A great introduction to Native American history that’s not too heavy for its young audience and is a solid read in its own...
Narrated by Isaac, a Choctaw boy who was killed while walking the Trail of Tears in 1830, this quick-paced novel sheds light on forgotten histories.
A follow-up to the award-winning novel How I Became a Ghost (2013), Tingle’s imaginative tale of shape-shifting humans and time-traveling ghosts is the perfect adventure for young readers who wish to consider American history from the Indigenous perspective. Even as it recounts the story of the Choctaw people who were removed from their Mississippi homelands in the era of Andrew Jackson, the novel also bears witness to a complicated Choctaw hero by the name of Pushmataha, a United States Army general who fought against the British in the Battle of New Orleans. Though ultimately betrayed by the U.S. president he considered a friend, Pushmataha inspires his young Choctaw friends to literally bury the hatchet and seek peace with their American counterparts—episodes witnessed by Isaac and his dog friend, Jumper. While the novel addresses injustices head on, it does not delve into Pushmataha’s regrets regarding intertribal politics, making it a good introduction for young readers. The novel is filled with friendship, laughter, and Choctaw jokes, a stylistic flourish that lends levity to its difficult topics.
A great introduction to Native American history that’s not too heavy for its young audience and is a solid read in its own right. (map, bibliography) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-937054-51-9
Page Count: 188
Publisher: The RoadRunner Press
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
Well-educated American boys from privileged families have abundant options for college and career. For Chiko, their Burmese counterpart, there are no good choices. There is never enough to eat, and his family lives in constant fear of the military regime that has imprisoned Chiko’s physician father. Soon Chiko is commandeered by the army, trained to hunt down members of the Karenni ethnic minority. Tai, another “recruit,” uses his streetwise survival skills to help them both survive. Meanwhile, Tu Reh, a Karenni youth whose village was torched by the Burmese Army, has been chosen for his first military mission in his people’s resistance movement. How the boys meet and what comes of it is the crux of this multi-voiced novel. While Perkins doesn’t sugarcoat her subject—coming of age in a brutal, fascistic society—this is a gentle story with a lot of heart, suitable for younger readers than the subject matter might suggest. It answers the question, “What is it like to be a child soldier?” clearly, but with hope. (author’s note, historical note) (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: July 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-58089-328-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2010
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