Gib Rides Home by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Gib arrives at the orphanage at a young age, too young to have many memories. He doesn’t even know how he lost his parents.

As far as orphanages go, his is not a bad one. Gib spends a lot of time dreaming his “Hope” dream: the house and family he would like to have. The reality is that the orphanage has poor food, lots of chores, and strict punishment with only one truly caring adult to pass love onto a large group of boys.

Still, Gib is a calm, collected boy. He bears up under the unfair punishments his demeanor seems to attract from the new and mean-spirited headmaster. Finally, he is farmed out to a family. This is a family whose mom wanted to adopt Gib because she knew and liked his mother. But the father does not approve. At his new home, Gib takes care of a beautiful horse, and we see what a natural horseman he is. But soon, he is sent back to the orphanage; whether or not he gets to return to his new and far-better situation is the climax of the story.

This solid and likable story is a tribute to the author’s father who actually went through a similar experience. I almost gave it a 3 Flag rating, but I just have to caution parents that one of the boys in the orphanage is farmed out and makes his way back to the orphanage sick, nearly frozen, and under threat of having his hands cut off by the owner who sent him out in the snow without mittens, risking frost-bite. Later, he dies of pneumonia. I don’t think the descriptions of orphanage life is too much for most tweens, just be aware. Also, while no details are given, it is clear that the marriage where Gib is farmed out to, is not a particularly happy one.

Safety Rating: 2 Flags

Historical Fiction: 1909

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A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

It took a couple chapters for me to get hooked on this story. I’m glad I stayed the course; it turned out to be a beautifully-told tale.

This is an historical novel set in Korea: 1200’s. Tree-ear is a homeless boy, survigin with the help of Crane-man, also homeless. Crane-man lives under a bridge and has already learned to scavenge food when he befriends Tree-ear, who ends up caring for him. Their bond is like family.

Tree-ear has a deep interest in pottery-making. He eventually becomes apprenticed to a pottery-maker. This man is taciturn, uninterested in training Tree-ear, and angrily grieving the death of his son. Tree-ear manages to earn his way, care for Crane-man, help earn a royal commission for his master to make pottery for the royal court, and win the respect of the potter so that he might trained to become a potter one day himself.

In this book, you will learn much about the art of ancient pottery-making and catch a glimpse of the culture of Korea, mid-1200’s, while enjoying a well-woven story with a satisfying end.

When I went on Amazon to buy it, many adults liked it. One commenter pointed out that while adults liked it, why would it receive a Newbery-award since it wasn't a particularly gripping novel for tweens? Instead of repeating myself, I'll just cut and paste my response to the secular crowd:

This is an accurate review, and the same thought crossed my mind about whether children would like it as much as I (an adult) did. Maybe, though, the Newbery is an award intended to reward quality literature that should be promoted, not just what will titillate, excite, or merely entertain. In this case, the book fits the bill, and I, as a parent, am looking for more books like it. My child is not the best judge of the good, beautiful and true. But books like this one will give her/him a boost in judging quality when experience and time kick in.

Safety Rating: 3 Vatican Flags

Historical Fiction: 12th Century; Korea

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After the Train by Gloria Whelan

This book elevated Gloria Whelan to one of my top 3 favorite juvenile authors.

The setting of After the Train is Germany, just post WWII. Peter, the main character, is bored in school and wondering why he has to hear about German guilt for something he had nothing to do with. However, it has more to do with Peter than he imagines. Letters that he discovers soon lead him to find out that he, in fact, is actually Jewish. It is (as it should be) haunting to learn how his mother saved him.

This book tackles the issue of how churches were complicit in Nazi Germany. At first I was nervous how the author might handle it. My first inkling that it would be handled well was when one of her characters described an organ as "the soul of a church." At this, I figured this author must have some understanding.

She does. She is honest about the fact that so many Christian churches caved in to the Nazis. She balances this fact out in two ways. Through Peter's father, we see an average German who wants to be good and see how hard that is when men like Hitler rise to power and fear grips good people. Anti-semitism was rampant and even existed after the atrocities were brought to light. Sometimes, people can be ant-semitic and do good things and think they are good. She illustrates the complexity of humanity. We are reminded by one character that we do not judge God by the actions of people.

We also are introduced to 2 heroes of the war: we learn about the Protestant hero: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and the Catholic hero: von Stauffenberg, who failed in his plot to kill Hitler, and he and his family greatly suffered for it. (...a story I was unfamiliar with).

Peter wrestles with his (our) doubts, questions, and relationship between Christianity and Judaism. The conclusions he draws are true and respectful: as a religion, you cannot be both, but they have much in common and can peacefully coexist.

Throughout, the author develops a metaphor as the perfect background: Peter, his father, and a Jewish man rebuild a broken and shattered church building. The Jewish man is also rebuilding a synagogue, and loves both buildings. The church in rubble is an apt description of what evil can do, and the author does not hide that the people of the church both participate in destroying it, and fight back to rebuild it and themselves afterward.

My favorite description in the whole book had nothing to do with the Nazi theme. It was her description of the building of Gothic cathedrals that won me over...

"These churches are the first great monuments built by workmen who were their own masters. Just think of the pyramids--the slaves who built them carted stones under the scourge of the Egyptian lash. Thousands of workmen died to build the pyramids. In the twelfth and thriteenth centuries, when the great gothic churches were built, men built with their hearts and minds as well as their backs. It was no longer just the master who decided what must be done. No, the workmen had a say. All the skill and imagination of the workmen was added to that of the master, and look what beauty came of men working freely!"

If your tween is studying the WWII era, and you want a lasting, accurate picture for them...I recommend you read aloud and discuss first, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," and follow it with "After the Train."

Safety Rating: 3 Vatican Flags

Historical Fiction: 10 years after World War II

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The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

This author, Avi, is good at hitting home runs. This book is out-of-the-ballpark.

It takes place in the early 1800's. Imagine a prim, proper, well-dressed young lady from that time boarding a ship to sail from Europe to America. She is, of course, well-chaperoned, clean, and carefully tended to according to her station in life.

Except that through a series of unusual events, poor Charlotte ends up unchaperoned, alone in a tiny cabin, sailing with a mutinous crew intent on revenge upon their cruel captain.

Charlotte, naturally enough, takes the side of the captain at first. And when trouble arrives, it takes over fast. Soon enough, she is complicit in the death and scourging of a man via information she gave to the captain. It suddenly becomes shockingly clear to her that his authority and station in life has been a mask over a vicious and ruthless heart.

In sorrow over her previous decision, she becomes one of the crew.

The life of a sailor, the intrigues of a mutinous ship, the turnabout from all the protections she previously knew, and being put on trial for her life, has made her an entirely different person by the time she arrives back in America.

This story will bring home that period of history in a way tweens will never forget. It's no history textbook; it's absorbing.

Rating: 3 Vatican Flags
Historical Fiction: 1832

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