bookpagedev

Fiction

Unraveling a religious mystery

Review by bookpagedev

Controversial religious texts are discovered in the Egyptian desert. Unscrupulous men battle to control them, while others ponder their meaning and impact on the Christian faith. No, it’s not a sequel to The Da Vinci Code, it’s Resurrection, an absorbing novel from Tin House editor Tucker Malarkey.

Gemma Bastian is a nurse who has survived the trauma of the London Blitz, most tragically her mother’s death in a bombing raid. As the novel begins, she learns of the sudden death of her father, Charles, a former seminarian turned archaeologist whose final letter from Egypt tells her he’s rediscovered a God that even you will believe in. Gemma travels to Egypt to meet her father’s friend David Lazar and his sons, Michael, a wounded fighter pilot, and Anthony, another archaeologist. Gemma haunts the libraries, museums and back streets of Cairo, painstakingly seeking the significance of her father’s involvement with the Gnostic Gospels, as shadowy figures work to thwart her quest.

Alongside this religious detective story, Malarkey weaves the tale of Gemma and Michael, two people damaged in different ways by war and seeking to recover their previous lives. These multidimensional characters help to elevate the novel above the level of a conventional thriller. Loosely based on the actual circumstances surrounding the discovery of the Gnostic Gospels at Nag Hammadi in 1945, Resurrection mingles its fictional characters with some of the real figures involved. The book features excerpts from the lost gospels, enabling curious readers to appreciate their beauty and reflect on their religious significance, especially the role of women in the early Church. Yet Resurrection is hardly a dry religious text. In captivating prose, Malarkey evokes the dusty streets and brilliant sunsets of post-World War II Cairo, introducing readers to an exotic and mysterious world.

This thoughtful novel can be enjoyed on multiple levels as a mystery, a love story or, perhaps most compellingly, as a tale of the search for religious faith. However it’s read, Resurrection offers an assortment of pleasures.

Harvey Freedenberg writes from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Controversial religious texts are discovered in the Egyptian desert. Unscrupulous men battle to control them, while others ponder their meaning and impact on the Christian faith. No, it's not a sequel to The Da Vinci Code, it's Resurrection, an absorbing novel from Tin House editor…
Memoir

Journey to the end of the earth

Review by bookpagedev

Captain Robert Scott was a loser: the second person to reach the South Pole. In Race to the Pole: Tragedy, Heroism, and Scott’s Antarctic Quest, Sir Ranulph Fiennes draws a picture of a smart, ambitious young British naval officer trying to succeed.

Scott wasn’t necessarily the kind of man you would think of as an explorer. When chance threw opportunity his way, he approached it with the methodical precision he showed in every other aspect of his life. Scott emerges as a discoverer more along the lines of Lewis and Clark than Christopher Columbus, a role that was taken up by his rival and nemesis, the Norwegian Roald Amundsen. Meticulously researched and detailed, Race to the Pole tells the story of Scott’s two journeys into the frozen unknown. The first, from 1902 to 1904, was man’s initial scientific foray to the southernmost continent; indeed, it was this voyage that determined that Antarctica was a continent. Fiennes makes it clear that the mission’s success was due in large part to Scott’s leadership and organization; just surviving temperatures of 30 degrees below zero is achievement enough, much less exploring one’s surroundings. Scott’s party ultimately ventured some 470 miles north of the pole, and returned to England to great acclaim with a wealth of scientific information. His second journey, while even more successful in knowledge gained, ended tragically for Scott and the four men who accompanied him on his final push for the pole. Ill weather and circumstance killed Scott and his party, who were driven on in part by the subterfuge of Amundsen, when they were only 12 miles from salvation. Years later, some of the surviving crew were bitter about their leader, but using their own diaries and contemporaneous writings, Fiennes makes it clear that this was bitterness brought on by age and regret.

As an experienced Antarctic explorer himself, Fiennes is uniquely qualified to counter modern researchers’ criticism of Scott and to give a balanced portrait of this long-ignored hero.

