Book Review of "The Whisper of Glocken" by Carol Kendall

Book Review of “The Whisper of Glocken” by Carol Kendall.

This book is the magnificent sequel to “The Gammage Cup”, (a book I previously posted a review about.) Once a again, the villages of the unobtrusive race of the Minnipins are in danger. This time it is not from enemies but from flood waters. It is deduced that the tunnel in the mountains from which the river usually flows has been somehow blocked. The duty of investigating the tunnel falls to the rather reluctant Glocken and a group of ordinary folk whom he would never willingly have chosen as friends, but whom circumstances will shape into some of his closest comrades. The book abounds with danger, narrow scrapes, and wonderful themes.

The theme of both Kendall’s novels of the Minnipins is that heroes are not made of extraordinary stuff. Typically, they don’t even choose the position of heroism. Also, bravery is not a synonym for fearlessness. A hero is an ordinary person who, though deathly afraid, does not choose to run from his fears.

Story Starter Ideas:

• Write a story about a person or a group of people who have the job of saving the lives of other people from some mortal danger thrust upon them. What makes these people heroes?  
• Write a story about an ordinary person who has to face his or her fears. Perhaps write a non-fiction account of yourself in a circumstance like this.  

Book Review of "The Good Master" by Kate Seredy

Book Review of “The Good Master” by Kate Seredy.

This book, a winner of the Newbery Honor, chronicles the summer adventures of Jancsi, a young Hungarian boy, and his cousin Kate. Kate is sent by her father to the ranch owned by Jancsi’s father to “recuperate” after an illness. Jancsi and his family are expecting a docile lamb of a girl. What they get is more like a wild untamed colt. Janci’s father, sometimes called “the Good Master,” is used to taming horses. Now it is up to him to tame Kate.

I appreciated how Kate Seredy’s delightful tale shows how love-directed discipline does worlds more of good to train up an untamed child, (or an untamed horse,) then the use of discipline inflicted in anger. Also, that a child left without discipline turns out headstrong and stubborn. The approach of Jancsi’s father is not to break the will of the horses he handles, or the niece who eventually comes under his roof, but to direct and refine it.

Kate Seredy’s use of good vocabulary and the entertaining escapades of Kate and Jancsi make this book a joy to read.

Story Starter Ideas:

Write a story about two or more friends, siblings, or cousins who are spending their summer together. What character flaws show themselves during their adventures together? Are these flaws ultimately overcome? If so, how are they overcome?   

Book Review of “The Bronze Bow” by Elizabeth George Speare.

This book for young adults was awarded the Newbery medal in 1962 and is a long-time favorite of mine.

Daniel is a Galilean orphan in the time of the Roman occupation of Israel. The only family he’s known for five years is the group of bandits he has come to live with. They share his hatred of Roman rule. His father was brutally killed by the Romans and his mother died soon after. Daniel lives and breathes to revenge the death of his parents. He desires to free his country of Roman rule and daily nurses his deep hatred of the Romans. His sister Leah, though young and beautiful, is believed to be possessed by demons. When she was five, she witnessed the crucifixion of her father and was never the same. She grew up with a profound fear of people and from that day on she would not set foot outside of the house. Everyone believed her to be possessed by demons and left her well-enough alone. Daniel holds the Roman’s responsible for his sister’s wrecked life.

At this time a carpenter named Jesus is astonishing people with his wisdom. Carpenters are not supposed to know the law as thoroughly as this man does. But not only does he know the law, he explains things about God in a way that makes the common people understand him. When Daniel looks at Jesus, he sees a man who is popular with a large following. A man who would make the perfect leader in a war against the Romans. 

But Jesus has no hatred of the Romans. Instead, love characterizes everything he says and does. It will be a long road for Daniel before he begins to understand self-sacrificing love, and the command to even love one’s enemies.

This is an excellently written story that takes hold of the reader’s attention and opens up the heart and mind of its young protagonist Daniel. I liked how it stressed how one must not only have love for one’s family member’s, but also one’s enemies, a truth we might sometimes tend to forget. But an undertone remained in the book that sounded almost as if the author might be saying that because we ought to love our enemies, war is not a good thing. I don’t entirely agree with this. I don’t like war for the wrong reasons. War between nations is grim, but is unfortunately at times a necessity; a belief I mentioned in my previous review on “The Shining Company.”  In WWII for instance, the world could not stand back and let Hitler, whose mind was certainly intent on war for the wrong reasons, slaughter innocent Jews. We had to do something about it. But how does fostering hatred for the enemy help anything? It only robs you of joy and fills you with grief and bitterness, as it does Daniel. But the miracle of forgiveness for your enemies can be yours, through Jesus Christ. God does indeed care deeply for each and every one of us. War is a part of this fallen world we live in but I believe that God will someday restore this world to what it was meant to be.

