This Is Not a Werewolf Story by Sandra Evans

Nov22

I nominated this debut novel for the Cybils Awards, without having read it myself, because Gary Schmidt, author of The Wednesday Wars and Okay For Now, said it was “a journey that every reader needs to go on.” It wasn’t until I read the author’s note at the end of the book that I realized that the inspiration for the story was the The Lais of Marie de France, in particular one story from that collection of twelfth century tales, the story of “Bisclavret”. And that source means something to me because Eldest Daughter, who is a French medieval scholar, wrote her doctoral dissertation and several other academic papers about aspects of the works of Marie de France. So, a serendipitous connection made this middle grade “not-a-werewolf” novel even more meaningful and fun for me.

The book is about a boy named Raul who lives at One of Our Kind boarding school. When the other kids go home on the weekends, Raul takes to the woods and changes into a wolf. But he’s “not a werewolf” because “werewolves are humans who got cursed. I’m not cursed. They have unibrows, and is you cut their skin you’ll see fur, not blood. Two fingertips fit between my eyebrows. I bleed. Werewolves attack people in the woods and eat them. I wouldn’t do that.” Raul is a boy/wolf, but he is determined to keep the woods and the school parts of his double life separated.

However, when a new boy in school also experiences the “woods magic”, and when Tuffman, the sadistic gym teacher becomes involved in Raul’s double life, too, Raul is forced to try to figure out how to reconcile the two parts of his dual nature. This novel is not for everybody. It’s weird. Raul thinks of himself as “not a monster”, but definitely a “weirdo”. Raul also doesn’t talk very much, and his thoughts are somewhat sophisticated and intelligent, but his voice as narrator is characterized by short, choppy sentences and fragments of sentences. He’s alone and a tough guy with a protective nature. And all of those aspects of his personality land him in trouble.

A certain type of kid might identify with Raul and with his story, might wish that they, too, could shape shift into a wolf on the weekends (or anytime). Raul’s wolf life doesn’t take up much space in the story; most of the real plot of the novel takes place in the human weekdays. And I guess that’s appropriate because in the end Raul is a boy who is learning to be human, not a wolf. I enjoyed reading the story of how Raul finds his family and his words and his vocation.

Middle Grade Book Wisdom 2016, Mostly Fantasy

Nov21

“Doesn’t a little part of you want to be involved in a secret, high-risk plan that’ll have disastrous consequences if it fails? Everyone needs to do that at least once in his life.” ~The Secrets of Solace by Jaleigh Johnson.

“You must step inside a world to see it honestly. A passing glance won’t do.” ~Furthermore by Taheri Mafi.

“The first step in the path to knowledge is very simple: open a book.” ~The League of Beastly Dreadfuls: The Dastardly Deed by Holly Grant.

“If you don’t forgive yourself for making a mistake, then you get so that you never want to admit that you made one.” ~This Is Not a Werewolf Story by Sandra Evans.

“Lots of things are impossible, right up until they’re not.” ~Waiting for Augusta by Jessica Lawson.

“It’s always better to be in rooms you can get out of easily, if you need to.” ~The Wrinkled Crown by Anne Nesbet.

“You should be polite to people on general principle, of course. But if you happen to be wandering through a magical land, and a little old lady asks you for help, you should be extremely polite to her, just in case. Otherwise you may well wake up with earthworms falling out of your mouth whenever you talk, or various other suitably awful fairy punishments.” ~Hamster Princess: Of Mice and Magic by Ursula Vernon.

“When thoughts wiggle their way in, sometimes it can be very difficult for them to wiggle out again.” ~A Clatter of Jars by Lisa Graff.

“Sometimes things work out differently than you expect, and sometimes that’s when the best things happen. And sometimes a jumble straightens everything out in the end.” ~The Adventures of Miss Petitfour by Anne Michaels.

“To have power without the proper vision of how to use it makes one blind. Greed makes one blind. Fear makes one blind. It is difficult to see when you walk in darkness.” ~Behind the Canvas by Alexander Vance.

“. . . if you only try the things you believe you can do, you’ll only accomplish the things you already knew you could do. But if you give yourself permission to fail, you’re free to try the things that seem completely beyond your reach. And that’s when magic happens.” ~Gears of Revolution by J. Scott Savage.

