Too many potholes for a steady Progress.
A verse rendition of the 342-year-old quest fantasy’s first part.
Brasseur keeps the plot intact along with the Calvinist insistence on redemption through grace alone, not works, and cameos from pilgrim-eating giants Pagan and Pope. Except for New Testament quotations at each chapter’s head, however, he loses the original’s teeming, pace-killing Biblical references. Some of his other changes will strike readers as arbitrary: Erstwhile neighbors Obstinate and Pliable are “Sir Stubborn” and “Mr. Fickle,” and the Slough of Despond is, disappointingly, just a generic “marshland.” Still, he does somewhat modernize the original’s now-crabbed idiom: “Dad is being ridiculous; there’s nothing we should fear,” Christian’s children say. He sets most of Christian’s journey through the “narrow wicket-picket gate” in anapests, which creates a suitable sense of trotting along, but both meter and rhyme are inconsistent. In any case, this retelling doesn’t measure up in quality or feeling to Gary D. Schmidt’s magisterial John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1994), illustrated by Barry Moser. Longhi’s frequent full-page paintings likewise suffer in comparison, as her stiff, blocky figures never show other than theatrical emotions. Still, if Christian and most of the rest of the cast are White, Jesus sports an olive complexion, and Christian travels with brown-skinned companions Faithful (whose auto-da-fé is described but not depicted) and Hopeful.
Too many potholes for a steady Progress. (Verse fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7369-7948-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Harvest House
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
Tender and thought-provoking but wobbling on a shaky moral compass
A shy, injured Jewish teen travels from Berkeley’s 1964 student protests to 11th-century Paris, where only she can save a newborn.
Hope, the granddaughter of Blue Thread’s (2012) suffragist heroine, is a lovely singer but has trouble speaking out. She’s shy, for one thing, and ashamed of her stutter. She’s overwhelmed by her pushy older siblings. And finally, she has facial scarring—and occasional acid flashbacks—from injuries sustained when she accidentally downed LSD disguised as candy. At first, she takes it for a flashback when she’s visited by Serakh, a time traveler from biblical times, but Serakh is very real and needs her help. In the year 1099, young Dolcette has just given birth, and her husband, Avram, is convinced a vision has ordered him to kill the child; Serakh is certain Hope will be the child’s salvation. Hope wonders if his visions might come from a similar source as her own flashbacks. Meanwhile, in the modern world, Hope’s self-absorbed and strong-willed siblings threaten to drag her into more trouble than she can handle. As Hope pops between Hanukkahs nearly 900 years apart, she needs to solve her own family crises while navigating modern radical politics and saving a child’s life. A character in the 20th century is rightly condemned (by Hope and the novel) for thinking one can solve other people’s problems by slipping them hallucinogens; unfortunately Hope’s solution to Avram’s problem rests on that very act.
Tender and thought-provoking but wobbling on a shaky moral compass . (Historical fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-932010-65-7
Page Count: 276
Publisher: Ooligan Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
Harrowing and realistic but slanted toward sensationalism.
Thirteen-year-old Gentry feels trapped in a polygamous walled community ruled by the words of a prophet incarcerated in Texas.
Gentry and her older brother Tanner are excited to receive an invitation to play their violins at a local music festival, but when the Prophet calls to forbid women from leaving the compound, Gentry’s hopes are dashed. Tanner decides to sneak Gentry out to perform, but defying the Prophet carries consequences. Restrictions, harsh physical punishment, and ejection from the community are meted out at the whims of the leadership. Tanner and Gentry’s disobedience forces her family to make desperate decisions. Lifted straight from the headlines, Gentry’s tale is a harrowing reality for splinter groups of the LDS Church. Unfortunately, while the details are horrific, there is no attempt to qualify the judgment leveled against all Mormons. The story is compelling, but the use of stereotypes undercuts its power. The sadistic Prophet’s son, the pedophilic leader, and complicit women are predictable place holders for real characters. Gentry’s naiveté about the reality of the outside world is understandable, but she seems equally clueless about her own, all-white community. Violence against animals and children as well as sadistic treatment of a girl with Down syndrome might further make this a difficult read for younger children despite the publisher’s designation of a middle-grade audience for it.
Harrowing and realistic but slanted toward sensationalism. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0755-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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