 I could write much more on this discussion about the Bronze Bow, but I will force myself to finish now by saying that it is a great read and is entertaining as well as educational. Please read it for yourself and form your own opinions on its contents.

Story Starter Ideas: Reconciliation between enemies is a great theme for a story. Write a story about two nations or two individuals who are at enmity with each other. What is the disagreement between them? How does this conflict resolve itself? Will their be a bringing together of former enemies? How is this reconciliation accomplished?    

Book Review of "The Shining Company" by Rosemary Sutcliff

Book Review of “The Shining Company” by Rosemary Sutcliff 

Set in seventh-century medieval Britain, this book is based on a true account about the company of 300 soldiers and 600 shield bearers who fought against the invading Saxons. It is related through the eyes of a young man named Prosper. Though he is fictional, Sutcliff made me feel as if  Prosper was a young man who lived in reality. This is an important skill that not all authors posses.

Prosper desires to be a shield bearer to the prince Gorthyn, who in a short time he has come to admire with that allegiance that would cause him to follow Gorthyn to the death in battle. At age sixteen, his desire to be the prince’s shield bearer is granted. He accompanies Gorthyn when he and 300 other brave and noble men are called upon by king Mynyddog to train for battle against the ferocious Saxon invaders.
Grueling training strengthens not only the company of soldier’s skills in warfare, but the camaraderie they feel for each other. They develop into a fighting brotherhood that comes to be known as “The Shining Company.”
At last, the company is set loose against the Saxons. They find themselves greatly outnumbered. Prosper begins to believe that none of them will escape this war alive.

Using her incredible art of making characters spring to life from the pages of her book, Rosemary Sutcliff caused me to become increasingly attached to the brave young men of the Shining Company. She made me feel the emotions of Prosper as he also becomes attached to these men, and the desolation that is aroused when close friends are killed in battle. She made me see the soldiers and shield bearers of the Shining Company not as a nameless mass of men who fought long ago, but as individuals, men with names and lives and loved ones.

I feel that Sutcliff captures both the ugliness and the honor of war. War is a grim necessity at times. It is often horrible. But disregarding themselves, many soldiers both of the Shining Company and in today’s time go into battle, sacrificing their very lives to protect the lives of their countrymen.
Profoundly penetrating, moving, and at times deeply tragic, “The Shining Company” is one of those books I don’t think I will ever forget. I recommend this book for teens and adults.

Story Starter Ideas

• Is there a significant moment of history that enthralls you? Research it further and then write a story about a person involved in this moment. Imagine you are that person. Try to make history come alive. Be accurate and be detailed. Cause your readers to feel as if they have just stepped into a time machine and were transported to that historical event.
• Is there a group of people in history you feel have been viewed by some in the past or in the present as a nameless mass? Write the story of individual members of this group. Make your readers see them as who they are: human beings.  Perhaps you can write about a group of  people being persecuted for their beliefs, or other people who are being treated wrongly because of their nationality. Christians in communist Russia? Jews being sent to concentration camps during WWII? African Americans in slavery? The German residents of the U.S. during WWII who were sent to camps?  Or you could write about individual soldiers who fought in a war that has occurred in history.  There are so many opportunities to make people from the past come to life as real individuals.

Book review of “The Gammage Cup” by Carol Kendall

Within a ring of impenetrable mountains, 12 villages inhabited by the Minnipins, or “Small Ones,” are safely concealed from all danger.

Or so the Minnipins think.

A few people believe differently. They actually think that their enemies may be attempting to invade the valley. But these individuals are considered eccentric at the best of times and this just sounds plain crazy. Of course they are safe. Haven’t they always been? The particular Minnipins who dare to disagree dress far differently then the customary Minnipin code of dress, which is dull brown and dark green. They enjoy wearing bright colors and don’t hold to any ordinary sort of work. Why, they paint pictures and even search for fabled buried treasure! When they go so far as to stand up against the long venerated council of the town, it is considered too much and they are kicked out of the village. While in exile, these courageous outlaw friends discover the reality of the plot to eradicate the Minnipins. It looks like they might just have to be responsible for attempting to save their kind from total destruction.        

Behind the cover of an imaginative children’s fantasy Kendall hides a much deeper message. She portrays how ridiculous it is to scorn those who are different from us. The Minnipins hold on to tradition just because it is tradition. Because certain things have always been held for truth, (like green is the only proper color to paint your door, shame on you if you don’t,) well then, it must be true! But Kendall tries to demonstrate the deception of this statement. The Minnipins are in need of a change. They are far too self-important and unwilling to listen to the truth about things when it comes their way.