“Hope is an excellent and necessary thing to have in this world. Hope and bread and good friends.” ~Grayling’s Song by Karen Cushman.

“Some mistakes need to be made. Sometimes we have to fall down before we can stand up.” ~Red by Liesl Shurtliff.

” . . . you should never give up. Unless, of course, you’re doing something wrong, in which case you should give up entirely.” ~Red by Liesl Shurtliff.

“Magic is not the answer. Magic may be convenient, brilliant, even dazzling, but it is not the answer.” ~Grayling’s Song by Karen Cushman.

“It is hard for a goblin and a human to be friends. Goblin honor and human honor are so very different.” ~The Goblin’s Puzzle by Andrew S. Chilton.

“Fiction. . . That’s another word for lies. Like stories about jellyfish and the Olympics.” ~The Lost Compass by Joel Ross.

“Remembering is a powerful thing.” ~Ollie’s Odyssey by William Joyce.

“You have to be careful of men who love danger.” ~The Skeleton Tree by Iain Lawrence.

“Being a writer is not easy, you know. It is, now that I think of it, either full of sorrow or full of joy.” ~The Poet’s Dog by Patricia MacLachlan.

“Sometimes the burdens we lay on others’ shoulders remain long after they are free to drop them.” ~The Eye of Midnight by Andrew Brumbach.

“Perhaps you have heard the famous bit of wisdom about how the breaking of an omelet requires the breaking of eggs? This philosophy, while technically true, does not account for the fact that omelets are universally disappointing to all who eat them—equal parts water and rubber and slime. Who among us would not prefer a good cobbler or spiced pudding?” ~Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard by Jonathan Auxier.

“It is lamentably common among chivalrous sorts that they are more intent on defending a woman’s honor than listening to the wishes of said woman.” ~Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard by Jonathan Auxier.

“A world without stories is a world without magic.” ~Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard by Jonathan Auxier.

“There are ways forward, and then when those ways are closed, there other ways around, and when the trail breaks off or fades out, there are still other secret ways, always.” ~The Wrinkled Crown by Anne Nesbet.

“Stories [are] much more than words on a page. Stories [live] inside those who read them.” ~Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard by Jonathan Auxier.

“Should you ever be so lucky as to encounter an author in your life, you should shower her or him with gifts and praise.” ~Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard by Jonathan Auxier.

“The most priceless possession of the human race is the wonder of the world. Yet, latterly, the utmost endeavors of mankind have been directed towards the dissipation of that wonder . . . Nobody, any longer, may hope to entertain an angel unawares, or to meet Sir Lancelot in shining armor on a moonlit road. But what is the use of living in a world devoid of wonderment?” ~Kenneth Grahame, epigraph at the beginning of Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard by Jonathan Auxier.

“Not only is the Universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think.” ~Werner Heisenberg, Across the Frontiers, quoted in My Diary from the Edge of the World by Jodi Lynn Anderson.

“[I]t is our actions that determine who we are. Not our genes. Not who our parents may or may not be, but our own choices.” ~Time Stoppers by Carrie Jones.

“Follow your own heart! People always say that. They mean well, I’m sure. But sometimes, we need to overrule our hearts. We need to be brave. We need to be kind because we should, not because it’s easy.” ~Every Single Second by Tricia Springstubb.

Stay tuned for the second installment of “Middle Grade Book Wisdom, 2016”. It wouldn’t all fit into one post.

More Refugee and Immigrant Books–Just in Time for Thanksgiving

Nov19

For preschool and primary age children:
Molly’s Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen. The third grade girls in Molly’s small town school make fun of Molly, a refugee from religious persecution in Russia, but Molly’s mother helps her to see how they are just like the Pilgrims who came to America in 1620, escaping from persecution to find hope and peace in a new land.

How Many Days to America?: A Thanksgiving Story by Eve Bunting and Beth Peck. A family from an unnamed island in the Caribbean travel in a boat to reach America, and land on Thanksgiving Day. In spite of the hardships of the journey, the family is thankful to be in America.

Four Feet, Two Sandals by Karen Lynn Williams. Two refugee children in a camp in Pakistan share one pair of shoes, until one of the children leaves to go to America.

For middle graders:
Escape from Warsaw/The Silver Sword by Ian Serrailler. One of my favorite books of all time. Four Polish refugee children travel across Europe after World War 2, trying to reunite with their father who has been in a prisoner of war camp.

