This month's book reviews

A little book about girls who get to do
more than just dream of riding horses

"American Girl Magazine" has featured a number of stories about girls who take care of horses and who train and ride them in various events. They are true stories with colorful pictures. This book combines a number of these articles in one cover and calls the publication "Girls and their Horses." Included are "Rodeo Riders," Wild Ponies," "Miniature Horses," "Vaulters," Show Jumper," Horse Chores," Horse Sense," and Horse Guide."

No one girl, no matter how much she likes horses, can be involved with all of the kinds of horses and events that this book tells about. So no matter how much you know about horses, you are likely to learn something new from one or more of the articles in this book. For example, there are real horses that are no bigger than a big dog. These little horses make good pets, but they can also be trained to jump and to pull small carts and buggies. We are told that they can "nip" and "kick", if you're not careful with them, just like big horses.

The article on "Horse Chores" makes it clear that owning a horse is not all fun and games. Somebody has to "muck out" their stalls. Somebody has to see that they are fed and watered. Somebody has to groom them and keep them clean. Somebody has to see that they are exercised. Who do you think that somebody is? Also horses need a big field in which to graze and run around. They like the company of another horse or horses. The fences to keep them in a field have to be strong and tall. So, you are not likely to keep a horse in your garage or in your back yard.

The last article has 24 horse cards with pictures of 24 different breeds of horses. On the back of each card is a description of that kind of horse, ranging from ponies to Clydesdales. If you like horses, this is the book for you.

 

A story of a young slave boy
in the South of the 1850's

Miles is a twelve-year-old boy living on a cotton plantation in South Carolina in 1851. The bad news is that he is a slave. For him, the good news is that he is being trained as a house servant and does not have to work all day in the hot sun as a field worker. Unfortunately, for him, he drops a book while cleaning in the library. He is impressed by the pictures in the book and is caught looking at them. For a slave to look inside a book is against the rules of the white plantation owner. So Miles is sent to the "breaking ground," where slaves presumed to be "unruly" are subjected to cruel treatment in order to break their spirits.

While at the breaking ground, Miles impresses an older slave named Eijah with his intelligence and willingness to learn. Elijah is one of those rare slaves who can read and has traveled fairly widely and is well educated. Secretly, Elijah teaches Miles the alphabet and the beginnings of reading and writing. He also plants in Miles a desire to escape the bonds of slavery and to run away to the North to become a free man.

When Miles is returned to his home plantation, he is given the opportunity to once again become a house servant. Elijah, however, had told him that it would be easier to run away from the plantation as a field hand rather than as a house servant. For one thing, Miles could receive and send messages more easily as a field hand. Miles has to be cunning to position himself to successfully escape without arousing the suspicion of those who might inform on him. His escape plans are complicated even more by the fact that he wants to take his elderly adopted mother with him.

"Miles' Song" tells an exciting adventure story while giving the reader a feel for what being a slave was like in this pre-Civil War period.

 

A novel that combines an old testament
story with a close look at ancient Egypt

"Pharaoh's Daughter, A Novel of Ancient Egypt" by Julius Lester is not a little kid's book. It tells the story of Moses and his older sister, Almah, as they move through childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. The two are children of a Hebrew family, living as slaves of the Pharaoh in ancient Egypt. His advisors have convinced the Pharaoh that the Hebrews are becoming too numerous and pose a threat to his empire. He orders his soldiers to slay the young sons of the Hebrews in order to lesson any such threat in the next generation.

Almah, a young Hebrew girl, has been told by her family to watch out for the coming of the soldiers. She is to hide her baby brother in a basket in the rushes along the bank of the Nile River. To her surprise, a young noblewoman from the palace of the Pharaoh finds the infant and claims that one of the Egyptian gods has indicated that he should be her son. The young noblewoman turns out to be the daughter of the mighty Pharaoh. Through her influence, both Almah and the infant, Moses, are brought up in the palace and treated as Egyptian nobility. In fact they become close to the Pharaoh, himself.

Almah and Moses are happy to live the lives of luxury that only upper class Egyptians of that era are able to experience. Their Hebrew family continues to live in a poor home that is smaller than even the smallest room in the palace. The two are filled with feeling of guilt because they have turned from the God of the Hebrews and abandoned their Jewish customs. The novel develops how each of them deals with this inner conflict in their young lives.

Julius Lester, the author, is a student of both Hebrew and Egyptian history. He brings much of that background knowledge to the novel. A reader has to be willing to accept the unusual names that the author uses for historical characters and for Egyptian deities. This is a book where you have to make use of the glossary in order to get the full flavor of the historical events.

 

A young actor goes on the road
with Shakespeare's players

Widge is only fifteen but through some strange events he has become one of William Shakespeare's players. Of course, because he is so young, he will play only female roles in the plays, at least until his voice changes. In those days, women were not allowed to play roles on stage.

Widge is especially important to William Shakespeare because he is a good speller and has good handwriting skills. He can write out the parts for each of the actors. In addition, Widge had learned to take shorthand when he served as an apprentice to an earlier master. So he could take dictation from Shakespeare when the playwright had a wounded arm.

Because of a threat of the plague in London, the Globe Theater had been forced to close temporarily. The theatrical group needed money, so it was decided to take the plays on the road to smaller country towns where the plague was not yet a threat,

Widge, who was raised as an orphan, did not know who his father was. Surprisingly, a retired soldier pops up in Widge's old hometown and claims to be Widge's father. Widge is thrilled to find out about his family background and to now have a father of his own. He brushed aside the doubts expressed by his fellow players about the soldier's claims. When the money made from the plays is stolen, and his newly found father appears to be the thief, Widge is really torn between loyalty to his presumed father or to the group of players who had taken him in.

"Shakespeare's Scribe" by Gary Blackwood is the sequel to the earlier novel "The Shakespeare Stealer." If you read and liked the first book, you will be happy to read about Widge's further adventures in this Elizabethan Era.