They remind me a bit of some of the Puritans in the 1600’s. Some Puritans thought it scandalous if anyone wore bright colors because they had grown up thinking this way and believed it must be true. They even went to the extent of killing people who disagreed with some of their beliefs. I think it is so important to test what you believe against what is solid truth. It is also important to not shrink from holding fast to the truth just because others will ridicule you if you do. If it is true and worth standing firm on, then it will prove itself true in the long run, even if others do not think it will.

Story Starter Ideas:

• Think of an issue or struggle in our present day, or even in the past, that you think should be addressed, such as bigotry. Create a fantasy world with a problem that resembles the real-life concern at hand. Demonstrate why the problem is wrong and should be ended.
• Come up with characters as flavorful as the ones in The Gammage Cup. If you have a hard time coming up with characters from thin air, use real people’s personalities as your basis.

           

Book Review of “Wet Magic” by E. Nesbit 

 

I am especially excited to do a review on this book because it is a favorite tale of mine from a favorite author. Edith Nesbit wrote books about a century ago, but they still hold entertainment for readers of all ages today. She was the fantasy writer who inspired C.S. Lewis in his writing of “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.”

In her books she contains the proper amount of unrealistic fun and enchantment, as well as the delightful everyday details spun in between that make even the magical essence of her writings seem real. I find Nesbit’s works extremely stimulating to the imagination. Anyone who loves fantasy has got to read one of her books.

 

Wet Magic is about 4 siblings who are going on a trip to the beach for the very first time. What they find there is more entrancing then even the seaside: a mermaid being displayed at the circus. The siblings are determined to rescue her, for they have been told that all mermaid’s die in captivity. As a result, they are invited on a magical underwater adventure that rivals their wildest imaginings. On the way they have run-ins with swordfish and other sea creatures who fight as soldiers for the mermaid kingdom, enemy sharks, and the ominous clan of Under Folk, the mermaid kingdom’s sworn foes. Join them on this delightful escapade that is sure to charm readers of every age.

 

What I love about this book is the underlying theme that people (or mermaids) aren’t always what they seem on first impression. Secret identities and unexpected meetings give the story a rapid pace. Nesbit also seems to have deep insight into the mind of children and how they view things. Characters in her books, such as nasty aunts or crabby cooks that cannot comprehend how children see things, are vividly described in the way a younger person might view them. A child’s thirst for magic and adventure can be seen and her stories would draw a like audience. But that audience does not have to be limited to children: teens and adults will also be able to appreciate the suspense, depth, and innocence of E. Nesbit’s fairy tales.

 

Story Starter Ideas:

• Create a fairy tail in which ordinary children with ordinary lives run into magic. Do they go to another world? Or is magic encountered in our own world, such as happens in “Wet Magic?”
• Be detailed. Imagine how its like to be in the shoes of your children characters. How do they view life and the people they encounter?
• Be original. Be inspired by authors such as Nesbit, but don’t copy the distinct elements found in their literature. For example, Lewis was inspired by her to have some sort of link between our world and another world, but the wardrobe idea was his own. Come up with something different and imaginative!  

Flame Over Tara

Book Review of “Flame over Tara” by Madeleine Polland

In the year 432 A.D. St. Patrick arrived in Ireland to perform missionary work among the people. According to tradition the druids, who supposedly could practice magic, foretold his arrival and the very clothes that he would be wearing.
Madeline Polland stays true to this tradition as she recounts the epic tale of St. Patrick’s work in Ireland from the viewpoint of Macha, a thirteen-year-old foster daughter to the chieftain. Macha’s life is apparently laid out before her. Her mind is filled with the plans that have been set to send her back to Tara to live with her birth parents once more and to eventually marry her off to a man of her father’s choice. But Macha’s foster brother Benen feels unsure about what life has in store for him. With the unexpected arrival of St. Patrick, Benen remembers the prophecy of the druids and finds himself drawn to this man and his teachings about God. With his father’s blessing he decides to follow Patrick wherever he goes. Macha listens to Patrick as well, and vows to herself to pursue Patrick’s God. To her, this means leaving behind her family and her fiancé to follow Patrick along with Benen. This dynamic saga narrates how through a series of intertwining events Macha comes to discover God’s will for her life.
I love the depth of Polland’s writing and its descriptiveness. She transports you to another time and place. You live through the legends that you have heard told about Patrick. As far as I know, she was mainly historically accurate when it comes to the details of Patrick’s missionary strategies.

