Elizabeth George Speare (1908–1994)

Just reread this childhood favorite. My son and I are studying the Salem witch trials, and this story takes place very near them in every sense.

What I think I admire most about this book is that the writer doesn't idealize her protagonist. It's not just that Kit isn't perfect -- she's terribly wrong sometimes. I remember how taken aback I was to see Kit's oblivious indifference to the slavery that surrounded her when she grew up in 17th-century Barbados. Speare handles this expertly, making show more the modern reader squirm with the uncomfortable awareness of how easy it is for not-horrible people to live next to evil without recognizing it as such.

If you haven't yet read this modern classic, you're in for a treat. show less

Let me first say that I really liked this 1962 Newbery winner, and I wasn’t expecting I would. Set during the time of Jesus, the main character, an 18-year-old Galilean named Daniel bar Jamin, fled his home and blacksmith master five years before and has been living on a nearby mountain with outlaws who are supposedly preparing for the day the Jews will rise up against their Roman masters. Daniel’s hatred of the Romans is especially strong, given that they crucified his father, which led show more to his mother’s death and younger sister Leah’s regression into fear and solitude.

As the book opens, Daniel meets a brother and sister, Joel and Malthace (also called Thacia) who become a major part of the story, as does his friend Simon the Zealot, who becomes a disciple of Jesus. Daniel eventually meets Jesus and it ultimately changes his life. It’s a wonderful coming-of-age story, with the additional message of love and peace over hate and war.

The title of the book comes from Psalm 18, verse 34 (also 2 Samuel 22:35): “He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze” (p. 87). Daniel uses a drawing of a bronze bow as a sign to Joel and Thacia that he is hiding in their house in Capernaum. The verse becomes a touchstone for Daniel and a metaphor for his own internal struggle.

Written at a fifth-to-sixth grade reading level, the content is most appropriate for those ages and up. Narrator Mary Woods does a good job creating individual characterizations by voice without resorting to caricatures or accents.

In her Newbery acceptance speech, Speare explained that she wrote the book while teaching Sunday school because she "longed to lift the personality of Jesus off the flat and lifeless pages of our textbook. I wanted to give my pupils, and others like them, a glimpse of the divided and turbulent society of Palestine, an occupied country with many parallels in our own day. And I wanted to stir in them some personal sharing of what must have been the response of boys and girls who actually saw and heard the Carpenter from Nazareth….I longed to have them see that the preacher who walked the hills of Galilee was not a mythical figure, but a compelling and dynamic leader, a hero to whom a boy in any age would gladly offer all his loyalty."

Reading this (and the rest of her speech), it’s not surprising to learn that the book has been challenged when used as part of the curriculum in public schools. While not anti-Semitic or demeaning toward Jews, critics said it glorifies Christianity while portraying Judaism and its rabbis in a negative light.

Recently, a group of parents in San Rafael, California, was able to convince their public school district to drop the book as required reading in seventh grade in a unit on ancient Rome (but had no problems with the book being in the library). After reading the many links on their website, I can understand their position. As much as I liked this book and would recommend it to others, and don’t think it should ever be removed from any library, I believe it should be optional supplemental reading rather than required in public schools. show less

review for 9th read

reasons you should read this book:
1) this book has Nat Eaton.
2) if you have any heart at all, the final chapter will probably make you squeal like a giddy schoolgirl.
3) this book has a very pretty, head-strong sailor boy.
4) this book has John Holbrook (particularly in the context of the second-cutest romance ever).
5) this book has a handsome, roguish love interest who regularly puts himself at risk for the sake of others.
6) this book has Hannah Tupper.
7) BONUS: this book show more has Nat Eaton.

18,000,000/5 stars.

review for 6th, 7th, & 8th reads (yes, really)

All my life, my dad has decorated his bedroom with It's a Wonderful Life posters, decorations, etc. We have a whole-ass display case in our living room filled with a porcelain snow village from the movie, as well as books, magazines, ornaments, mugs, and just about anything else you can think of that fits with the theme. We had the same kind of thing in our game room growing up, but instead of It's a Wonderful Life, that room was Muppet themed.