Diamonds in the Shadow by Caroline B. Cooney. A family in the U.S. sponsor a refugee family from Africa, only to find out that the refugee family is hiding some dangerous secrets.

Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate. Kek, a refugee from Sudan, comes to Minnesota with his aunt and his cousin, Ganwar. Kek’s family all died in the wars in Sudan, except for his mother who is missing and may also be dead. Kek needs a great deal of bravery to make himself a home in this new place of America. Slowly Kek makes friends with a girl named Hannah who lives in his apartment complex, with some of the other immigrants who are in his ESL class at school, and, best of all, with a cow to whom he gives the name, Gol, family.

Dragonwings by Laurence Yep. In 1903, Moon Shadow, an eight-year- old Chinese boy, sails to America to meet his father, Windrider, for the first time. Moon Shadow knows only stories of America, the land of the Golden Mountain and its inhabitants, the demons. He eventually comes to love and admire his father, the small community of Chinese workers in America, and his new country.

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. When Salva’s school is attacked, he must flee, seeking refuge in another country. His long trek is harrowing, but eventually he makes it to Kenya and then he is adopted by a family in the U.S.

The Red Umbrella by Christian Diaz Gonzalez. Lucia and Francisco Alvarez are Cuban children whose parents send them to the United States to escape from Castro’s revolucion.

Escaping the Tiger by Laura Manivong. A Laotian family is trapped in a refugee camp in Thailand after escaping from the Communist Pathet Lao regime in their native country. The story is based on the true story of the author’s husband and his family.

Shooting Kabul by N.H. Senzai was a good book about an Afghan family emigrating to the U.S. just after 9/11, and the sequel, Saving Kabul Corner, takes the same Afghan immigrant community into the next decade as they learn to combine American culture with the traditions brought over from Afghanistan to make a new place for themselves in San Francisco.

Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix. The story of three girls: Bella, an immigrant from Southern Italy, Yetta, a Russian Jewish immigrant worker, and Jane, a poor little rich girl who becomes involved in the lives of the shirtwaist factory workers in spite of her rarified existence as a society girl.

What excellent books about refugees and immigrants can you suggest?

Saturday Review of Books: November 19, 2016

Nov18

“‘I read,’ I say. ‘I study and read. I bet I’ve read everything you’ve read. Don’t think I haven’t. I consume libraries. I wear out spines and ROM-drives. I do things like get in a taxi and say, ‘The library, and step on it.'” ~David Foster Wallace

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Adrift at Sea by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch with Tuan Ho

Nov16

Adrift at Sea: A Vietnamese Boy’s Story of Survival by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch with Tuan Ho, illustrated by Brian Deines.

This nonfiction picture book opens with a bang: our narrator, Tuan Ho, comes from school to his home in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to find preparations being made for a journey. His first reaction is to ask his mother, “Are you leaving me now, too?” A year before Tuan Ho’s father had left Vietnam with his older sister, but then-five year old Tuan and his other three sisters were too young to make the journey as “boat people” refugees from Vietnam. Now, Tuan’s mother tells him that he and two of his sisters will be leaving with “Ma” in the dark of the early morning. It’s a secret; no one must know that they are going. And they must leave Tuan’s four year old sister, Van, behind with family members. “She’s too young to travel.”

The family ride in a truck to the beach. There they are chased and shot at by soldiers as they run to board the boat. On the boat, they face even more hardships: a shortage of food and water, engine trouble, too many passengers, a leaky boat. But the book finally ends with a rescue and a tall glass of milk for the relieved and smiling Tuan Ho.

The illustrations in this book, full color paintings, are absolutely stunning. Canadian illustrator, Brian Deines, has outdone himself in two-page spreads that bring this refugee story to life.

The story itself, a slice of life, begins abruptly without any explanation as to why the family must leave Vietnam. Nor does the main part of the text explain what happens to Tuan Ho and family after they are rescued at sea. However, there are some explanatory pages with both photographs and text at the end of the book that tell readers about the history of the Vietnam War and about the entire history of Tuan Ho’s family and their emigration from Vietnam and eventual reunification in Canada. It’s a good introduction to the subject of the Vietnamese boat people for both older students and middle grade readers. Even primary age children could appreciate Tuan Ho’s story with a little bit of explanation from a parent or teacher about the war and the Communist persecution that they were fleeing.