Captain Robert Scott was a loser: the second person to reach the South Pole. In Race to the Pole: Tragedy, Heroism, and Scott's Antarctic Quest, Sir Ranulph Fiennes draws a picture of a smart, ambitious young British naval officer trying to succeed.

Scott…
Mystery & SuspenseMystery

Dick Francis is back on track

Review by bookpagedev

Longtime fans of mystery giant Dick Francis may be surprised, but also pleased, to know that, after a six-year publishing hiatus and at the ripe old age of 86 the master has returned with a new novel. Under Orders finds Francis in solid, if unspectacular, form, as his popular hero, 38-year-old jockey-turned-detective Sid Halley, prosthetic left hand and all, is once again mired in murderous doings on the British horse-racing scene. When jockey Huw Walker is shot three times through the heart, police suspicion focuses on trainer Bill Burton, an old ex-jockey pal of Halley’s. Burton has discovered his wife’s affair with Walker, so the motive looks right until Burton himself turns up dead. Halley is initially hired by wealthy politico and horse owner Lord Enstone to probe into matters, but soon enough the sleuth perceives too many crooked angles in the case to resist launching his own determined investigation.

Francis has definitely entered the 21st century with this tale, as subplots abound concerning Internet gambling and computer technology. Yet devotees of Francis’ previous 40-odd books will undoubtedly welcome the familiar racetrack setting, the author’s insider knowledge of the sport of kings and the cast of colorful, distinctive characters. As always, Halley is a delight worldly, savvy, cagily following instincts that elude the local constabulary, his dialogue filled with witty, jaded observations. In the course of events, Halley draws personal support from his ex-father-in-law Charles, finds rapprochement with ex-wife Jenny, and becomes closer to his new love interest, the courageous, plucky and beautiful Marina van der Meer.

On a plotting level, Francis carefully withholds tidbits of evidence to keep the reader guessing, then Halley exposes all in one big revelatory scene, which spurs the novel on to its combative climax. The device works, but the way the conclusion comes about seems a bit pat. Nevertheless, there’s ambience aplenty, Halley remains a compelling leading man, and there’s a lot of good writing to be savored along the way. The punters will love it.

Martin Brady writes from Nashville.

 

Longtime fans of mystery giant Dick Francis may be surprised, but also pleased, to know that, after a six-year publishing hiatus and at the ripe old age of 86 the master has returned with a new novel. Under Orders finds Francis in solid, if…

History

The end to a bloody great war

Review by bookpagedev

On November 11, 1918, at 10:59 a.m., war raged in Europe. One minute later, the guns went silent. This book is the story of that moment and that war. Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour refers to the terms of the armistice signed in France at 5 a.m. calling for fighting to cease six hours later, at 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918. Since the armistice established the political and territorial results of the war, any further combat gains or losses had no bearing on the final outcome. From the point of the signing (indeed, from the moment the armistice negotiations began) military action was both superfluous and meaningless, an exercise in machismo devoid of purpose or rationale. And yet the fighting continued, right up to the final hour, egged on by generals more concerned about dubious points of honor than the lives of their men.

Best-selling author of Roosevelt’s Secret War and co-author of Colin Powell’s My American Journey, Joseph Persico creates more than a historical account of events or an examination of high strategy. These are in the book, but for Persico the real story of the war is told by those who lived it: the men in the trenches. Using personal letters, diaries and memoirs of men and women from all sides of the war, Persico recreates the experiences, thoughts and emotions of the common soldiers German, American, English and French. Their words and actions reveal their motivations, their fears, their proudest moments and their failings. Against these, Persico contrasts generals and politicians lost in grand delusions of empire or utopia. Through all these eyes, the reader sees the war. The result is a study in paradox, as soldiers surrounded by horror and death relish their life in the trenches, while their leaders seek an end to war, but order men into senseless slaughter for no achievable purpose.