One of the well-known legends about St. Patrick that is told in “Flame over Tara” is of how he used a three-leaved shamrock plant to explain the Triune nature of God. I find that whenever anybody attempts to fully describe this truth about God it is easy to veer off into your own thinking; simplifying something that is unexplainable. What does the Bible say about the Trinity? Shouldn’t we test everything against God’s word?
What else about the way St. Patrick communicated to the Irish people about God do you agree with or disagree with?  


Story Starter Ideas:

• Imagine you are a person witnessing the arrival of St. Patrick or listening to him teach. What are your thoughts and emotions?
• Research his life in Ireland further. Reconstruct one of his experiences into a piece of historical fiction.   

Book Review of “A Parcel of Patterns”

Though this book by Jill Patton Walsh appears small, each page is a bounty of rich words that spin a true story in Puritan times, told from the viewpoint of Mall, a fictional character in the 1660’s.
Mall lives in the small village of Eyam, located in Derbyshire England. Her life is fairly simple, the most complex facets it contains being when a ewe in her flock of sheep has birth complications, and her fear that her father will not approve of the man she has fallen in love with. Then when an innocent appearing parcel of patterns appears on the doorstep of one of the village residents, the whole village is plunged into a traumatic experience beyond what they would have dared conceive, even in their nightmares. For the innocent parcel of patterns purchased from London had carried with it that terrible disease, the plague. It spreads rapidly through the village, people falling sick with it and dying at an appalling rate.

The two parsons of the village hold opposing views of the reasons why people fall sick with the plague. One believes that people are struck ill by the wrath of God, a punishment for concealed wickedness of heart. The other believes that we cannot comprehend why God does what He does, but that it is not punishment that people are dying. He thinks that exposure to the plague is why villagers are becoming sick. But in his attempt to get as far away as possible from the Puritan idea that if you are righteous, God will protect you from all calamities, he seems to be implying that God won’t protect you at all.
Out of fear, most of the villagers’ side with the parson who tells them that repentance will protect them from harm.
What view would you hold, if you were a villager of Eyam? Would you agree with either parson?
I would definitely not recommend this book for children, but rather for young adults about age 13 and up. The details of the plague are so gruesome that I had to take a break from reading it at one point. I had grown sick of people falling sick. It was gripping enough however, that I soon picked it up where I had left off and completed it. It held my attention to the very end and is a well wrought piece of informative historical fiction.

Story Starting Ideas:

• Research Puritans in the 1660’s and Puritan beliefs.
• Write a story from the first-person viewpoint of a resident in a Puritan village. Does this person agree or disagree with the teaching of the village parson?
• Write a simple story of everyday life in a Puritan village.
• Go deeper and research Quaker’s beliefs and how Puritan’s treated Quakers in 1666. Not pretty, is it? Perhaps you can write about a Quaker in exile because of his/her beliefs.

You can purchase this book on Amazon

Johnny Tremain Book Review

This book by Esther Forbes is a masterpiece of American literature that I feel successfully combines historical facts about the 1770's with compelling fiction.  Johnny Tremain is a 14-year-old orphan, growing up in Boston Massachusetts during the verge of the American Revolution. An extremely talented apprenticed silversmith, he is desired by such masters in the trade as Paul Revere. Then one day a crippling accident occurs that shatters his dreams of becoming a master silversmith and will change the course of his life. Johnny finds himself swept up in the political affairs of his day. But will he ever be given another chance at his dream of becoming a silversmith?

Esther Forbes creates an aperture into the heart and mind of Johnny. Whether intentional or not, she demonstrates how the hero of her story is not perfect; Johnny does struggle with pride. He domineers over other boys not as talented as he is when he could easily have made friends with them instead. When he encounters a boy that he suspects is better liked then he is, he in turn becomes jealous. At the beginning of the book Johnny's master tries to cure Johnny of pride by openly pointing out his faults before others and making him swear to stop being prideful. But something that his master fails to realize is that no one can improve themselves apart from God. Inevitably his attempts at improving Johnny, and Johnny's own attempts at obeying, fail. I think Johnny has incredible gifts that ought not to be closeted. He is a leader and could easily become an incredible silversmith. I encourage you to read the book to find out how the course of Johnny's life takes shape. It is well worth reading.

Inspired by this book and its story-line?
Here's some writing steps to get you started on writing some historical fiction of your own:

• Research the times of the Revolutionary War or right before it. (It's the small historical details that will make your story believable.)
• Plan who and what you're going to write about. For instance, you could write a gripping account of a spy in the Revolutionary War; or perhaps a story from the viewpoint of a British soldier occupying Boston. Don't forget to think about a story behind the facts of how women were involved in the war occasionally as spies, or how they supported the patriots by simply refusing to buy goods from Britain. The possibilities are endless!
• Feel free to share your comments about this book or your ideas for historical fiction stories!