Another good 2016 entry for my impromptu Refugee and Immigrant Week here at Semicolon.

Skating With the Statue of Liberty by Susan Lynn Meyer

Nov15

Yesterday I read this 2016 middle grade fiction novel about a twelve year old French Jewish boy named Gustave and his experience of immigrating to the United States during World War II. Because of this book, and yesterday’s review of It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel, and some other upcoming reviews, it seems to have turned into Refugee and Immigrant Week here at Semicolon. It was an unplanned emphasis, but one that is quite apropos considering the news and the times we live in.

In Skating With the Statue of Liberty, Gustave and his extended family come to the United States from war-torn France, after having hidden and then escaped from the Nazis. The family faces many challenges. They are not allowed to bring adequate funds with them to start a new life, and so they are forced to smuggle in what little money they have. No one in the family speaks English, except for Gustave who has learned a little bit of English in school. Gustave’s father can only get a low-paying job as a janitor. Gustave doesn’t understand many things about American culture and customs, and even in America, he faces instances of anti-Semitism and racism as he becomes friends with a “Negro” girl, September Rose.

I read in the book cover blurb that this novel is a companion to the author’s debut novel, Black Radishes. Now I want to go back and read that one because Skating With the Statue of Liberty was a great story. It feels historically accurate, and yet the themes and scenes are quite applicable to the issues of racism and anti-Semitism that we see in the news today. Gustave struggles with whether he should think of himself as French or American or something else, perhaps Jewish. He discusses with a rabbi his lack of faith in a God who would allow the horror and persecution of Jews in German-occupied France. September Rose’s family struggles with how to support their country and the war effort and also stand against the injustice and discrimination that they face as black Americans.

I found this book, by a Jewish author and based partly on her father’s stories of his childhood escape from Nazi-occupied France, to be well-written, historically informative, and absorbing. The plot doesn’t sugarcoat the issues of prejudice, anti-immigrant persecution, discrimination, and even racial and anti-Semitic violence, but the ending and the growing friendship between Gustave and September Rose are hopeful and encouraging.

I just think kids (and adults) need books like this one and like It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel to help them begin to make sense of what is happening politically and socially in our nation. It may have been a coincidence that I read these two books almost back to back, but it gave me an idea to showcase the many really good books about refugees and immigrants that I have read and loved. So that’s what I’ll be doing this week.

It AIn’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas

Nov14

Zomorod Yusefzadeh is living in California with her Iranian family before and during the Iran hostage crisis. No wonder she wants to change her name to Cindy! Not to mention that no one can pronounce her real name, and people always ask, when they find out where she’s from, if they ride camels. Zomorod/Cindy has only even seen a camel once—in a zoo!

These are the adventures and misadventures of an Iranian girl with an immigrant family that sticks out like a sore thumb, in the community, in Zomorod’s middle school, especially after the shah leaves Iran and the political radicals take Americans hostage in the embassy in Iran. Zomorod tries to fit in, by changing her name to Cindy, by celebrating American holidays, and by making friends, but it’s hard to reconcile the two cultures she is living in, Persian and American. The book reminded me of one of my favorite movies, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, as Zomorod/Cindy sees the world from inside her Iranian family and from the American point of view that she is learning. However, no weddings here, as Zomorod/Cindy is only 10-12 years old as the story progresses.

The story is kind of sad at times. Cindy’s dad loses his job as a result of the hostage crisis, and Cindy’s mom is having a lot trouble adjusting to life in the United States. However, lots of humor, and good attitude (most of the time) from Cindy, and some persistently friendly and hospitable people give the book an upbeat and hopeful feel and ending. This book would be an excellent book to give to current middle schoolers who are hearing all of the anti-immigrant talk and being influenced or discouraged by it. It Ain’t so Awful, Falafel gives a different perspective on the immigrant experience and shows how important it is to try to understand how others think and feel.

Saturday Review of Books: November 12, 2016

Nov11

“For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.” ~Anne Lamott

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Welcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.

Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.

After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read.