Persico alternates between the story of the war’s final hours and the progress of the war from 1914 to that last day. The result is a personal level of suspense about the fate of the soldiers whose lives Persico follows. The reader sees the end, the final futile result of years of struggle, lurking ahead for the heroes on a quest for purpose, meaning and glory that simply are not there. We read about soldiers who enter the war convinced of the grandness of the idea, steeped in traditions of parade ground marches, stirring songs and patriotic certitude, only to discover mud-filled trenches infested with vermin, disease and death.

This is not a pleasant book, but it is a superb one. Readers will not settle back to be amused by it or set it aside lightly to be picked up again when the fancy strikes. This is a book about war on its human level, at every human level, from the day laborer gone to fight because he’s told to, to the aristocratic son of privilege gone to fight because the act seems glorious. Even the war’s origins span the gulf of human experience, from an impoverished radical assassin to an absolute monarch. This is a story of a war begun by madness, fought without purpose, guided in folly and ended without accomplishment. It is a story worth reading.

Howard Shirley is a writer and military enthusiast in Nashville.

On November 11, 1918, at 10:59 a.m., war raged in Europe. One minute later, the guns went silent. This book is the story of that moment and that war. Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour refers to the terms of the armistice signed in France…
Fiction

A mother’s search for answers

Review by bookpagedev

<B>A mother’s search for answers</B> Just hours after his high school graduation, 18-year-old Earl "Early" Smallwood, the son of a prominent attorney and a doting, stay-at-home mother, is going to kill a black teenager at gunpoint. To say that is not to give anything away; acclaimed poet and novelist Judy Goldman reveals as much at the opening of her second novel, <B>Early Leaving</B>. But knowing what happens and knowing why it happens are two different things. It’s the latter that preoccupies the novel’s narrator Early’s mother, Kathryne Smallwood, who is struggling to understand where things went wrong in this elegant exploration of the inner workings of an average, middle-class family. It will be no easy task. Kathryne vows to "hold up to the light for re-examination what I believed all those years to be true," but she may be too late. Having failed to notice the gradual withdrawal of her husband and son, Kathryne has difficulty recognizing the whole truth, and it’s up to the reader to search between the lines.

Though not always acknowledged by Kathryne, signs of trouble lurk in the Smallwoods’ marriage lack of physical intimacy, the resurfacing of Peter’s childhood girlfriend, a clash of parenting styles. Peter thinks Kathryne coddles Early, and he responds by pulling away from both of them. Early, pressured by his father’s expectations and overwhelmed by his mother’s almost obsessive affection, often resists Kathryne’s influence as well, so much so that eventually one wonders whether she knows her son at all. The narrator raises more questions than she can answer, and for all her efforts it’s still far from clear how her tender son got involved with what appears to have been a drug deal gone bad. But by the end, she may face an even tougher question: with Early in prison and Peter off in a world of his own, what is left of her? <I>Rosalind Fournier is a writer in Birmingham, Alabama.</I>

<B>A mother's search for answers</B> Just hours after his high school graduation, 18-year-old Earl "Early" Smallwood, the son of a prominent attorney and a doting, stay-at-home mother, is going to kill a black teenager at gunpoint. To say that is not to give anything away;…

Fiction

A talented author proves her mettle

Review by bookpagedev

After the 2003 publication of Nell Freudenberger’s story collection Lucky Girls, young writers of her generation crafted the term schadenfreudenberger (only partly tongue-in-cheek) to convey the envy they felt toward the writer and her talent. With her debut novel, The Dissident, Freudenberger not only demonstrates that the envy was warranted, but raises the bar for her contemporaries to create a new word worthy of her accomplishment. Not only can she write exceedingly well, she also has a darn good story to tell.

The Dissident focuses on Cece Travers, a Beverly Hills mother of two struggling with the realization she might love her husband’s brother, and Yuan Zhao, a controversial performance artist from China. Their two dissimilar worlds collide when the artist comes to stay with the Traverses as an artist-in-residence. Cece is anxious for the welcome distraction a houseguest will provide from her family life. Yuan Zhao is excited by the new experiences before him but haunted by a secret he left behind in China. And both will be forever changed by the events that transpire during the course of the visit.