My dad and I are a lot alike. And while I don't hyper-fixate on It's a Wonderful Life or the Muppets, I have my own special interests. One of them is the band Flyleaf. The other, this book.

When it comes to this book, I am a weak, weak woman.

Every time I open this book it feels like home. From the characters to the romance to Hannah's cottage, this book is absolute perfection. (And that's a huge claim coming from me.) If you don't believe me, just look at my "Dates Read."

I have not read any other book more than maybe three times. Eight times is just ridiculous. My friends think I have a problem. My family has been forced to accept my obsession just as they accepted my dads'. That alone should be enough to make you want to read this book. But if you're still somehow deciding, let me break it down for you:

Katherine ("Kit") Tyler is a sixteen-year-old girl from Barbados. After her wealthy grandfather's death, she flees to the only family she has—a family of four in Puritan Connecticut. When Kit arrives in Connecticut, she quickly discovers that she is completely out of place in the solemn Puritan colony.

One day, as she laments this (yes, I use dramatic words like "lament" for dramatic effect because it is, in fact, dramatic), she meets Hannah, an old Quaker woman on the edge of town, who has been repeatedly accused of witchcraft and thus shunned by the community. As she grows closer to Hannah, Kit also grows closer to Nat Eaton, a (sexy) sea-faring friend of Hannah's and crew member on the very ship Kit took to arrive in Connecticut.

Finally, Kit begins teaching Prudence, a neglected and, dare I say, abused little girl, to read and write. Kit introduces Prudence to the others, and pretty soon, the four outcasts develop close friendships with one another.

You could go on and on about the social commentary, the romance, blah-blah-blah. But at its core, this book is about four misfits who find each other and become, as Anne Shirley would put it, "bosom friends." It's heartfelt, and every time I finish it, I want to cry. Not because it's sad, but because it's just precious. If that sounds like something you'd like, I implore you to please read this book.

review for 3rd & 4th reads

Ok, y’all, I’ve read this book four times and it’s still so absolutely FANTASTIC. I take back my previous rating of 4.5. This is a five-star book. I would give it 6 if I could like it’s THAT GOOD.

It’s so good, in fact, that after finishing my third read through it (about a week and a half ago), I immediately went back and read it AGAIN because I couldn’t get the darned book out of my head.

I totally get why some people don’t like this book... it’s not a genre that’s for everyone. But I love every moment of it. As long as you like classics, historical fiction, and romance, you’ll probably love this. And I will never fail to recommend it to people who like those genres.

Please, please, please, if you like sweet, comforting classics/romances and historical fiction, read this. It’s THAT GOOD.

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review for 2nd read

4.5 | OK so I read this in like 5th grade but I didn’t remember anything.

Now, I don’t usually like historical fiction but reading this again, I was amazed. The characters, romances, and friendships in this were just precious. Gosh, it was good. I just wish we’d gotten an epilogue. But otherwise, I adored it. I’ll definitely be reading this again. show less

Excellent book, OK story. It's oddly split in my head. What actually happens is minor - boy stays alone on the new family homestead in early Maine, runs into trouble, is helped by local Indians, happy ending. What makes the book amazingly good is what it _doesn't_ do - it treats the natives (OK, it does call them Indians) neither as savages to be taught white-man's ways, nor as Noble Savages who are magically in tune with Nature etc. They're people; they know how to live in that place (the show more white boy is shown a lot of food, tools, and methods of hunting he doesn't know), but it's not some magical thing inherent in their race, it's just, well, they live there. The white boy (I've forgotten all the names already) is teaching the native boy to read, at his grandfather's request/order; in return, he's getting a lot of help surviving alone. By the end of the book they've earned each other's respect - again, not magical best friends forever, but "this is a person I respect and admire for who they are". When I finished the book, my first thought was "this is the way it's supposed to be written". I'm not certain I'll want to reread - again, the story itself is slight - but I don't want to lose track of it. show less