Book review: Winter Hare
Sep. 16th, 2009 09:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyjadwigaJoan Elizabeth Goodman. The Winter Hare (Houghton Mifflin, 1996)
This juvenile historical is fairly straightforward, I'd rate it for grades 4-8 (SLJ says 6-9), but fine for us adult historical enthusiasts. Set in the period when England was torn between King Stephen and Empress Matilda. Will Belet is a poorly-grown younger son wants to be a knight and goes as a page to his step-uncle's house, where his brother already serves. A certain amount of political suspense and tension in the Margaret Frasier style, and excellent attention to historical detail. Horn Book calls it formulaic, but it doesn't seem to treat the coming-of-age themes in the usual formulaic way, more a narrative way. I think the average (read: non-SCAdian, non-history fan) young person will find this rather dull, but for any of our kids who are interested in how they might have lived in period, this will be rather more fascinating. Personally, I liked it in a non-specific way.
This juvenile historical is fairly straightforward, I'd rate it for grades 4-8 (SLJ says 6-9), but fine for us adult historical enthusiasts. Set in the period when England was torn between King Stephen and Empress Matilda. Will Belet is a poorly-grown younger son wants to be a knight and goes as a page to his step-uncle's house, where his brother already serves. A certain amount of political suspense and tension in the Margaret Frasier style, and excellent attention to historical detail. Horn Book calls it formulaic, but it doesn't seem to treat the coming-of-age themes in the usual formulaic way, more a narrative way. I think the average (read: non-SCAdian, non-history fan) young person will find this rather dull, but for any of our kids who are interested in how they might have lived in period, this will be rather more fascinating. Personally, I liked it in a non-specific way.
