Dark, medieval superstitions haunt the people of a French town in 1559. Marius’s little brother, Jean-Pierre, was born on Christmas Eve, and the townsfolk believe that all such children will become werewolves. Told from the viewpoint of the 12-year-old Marius, the story personalizes an intense moment in history when medieval forces reacted violently against the coming Reformation. Marius struggles with the constant task of protecting his six-year-old brother whom he knows the people will eventually attack; yet he also wants to begin his apprenticeship with his father as a blacksmith. He later learns that his father can read and has become a Huguenot, one damned as a heretic by the Catholic Church. Already hesitant to accept the town’s beliefs about evil, he begins to understand the true evil of superstition and repression when his father is captured and burned at the stake. Readers expecting a werewolf story will find a far more realistic and frightening tale that offers an intriguing counterpoint to the well-trod horror genre. Here the evil is not the supernatural, but fear of it. This brief tale works as an excellent, exciting introduction to a turbulent period in history. An afterword ties the real history of the period to the fictional story, with a bibliography for further reading. (Fiction. 9-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7868-0547-1
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2000
It’s 1949, and 13-year-old Francine Green lives in “the land of ‘Sit down, Francine’ and ‘Be quiet, Francine’ ” at All Saints School for Girls in Los Angeles. When she meets Sophie Bowman and her father, she’s encouraged to think about issues in the news: the atomic bomb, peace, communism and blacklisting. This is not a story about the McCarthy era so much as one about how one girl—who has been trained to be quiet and obedient by her school, family, church and culture—learns to speak up for herself. Cushman offers a fine sense of the times with such cultural references as President Truman, Hopalong Cassidy, Montgomery Clift, Lucky Strike, “duck and cover” and the Iron Curtain. The dialogue is sharp, carrying a good part of this story of friends and foes, guilt and courage—a story that ought to send readers off to find out more about McCarthy, his witch-hunt and the First Amendment. Though not a happily-ever-after tale, it dramatizes how one person can stand up to unfairness, be it in front of Senate hearings or in the classroom. (author’s note) (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2006
ISBN: 0-618-50455-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
From England’s Children’s Laureate, a searing WWI-era tale of a close extended family repeatedly struck by adversity and injustice. On vigil in the trenches, 17-year-old Thomas Peaceful looks back at a childhood marked by guilt over his father’s death, anger at the shabby treatment his strong-minded mother receives from the local squire and others—and deep devotion to her, to his brain-damaged brother Big Joe, and especially to his other older brother Charlie, whom he has followed into the army by lying about his age. Weaving telling incidents together, Morpurgo surrounds the Peacefuls with mean-spirited people at home, and devastating wartime experiences on the front, ultimately setting readers up for a final travesty following Charlie’s refusal of an order to abandon his badly wounded brother. Themes and small-town class issues here may find some resonance on this side of the pond, but the particular cultural and historical context will distance the story from American readers—particularly as the pace is deliberate, and the author’s hints about where it’s all heading are too rare and subtle to create much suspense. (Fiction. 11-13, adult)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-439-63648-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2004
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