Book Review of “Nory Ryan’s Song” by Patricia Reilly Giff

This poignant tale is told through the eyes of Nory, a young Irish girl in 1845 who has a love for music. Nory and her family cannot foresee that their life in a cottage on land owned by the English Lord Cunningham is about to change. Lord Cunningham sees the tenants on his property as obstacles, not people. He raises taxes on their land and hopes to someday rid the land of them, raze their cottages to the ground, and use their farmland as pastureland for sheep. As if the taxes were not bad enough a blight strikes the potatoes, ruining the Irish people’s main source of food. Nory, along with the whole of Ireland, is plunged into an unimaginable crisis. Will Nory be able to pull herself and her family through the hard times ahead?  

One of the reasons so many people starved to death during the Irish potato famine is that the English lords who owned the land that most Irish people lived on took away any other source of food they had like pigs and chickens. Without potatoes or livestock, they had nothing to support themselves with. I cannot help but wonder if things would have gone differently if the land lords would have acted in a different manner towards their tenants.

Story Prompters

What other tragic events in history could have ended up differently if different choices had been made? Write a piece of historical fiction illuminating the mistakes that were made which caused the tragedy to happen. 

Book Review  of “The Great and Terrible Quest” by Margaret Lovett

This novel is a long-time favorite of mine. Trad, a boy in medieval times, is an orphan who lives with his abusive grandfather. One day when he is out hunting Trad stumbles across a knight with wild white hair who has recently received a head wound and is apparently suffering from amnesia. All the poor man knows is he his on a quest…a quest both great and terrible. However, he cannot remember what the quest is for. Trad makes the decision to run away from his grandfather and aid the knight on his quest, hoping that the knight will find the key to unlock his memory. Soon Trad finds himself involved in something far greater then he at first thought, something that might not only unlock the white-haired knight’s past, but his own.

I love how this book is a quest for identity, remembering or discovering for the first time who you are and what is your lineage. Filled with danger, sword fighting, and secret identity, this is a masterpiece you will want to read again and again.

Story Prompters

• Write a story about someone who has no idea what his lineage is or where he fits in. Write about this person’s journey in which he discovers his past.
• With anything you write make sure to include details that make it believable, whether it  is fantasy, historical fiction, or science fiction.

The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart

The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart

From chapter one, this book had me hooked! I finished the entire 485 page novel in three days. The book starts by introducing you to one of the main characters, Reynard Muldoon, (otherwise known as Reynie.) Reynie is an extraordinarily gifted eleven-year-old orphan, a true genius. He feels out-of-place at the orphanage where he is teased relentlessly by the other kids. 

A chain of curious events leads him to meet a brilliant man named Mr. Benedict. Mr. Benedict has discovered that an evil scientist has figured out how to manipulate the minds of people through television and radio waves and to make them believe anything he wants them to. Only the minds of extremely truth-loving people like Reynie have the gumption to resist. Reynie and three other amazingly talented kids who meet through Mr. Benedict gang up together to put a stop to the evil scientist's schemes. They call themselves, "The Mysterious Benedict Society." 

What the four kids of The Mysterious Benedict Society discover is a situation much too enormous for any one of them to defeat individually. The theme of the book is that only by banding together will they be strong enough to defeat the evil scientist and his equally evil plans. Where one kid's talents are lacking, another member of the society is able to contribute his own. All together, they make quite a remarkable group of kids who have personalities that are described so vividly it makes you forget they are merely fictional characters and causes you to half-believe they are real people. 

Story Starters

• Make up a story in which a group of people have to band together to face a problem. Illutstrate the truth of the old saying, "Two heads are better then one."
• Make the characters of any story you write so very life-like in their personalities and other traits that your readers become almost as attached to them as if they were real people.

Book Review of "Master Cornhill" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

Book Review of “Master Cornhill” by Eloise Jarvis McGraw.

This novel abounds with vivid descriptions of life and people in the times just after the great plague in London as seen through the eyes of young Michael Cornhill, a lad of eleven. Michael is an orphan. He has no family and has no home to stay at, but Michael’s innocent and trusting ways will soon earn him friends, and more than one temporary home. But will he ever find a place to permanently call his own? When the great ravaging fire of 1666 sweeps through London, this possibility seems doubtful.

I absolutely love the writings of Eloise Jarvis McGraw. All of her historical fiction novels are full of authentic details, almost as if she herself once lived through the historical periods she describes. “Master Cornhill” is no exception. Using her incredible talent of bringing people and places to life, McGraw creates a host of characters that you will never forget.

Story Starter Ideas

• Choose a person you know or a place you enjoy being at and describe it in such a way that someone reading it feels almost as if he or she knows the person you are speaking of, or has been to the place you are describing.
•  Choose a significant moment in history, research it, and describe it through the eyes of a fictional character. Slip in authentic facts about the times in such a way that readers feel as if you are so familiar with that time you must have lived through it yourself. 

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?