As it is, too many things feel groundless or rushed. Doubling the length (but not the dithering), aging the character behaviors appropriately, and deepening characterization past types might have made it worthwhile. The devout faith of the Quakers-the cultural faith of all the characters-is an appreciated, historically accurate touch. Beryl followed in her fathers footsteps by becoming the first woman in Africa to receive her horse-training license. Beryl Markham grew up in the wilds of Africa where her father raised racehorses on their farm. An effort was made toward nineteenth-century diction. West with the Night is a memoir of Beryl Markham, horse trainer, bush pilot, and history making aviatrix. Since the Civil War started, wounded men waiting to be treated at the local church-turned-hospital have been coming in by droves. Why so much of the book involves Lucy complaining about things like the weather and having to remind herself that Cass's life is worse than hers.Īll that said, there are seeds of a good story here. Escape by Night: A Civil War Adventure Laurie Myers, Amy June Bates (Illustrator) 3.69 162 ratings32 reviews Ten-year-old Tommy and his sister Annie are intrigued by the new soldiers arriving in their Georgia town. Why the main secondary character Cass is a nineteen-year-old, escaped slave who is pregnant for the third time with a child of the white master who rapes her. I don't understand why the book was written this way, why Lucy is sixteen-going-on-twelve. (And the back cover, which says reading level 5.0.) I know, this isn't a young adult novel: for proof, see the cover. The moralizing is heavy-handed even for middle-grade fiction but really doesn't work as young adult. Modern ideologies, especially the stereotypical Independent Woman Ahead of Her Time, creep into this historical novel rather often. She's caught in a love triangle and will have to choose between her suitors (and marry one of them) fairly soon, and yes, her dithering composes a large portion of the story. SYNOPSIS: Civil War novel for young readers, about a young Union prisoner who escapes from a Confederate jail in South Carolina, with a friend, and sets out on. As Mauriac points out, the Nazi atrocities were so unimaginable and inconceivable that, merely by bearing witness, Wiesel is performing an invaluable service to humanity. Its length is typical of middle-grade (175 pages), and protagonist Lucy behaves like a typical twelve-year-old. Night is a terrifyingly personal account of horrific events.
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