Youth Classic Review: I Capture the Castle

 

Another middle grade (or YA) classic review.

Title: I Capture the Castle

Author: Dodie Smith

Publisher: Little, Brown, 1948, 343 pages.  I actually read an ebook version.

Source: Open Library (on-line library resource)

Summary:

Seventeen-year-old Cassandra lives with her family in a crumbling castle in England, where they struggle to make ends meet with no visible means of support.  Her father is a writer who can't seem to write a second book, and she, too, has some aspirations to writing.  Thus, the "journal" she keeps of what turns out to be a crucial period in their lives.

Review:

I found the story both engaging and trite at times, sometimes at the same times.  The author did manage to avoid the obvious ending I saw coming from the mid-point, which made for a pleasant surprise.  The style is dated, but not excessively so, and the idea is original.  Characters are fresh and unique, well-drawn even through the eyes of the rather naive narrator.  This is a love story, but only sometimes.  The rest of the time it is a coming-of-age story, and sometimes just a jolly good yarn.  Overall, this classic holds up well.

Recommendation:

The age of the protagonist and the subject matter (love as well as other life issues) makes this more YA than middle grade, but the circumspect writing of another time (a time when a girl of 17 wasn't a sophisticated adult) makes it acceptable for any age. It's an interesting read for the sake of the historical style and context.   It may be of as much or more interest to adults who remember reading it or similar books long, long ago, rather than to children, though any child or teen who read it will get a glimpse of a vanished world.

Full Disclosure: I checked I Capture the Castle out of my (virtual) library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Non-fiction review: 12 Years a Slave

 

Title: 12 Years a Slave

Author: Solomon Northrup 

Publisher: Penguin, 2013.  Originally published in 1853.

Source: Library 

Summary:

Given the publicity the movie got, I doubt I need to say much here.  Solomon Northrup was born a free man in New York State, and lived there until I think his late 20s, when he was lured to Washington by a promise of work, drugged, kidnapped, and sold to a planter in Louisiana.  Twelve years later he managed to get word out to the right people, and was rescued. He wrote this narrative shortly after regaining his freedom.

Review:

Being somewhat familiar with the narrative styles of some of Northrup's contemporaries, I expected to find this difficult to read.  It wasn't, except in the emotional sense.  Northrup has a very direct way with the narrative, and tells his story simply, allowing it to grip the reader by its own power.  He makes every effort to be fair in his narrative (he gives the men who lured him from home much more benefit of the doubt than I do--I have no doubt they were part of the plot), but he also pulls no punches.  Slavery was a huge evil, slaves were not happy being slaves, and he insists that his readers understand that.  It's hard to imagine anyone reading this and not getting it, and in fact his narrative and others like it contributed to the anti-slavery movement that led to the Civil War.

Seeing this unflinching depiction of what slavery did to both slaves and masters gave me a much better understanding of the difficulty the country, and especially the South, has had in overcoming that legacy.  Men and women denied all chance at education, told constantly they are less than human, and worked like beasts, all too often unsurprisingly seemed capable of little thought or reason.  But Northrup makes it clear that the men and women who believed their slaves were less than human not only were at fault for what they did to those slaves, physically and psychically, but that they themselves were rendered less human by their beliefs.  Slavery was an institution that destroyed both slaves and slave-holders, and Northrup show that it doesn't take a college education and a century of perspective to see it.

Recommendation:

I'd recommend this to anyone over the age of about 14.  There are hard truths in this book, and truths every American, at least, should look in the face.  Plus, it's very well written and communicates those truths elegantly.

Full Disclosure: I checked 12 Years a Slave out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

YA Review: The Talent Seekers

 

Title:  The Talent Seekers

Author: Jemima Pett

Publisher:  Princelings Publications, 2013.  168 pages

Source:  Smashwords purchase

Summary:
Humphrey is a guinea pig with no past, and it's not clear if he'll have a future.  He's hiding in the woods, trying to figure out how the world works, when he finds himself falling in with other outcasts and loners.  At White Horse Castle, he may find what he needs, and where he's needed--if White Horse king Benson can fight off the incursions of Lord Coleman of Castle Deeping.  Humphrey has a lot of exciting adventures, and gradually learns who he is and where he belongs, in a tale with a fair amount of bloodshed and a touch of the paranormal (which is starting to look normal in the world of the Princelings).

Review:
This book is set in the world of the Princelings of the East, and intersects with just a few places and characters, but stands alone very well.  The level of tension and danger is ratcheted up a bit from the other books in the series, leading the author to give it a "PG-13" rating, with which I largely agree (though it is NOTHING like as deadly and dangerous and scarey as, say, the last several Harry Potter books, which are happily devoured by amazingly young children).  (There is nothing in the way of what we euphemistically call "adult situations" in the book as far as I recall).

I found the story riveting--it cost me some sleep, as I forged on to find out what happened next.  Just exactly what and who Humphrey is, and who and what his enemies may be, unfolded gradually, with just enough clues to keep me jumping.  One thing I did find: Humphrey first appears in the Prologue to The Princelings and the Lost City, and I went back and re-read that to get a better grip on what was up with him.  It tells us some things that are never directly revealed in this book (so get it and read it too!).

As always the writing is clean and clear and the editing and proof-reading top-notch.  The world is well-created and well-presented, and Humphrey is a hero we can all root for.

Recommendation:
For all fans of the Princelings, or adventures with a touch of the paranormal, who can handle a little gore.

Full Disclosure: I bought my copy of The Talent Seekers with my own money and of my own volition, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."