Freudenberger is impressive both in the breadth of the topics she covers performance art in China’s East Village, the Beverly Hills lifestyle, a 12th-century Chinese monk painter, the drama inherent to the female teenager and the meticulous detail and attention she pays to her subjects. When shifting focus from one character to the next, she dives completely and headlong into the story at hand. The result is a vibrant interplay of enthralling characters, such that when each reappears, the effect on the reader is simultaneously one of delighted rediscovery and recognition that this will be good. Throughout the book, Freudenberger explores how much of one’s life is art. Or rather, how much of the life we show to the outside world is a creation we construct. If The Dissident is any indication, Freudenberger is a masterpiece.

Meredith McGuire writes from San Francisco.

After the 2003 publication of Nell Freudenberger's story collection Lucky Girls, young writers of her generation crafted the term schadenfreudenberger (only partly tongue-in-cheek) to convey the envy they felt toward the writer and her talent. With her debut novel, The Dissident, Freudenberger not only demonstrates…
FictionHistorical Fiction

Into the mind of a conqueror

Review by bookpagedev

Steven Pressfield, author of The Legend of Bagger Vance, has won international success with his well-researched novels set in ancient Greece. His fifth book, The Virtues of War, presents Alexander the Great’s autobiography, which the general delivers orally to his young brother-in-law. Alexander’s conquests have almost reached their extremity and his army is showing signs of psychological as well as physical exhaustion. By recounting his experiences, Alexander, who became king at age 19 and fought his greatest battles before the age of 25, can privately take stock of his achievements, refocus his sense of purpose and regain his own dynamis, or martial spirit.

At the time, Alexander faced much the same conundrum that the American political and military leadership is currently confronting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Overwhelming force of arms is the quickest means to victory, but if it is not used with great discrimination, the conqueror cannot win the “hearts and minds” of the conquered. Alexander was a savvy politician, and the novel makes it clear that it is easier to replace one despot with another than to transform a state ruled by tyranny to one committed to representative governance.

The Virtues of War will be compared to the summer blockbuster Troy and to Alexander, this month’s Oliver Stone film with Colin Farrell in the title role. But while Alexander’s amazing accomplishments may echo those of the mythological heroes of the Iliad, the novel seems instead to synthesize the salient features of Braveheart and Patton. It gives equal attention to the leader’s extraordinary capacity to inspire men to plunge into horrible combat and to the emotionally isolating effects of Alexander’s own sense of destiny. Perhaps Pressfield’s deepest insights focus on Alexander’s awareness that his persona as “Alexander the Great,” his daimon (genius or destiny), has become something distinguishable from his personal identity. Not simply a role that he has assumed, it is a part of him that answers first to history and will not be constrained. It is what makes Alexander both beautiful and terrible to contemplate. Martin Kich is a professor of English at Wright State University.

Steven Pressfield, author of The Legend of Bagger Vance, has won international success with his well-researched novels set in ancient Greece. His fifth book, The Virtues of War, presents Alexander the Great's autobiography, which the general delivers orally to his young brother-in-law. Alexander's conquests have…
FictionShort Stories

Ordinary lives, extraordinary stories

Review by bookpagedev

Nearly 40 years after Mark Helprin’s first short story was published in the New Yorker, the talented author continues his exploration of the genre with The Pacific and Other Stories. In his first book in almost 10 years, Helprin offers up 16 stories of mostly ordinary people whose outward peace masks the turbulence within their souls. Helprin’s characters are all ages and sexes, and live in such disparate locales as Venice, Brooklyn and Israel. But what they all have in common is a quiet faith in their own ability to make a difference.