Making America Great

Nov10

I began Tuesday morning, Election Day, by going to the polls to vote, along with Drama Daughter (21) who was voting in her first presidential election. We went early because Drama Daughter had to be at school by 8:30. We waited in line for maybe five minutes, voted, and came home. I did not vote for Donald Trump. I did not vote for Hillary Clinton. I knew that whatever happened the presidential election results were not going to fill me with hope for the future of this nation. But that’s O.K. My hope and my encouragement come from another source, not from the political system or the elected officials in our government.

After voting on Tuesday, I wrote a letter to my son. I told him that even though I believed she was corrupt and untrustworthy, and even though her views on abortion, religious liberty, human sexuality, marriage and many other vital subjects, were anathema to me, it looked as if Hillary Clinton would become the first female president of the United States. And, I told him in my less than prescient letter, that we would survive. (Well, the survival part was good, anyway.) Not that it didn’t matter who won the election. Certainly it mattered to many babies as yet unborn, to women who would be coerced and tricked into disposing of their own children, to children who would be told that their gender and their sexuality were both inborn and unchangeable and at the same time malleable according to their own feelings. If Hillary Clinton had been elected, girls would be told that they could become anything they wanted, including becoming POTUS (good!), but also including becoming boys (impossible!). If Hillary Clinton had been elected, we would be approving of one set of laws for the poor and the middle class and another set for the rich and powerful.

On the other hand, I had already looked very carefully at what it would mean for the United States and for me and my family if Donald Trump were elected president, especially if he were elected with a majority of the votes of evangelical Christians. I am an evangelical Christian. Although I am tired of the media and the pollsters dividing Americans into tribes and ethnic groups and religious groups and socioeconomic groups, if I have a tribe, that’s mine. I am a person who claims the name of Christian. I follow Jesus. And I was and am deeply troubled by the thought that the majority of “my tribe” is following, or at least acquiesced to, Donald Trump, a man who personifies many of the things that I most hate: misogyny, disregard for the power and meaning of words, and hubris. I am told that over 80% of evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump. That makes me sad, and I am concerned that Christians, whether we want to be or not, will be tied in the public mind to the policies and mistakes and tragedies of the Trump presidency. I am concerned that the name of Jesus will be misunderstood and vilified. I am also concerned for families of immigrants, legal and illegal, for minorities, for survivors of abuse, and for many others who are fearful and worried about living in a country where Mr. Trump is president.

Some Clinton supporters yesterday and today were posting a list of liberal organizations and causes in need of contributions from those who oppose Donald Trump and all he stands for. They wanted to give people who were grieving and angry at Mr. Trump’s election something positive to do for this country and its people. I can’t contribute to most of those causes because they are pro-abortion organizations that promote the very objectivization of women that they accuse Donald Trump of supporting. Male and female babies in the womb deserve our care and protection; girls and women outside the womb deserve our care and protection. Neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump could be trusted to care about women (or men) at every stage of life. That’s why this election was so hard. That’s the elephant in the room. If the media wants to divide us into warring groups, I believe the factor most predictive of a vote for either Trump or Clinton was whether the voter was pro-life or pro-choice.

But I don’t want us to be at war with ourselves. We already fought one civil war, and although the result of that war was the great good of ending slavery, it also left us with great wounds and bitterness as a people, some of which still remain to this day. I don’t know how to resolve this deep divide, but I think we’re going to have to start by communicating with one another. We’re going to have to talk to one another about hard stuff—racism, abortion, sexuality, moral standards, what it means to be male and female—without name-calling and without violence and without silencing each other. Free speech along with “free listening” beget understanding and maybe even real tolerance.

In that previously mentioned letter, I told my son that after Hillary Clinton became president, the real work of making America great would be left up to us, the American people. In particular, Christians are called to be salt and light in a tasteless and dark world. What I told my son about the work we would be called to after Ms. Clinton was elected is just as true now that Mr. Trump is preparing to become our 45th president. We must do the work of healing relationships, building community, listening to one another, and making not just America, but the world, great and safe and forgiving and kind and freely yielded to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Specifically, I hope to be doing the following things to heal and make our country great:

1. I will be praying for President-elect Donald Trump as I have prayed for President Obama. I will also pray for the many other political leaders in our country and around the world, that they will restrain evil, eschew pride, and use their power wisely and carefully for the good of others.

