy, and the mistreatment of fellow human beings. The tale becomes a journey across the Okefenokee and into the tangles of his own conscience. Siegelson’s rich descriptions of the swamp, Hamp’s nightmares about swamp monsters, threats of giant rattlesnakes and killer boars, and a slaveowner out to avenge his brother’s death make for an exciting, multi-layered tale. The ending is a bit tidy and didactic, but not so much as to mar a sumptuously written narrative. A great match with Richard Peck’s The River Between Us (2003) or Margaret McMullan’s How I Found the Strong (p. 333). (Fiction. 10+)
Pub Date: May 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-399-24021-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
An outstanding new edition of this popular modern classic (Newbery Award, 1961), with an introduction by Zena Sutherland and...
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1990
ISBN: 0-395-53680-4
Page Count: -
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense.
In the midst of political turmoil, how do you escape the only country that you’ve ever known and navigate a new life? Parallel stories of three different middle school–aged refugees—Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo—eventually intertwine for maximum impact.
Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Each traverses a landscape ruled by a dictator and must balance freedom, family, and responsibility. Each initially leaves by boat, struggles between visibility and invisibility, copes with repeated obstacles and heart-wrenching loss, and gains resilience in the process. Each third-person narrative offers an accessible look at migration under duress, in which the behavior of familiar adults changes unpredictably, strangers exploit the vulnerabilities of transients, and circumstances seem driven by random luck. Mahmoud eventually concludes that visibility is best: “See us….Hear us. Help us.” With this book, Gratz accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant, offering a skillfully wrought narrative laced with global and intergenerational reverberations that signal hope for the future. Excellent for older middle grade and above in classrooms, book groups, and/or communities looking to increase empathy for new and existing arrivals from afar.
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense. (maps, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-88083-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
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