In Monday, a middle-aged contractor who still believes that an honorable life is a worthy one, bestows an unheard of gift upon a young widow. In Perfection, a slight Hasidic boy shows Mickey Mantle, Casey Stengel and the rest of the New York Yankees how the game of baseball should be played, with a Yiddish twist.

All of the stories are to the point one person, one problem. But such problems! Drifter Jacob Thayer, for example, must convince the inhabitants of a small town in turn-of-the-century Europe that the telephone is not God. In the title story, a young woman works in a factory while her husband fights World War II in the Pacific. She takes a small house in San Diego overlooking the ocean so there is nothing separating them but water.

Helprin skillfully bounces back and forth between whimsy and tragedy. The stories’ lack of connectedness is a thread in itself, a statement of humanity’s infinite capacity for sorrow and joy. Each of the men and women in this book are introspective, although they somehow contrive to be so without acknowledging any flaws in themselves. For better or worse, they’ve lived their lives to this point and now they are all searching. They are looking for love, death, hope, God and the better part of themselves. Ian Schwartz writes from New York City.

Nearly 40 years after Mark Helprin's first short story was published in the New Yorker, the talented author continues his exploration of the genre with The Pacific and Other Stories. In his first book in almost 10 years, Helprin offers up 16 stories of mostly…
FictionWomen's Fiction

Quindlen’s shining tale of two sisters

Review by bookpagedev

Has Anna Quindlen achieved more success as a novelist or a columnist? It’s a toss-up. Quindlen earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for her acclaimed <i>New York Times</i> opinion column, and her opinions currently appear in <i>Newsweek</i> magazine.

Yet Quindlen also is the author of four best-selling novels, including <i>One True Thing</i>, which was made into a movie starring Meryl Streep and Renee Zellweger. Whether debating international policy on the pages of the <i>Times</i> or writing about the fictional lives of her many colorful characters, Quindlen has carved a niche with her uniquely lucid, soulful prose. In <b>Rise and Shine</b>, sisters Meghan and Bridget Fitzmaurice are best friends despite their very different lives. Bridget works at a Bronx shelter for women battling drugs, poverty and bad choices in men. Meghan is the Katie Couric-esque host of Rise and Shine, the nation’s top-rated morning program. The nation is scandalized when, during a live interview with a repulsive dot-com billionaire who’s left his wife for the surrogate carrying their babies, Meghan utters a few choice curse words sure to make the FCC cringe. Meghan the journalist suddenly becomes the story, and she retreats to Jamaica reeling from her very public fall from grace. Bridget is left to take care of Meghan’s teenage son while trying to contact her sister, who has thrown her BlackBerry into the ocean. The always self-controlled and controlling Meghan has checked out, and Bridget finds herself in a new role.

<b>Rise and Shine</b> is a razor-sharp meditation on our culture’s celebrity obsession. Its uncanny timeliness mirrors the way even serious journalists have become fodder for entertainment: Katie Couric is poised to begin her work as the first female solo anchor of an evening network news program, yet one of the first questions reporters asked was what she’ll wear during her first broadcast. But <b>Rise and Shine</b> also is a poignant story of sisterhood, and the universal struggle to find one’s true purpose. Quindlen’s superb, generous storytelling has never been more rewarding. <i>Amy Scribner writes from Olympia, Washington.</i>

Has Anna Quindlen achieved more success as a novelist or a columnist? It's a toss-up. Quindlen earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for her acclaimed <i>New York Times</i> opinion column, and her opinions currently appear in <i>Newsweek</i> magazine.

Yet Quindlen also…

FictionHistorical Fiction

Merry Christmas, Mr. President

Review by bookpagedev

A seemingly endless army of ruthless invaders led by a legendary conqueror encircles an enemy stronghold filled with women and children. The city’s defenders have either run away or been slaughtered, leaving its doomed residents to the mercy of the foreign soldiers. No, it’s not the latest fantasy epic, it’s John Jakes’ new Civil War novel Savannah: Or, a Gift for Mr. Lincoln.