2. I will ask people who voted for Donald Trump and people who voted for Hillary Clinton to explain to me WHY they voted as they did. I will ask them what they hope for and what they fear. I will try to listen and understand, and when I do not agree, I will still respect and show love to the person I disagree with.

3. I will celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family and with my church family, and I will try to find ways to make those holidays meaningful and encouraging for all of those people who are my immediate encouragers and responsibility.

4. I will continue to contribute, not to pro-abortion causes or to political causes, but to small groups that are doing large things to make this world better: an orphanage in Zambia, a ministry to women who are trapped in the sex trade in Waco, missionaries in Nepal, a counseling ministry that will be working mostly with refugees and immigrants in Ohio. Choose your own places to give; give lots of money or just a little , as you can, or give your time to volunteer. But generous giving is one way to change the world.

5. I will carefully post encouraging and insightful words on Twitter and on Facebook and on this blog. I will think before I write and pray before I post.

6. I will smile and greet people I see at the grocery store or the post office or other places, especially people who are of another ethnic group or religious group or who just look as if they need the boost of a smile and the reassurance of a friendly greeting. I plan to go the extra mile to show that there are many, many Americans, Democrats and Republicans, who are not hateful, not racist, not misogynistic, and not intolerant.

7. I will share the gospel–in letters, in phone calls, in person, with words and with deeds. I truly believe that the good news of peace with God through Jesus Christ is the only thing that can bring peace between people. If you don’t believe that or don’t understand it, let’s talk about it. Tell me why you don’t believe in Jesus, and I will tell why I do. Maybe it’s true that America will only be great again when individual Americans come to repentance and understanding in Him.

You may or may not agree with everything I have written in this blog post. That’s OK. We are different people, and we have different ways of seeing the world. Right now I want to know: what specific things are you doing in the next few weeks or months to make things better, to truly make America great, to bring healing to our nation?

The Inquisitor’s Tale by Adam Gidwitz

Nov3

The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog by Adam Gidwitz.

I hate books that seem to say, “Oh, kids like gross, nasty, slimy stuff. Let’s take the really loathsome parts of this tale and make them the centerpiece of the narrative because that will draw the kids in.” That’s what I wrote about Mr. Gidwitz’s book, In a Glass Grimmly, and it applies to this story, too. It’s a shame that this author has such a penchant for poops and farts and crude humor because otherwise he’s a good writer. The scatological attempts at humor aren’t usually very funny, and they just don’t add to the story at all.

The story: On a dark night in the year 1242, travelers from across France cross paths at an inn and begin to tell stories of three children: Jeanne, a peasant girl who has visions, William, an oblate who is half-Saracen and half French, and Jacob, a Jewish boy with a gift for healing. These children may be saints, or they may be using evil magic to do wonders that will deceive the faithful. And the dog, Gwenforte, who once saved a child from a deadly serpent, may be resurrected, but can a dog really be a saint? The children’s adventures take them from a farting dragon to a meeting with the king to a plot to save the illicit, mostly Jewish, books that are scheduled for burning by Good King Louis and his mother, Blanche of Castile.

So, Louis IX and his mother were real people, and so were several of the other characters in the novel. The three children are composite character, partly taken from the hagiographic stories of medieval saints and partly from Mr. Gidwitz’s fertile imagination. Other real medieval characters in the book include: Chretien de Troyes, a late 12th century poet and trouvare, Francis Bacon, the late medieval (1561-1626) scientist and philosopher, Rabbi Rashi of Troyes, an 11th century Jewish scholar, and various other minor characters imported from the pages of medieval French stories and poems. In addition, the girl, Jeanne, bears an affinity to Joan of Arc, the storytelling reminds one of Chaucer, and the burning in Paris of some 12,000 manuscript copies of the Talmud and other Jewish books actually took place in 1243.

So, as he did in his other series of books based on Grimm’s fairy tales, Mr. Gidwitz took the elements from several French, and even British, lives and tales of the middle ages and stirred them into a stew which turned out to be something completely different. And it could have been a delight. Instead, it’s sort of a mish-mosh of good scenes and bad, crude and insightful, funny and flat. If I could extract the bad parts and leave in the good, I would recommend it.

The illustrations, or illuminations, that adorn the pages of this medieval tale are a delight.

For a much more thorough and positive review of The Inquisitor’s Tale, check out this post by Sara Masarik at Plumfield and Paideia.