Jakes, a prolific historical novelist who has been called “America’s history teacher,” now takes readers back to 1864, when General William Tecumseh Sherman is leading his army of 60,000 strong on a historic campaign to the Atlantic Ocean. Fresh from the burning of Atlanta, Sherman’s next target is Savannah, Georgia’s greatest port and one of the leading cities of the Confederacy. With the holidays quickly approaching, the capture of Savannah is to be Sherman’s glorious Christmas present to President Lincoln. With the Confederate forces in full retreat, the fate of Savannah is left in the hands of some unlikely heroes, including widow Sara Lester and her 12-year-old daughter Hattie. Reluctantly leaving their home, an old rice plantation, for the safety of the city, both Sara and Hattie experience firsthand the incomparable sorrow and unexpected joys of their plight.

Savannah is comparable in many ways to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Both novels masterfully reflect the horrific social injustices of their respective eras and feature truly vile characters who are completely apathetic to the suffering around them. Savannah has its fair share of Ebenezer Scrooges, including greedy Judge Cincinnatus Drewgood, who plots to steal the Lesters’ invaluable plantation, and Yankee soldier Marcus O. Marcus, who considers war-ravaged Georgia his own personal sociopathic playground. And while Jakes’ newest is set in the bloodiest war in American history, Savannah is, like Dickens’ classic, a heartwarming story about hope and compassion conquering all. The Christmas carol is an apt symbol throughout, bringing people black and white, Union and Confederate, rich and poor together in a time of absolute anarchy to find the one thing that truly matters: love. Paul Goat Allen is a freelance editor and writer in Syracuse, New York.

A seemingly endless army of ruthless invaders led by a legendary conqueror encircles an enemy stronghold filled with women and children. The city's defenders have either run away or been slaughtered, leaving its doomed residents to the mercy of the foreign soldiers. No, it's not…
Children's & YA

Pay attention, Clementine

Review by bookpagedev

Sometimes, it’s hard for Clementine to like her best friend Margaret. Clementine is in third grade, and she hates when Margaret uses her I’m-in-fourth-grade voice. Clementine isn’t allowed to touch any of Margaret’s stuff. Most annoying, Margaret is never told to pay attention. Clementine is paying attention, though . . . just not to her classwork.

When Margaret gets glue in her hair during art class, Clementine helps by trimming off the rest of Margaret’s hair. Borrowing her mother’s markers, Clementine then creates on Margaret’s nearly bald head a few locks as flaming red as her own. Clementine’s creativity is rewarded with yet another trip to the principal’s office. Margaret tells Clementine that she must be the hard one, because every family has a hard and an easy child. Clementine later overhears her parents planning a good-bye party, and she fears that they have finally decided to get rid of their hard one and keep only her little brother, the easy child. Clementine decides she has to fix things and fast! Can Clementine learn to harness her creativity to help her family? Sara Pennypacker has a gift for using observational humor and her heroine is smart, sassy and hilarious. Readers will laugh as Clementine tries to change the subject in the principal’s office and discusses how all the most exquisite names can be found on labels in the bathroom.

Marla Frazee’s delightful black-and-white drawings capture the whimsical nature of Clementine and the ever-so-slightly stuffy Margaret. Children will love the expressive faces on Frazee’s characters, especially the look they teach in Principal School (which Clementine feels is not very nice. ) o Any child told to pay attention is sure to fall in love with Clementine, a humorous and heartwarming tale of acceptance, friendship and unconditional love.

Tracy Marchini works at a literary agency in Manhattan.

Sometimes, it's hard for Clementine to like her best friend Margaret. Clementine is in third grade, and she hates when Margaret uses her I'm-in-fourth-grade voice. Clementine isn't allowed to touch any of Margaret's stuff. Most annoying, Margaret is never told to pay attention. Clementine is…
Children's & YA

Transforming a troubling biblical story

Review by bookpagedev

Caldecott-winning author and illustrator Mordicai Gerstein has managed to do, in a 32-page picture book, what biblical commentators, clergy and Sunday school teachers have been trying to do for centuries: explain the inexplicable story of Abraham and Isaac. God’s command that Abraham bind and sacrifice his son is one of the darkest and most puzzling chapters of the Hebrew Bible. Try teaching the story to a roomful of first-graders without scaring them silly. I did, and subsequent phone inquiries from concerned parents let me know I did not succeed.

Now, however, Gerstein’s The White Ram: A Story of Abraham and Isaac comes to the rescue. On the big horns of one fluffy, faithful critter rests the meaning and power of the most troubling story in Genesis. What if a ram, created at the beginning of the world, waited in the Garden of Eden until called by God to substitute itself for the boy, Isaac? And what if the ram’s usefulness went beyond this act to fulfill other roles in a divine plan? Gerstein’s hero does this in a satisfying balance of text and art: a just-right mix to engage both adult readers and young listeners. The author’s verbal and visual storytelling deftly addresses the terrifying image of a father on the verge of killing his own son, and transforms it into miraculous proof of God’s love. The White Ram is a new story crafted from an old tradition. In Judaism, biblical stories are part of a much larger universe of narrative, spun from centuries of rabbinic interpretation. These Midrashim (plural), often quite fanciful, are designed to fill or explain mysterious gaps or questions in sacred text. The mysterious gaps in the Abraham and Isaac story provide ample material for countless Midrashim, and Gerstein is quick to credit the role of these tales in his own unique and moving version. Though it’s especially appropriate for Rosh Hashanah, The White Ram should transcend boundaries of religious traditions to become a classic in libraries sacred and secular. Like its hero the obliging ram itself, the book can be a unifying element in our own complicated and sometimes troublesome story. Joanna Brichetto recently received a master of arts degree in Jewish Studies from Vanderbilt University.

Caldecott-winning author and illustrator Mordicai Gerstein has managed to do, in a 32-page picture book, what biblical commentators, clergy and Sunday school teachers have been trying to do for centuries: explain the inexplicable story of Abraham and Isaac. God's command that Abraham bind and sacrifice…
Children's & YA

Seeing double

Review by bookpagedev

Poor Mr. and Mrs. O’Grady! This couple lives a very meager life, indeed, in a tiny cottage, with only one potato to share each day, one hairpin, one chair, one ragged blanket, one worn coat, one candle, which they never burn, and one gold coin, which they are saving. Their children are grown and they have nothing to do now but try to get by. One day, as he digs for their daily potato, Mr. O’Grady uncovers a large black cooking cauldron buried in the hillside, which he hauls inside. He carries the potato in the pot, but when he reaches his cottage, he looks inside and finds not one, but two potatoes! Before long the thrifty couple realizes that this is a magic pot that doubles anything that falls inside. So they set to work, making more candles, more coats, more blankets more of everything, including, of course, money.

After Mr. O’Grady makes a trip to town to buy some new things (a new coat!), Mrs. O’Grady rises to help him come in. Still groggy from her rest, she trips and falls into the pot. Yes, this pot works on people, too, and before you can say One Potato, Two Potato, there are two Mr. and two Mrs. O’Gradys! After the initial shock, the two couples live happily ever after, with each person now having a buddy with whom to talk.

Andrea U’ren’s illustrations are just right: they’re spare to suit the story, yet not lacking in any detail. In one picture, for instance, Mr. and Mrs. O’Grady sit on their shared chair one evening contemplating life, before they find the magic pot. Their long bodies bend, back to back, and they both look terribly uncomfortable on that chair. Cynthia DeFelice has written a captivating folk tale, a read-aloud bound to keep children mesmerized. It’s also a good one to prompt discussions: What would you like to double if you had a magic pot?

Poor Mr. and Mrs. O'Grady! This couple lives a very meager life, indeed, in a tiny cottage, with only one potato to share each day, one hairpin, one chair, one ragged blanket, one worn coat, one candle, which they never burn, and one gold coin,…

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