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Book Review: The Snake and the Ghost by Tim Jackson

The Snake and the Ghost by Tim Jackson

HaggusArts Publications, 2016

ISBN-13: 978-0-9968544-0-5

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition

 

The Snake and the Ghost is a self-published picture book about Haggus, a snake who takes a bully’s dare to visit a “haunted” house. The reality is that the “ghosts” are the human residents of the house, who scream and swat at him with a broom. Looking in a mirror, he is terrified by his own reflection, realizes that the “ghosts” must be afraid of him, and decides to try talking to them. He then encounters an actual ghost– the grandmother of the little boy who lives in the house– and she can understand him, and confides in him. Haggus then slips away and paints a picture of the grandmother and the little boy, using his tail. Then he is engulfed in darkness and disappears, as the boy’s father scoops him into a sack. The author ends by reassuring the reader that Haggus does eventually return to his family.

Jackson wrote with the intent of creating a spooky tale of a snake wanting an adventure, and the atmospheric, black and white illustrations, done in charcoal, evoke the immediate reaction from the reader that this is going to be creepy (some of these unfortunately lost some of their impact for me, as Haggus is cartoonishly depicted in comparison to the otherwise muted images). However, the central and most essential part of the story is the conversation between the ghost and the snake. Despite my own quibble with the ability of a snake and a ghost to communicate with each other in spoken English, this is the most genuine and heartfelt part of the book, with the grandmother explaining the humans’ fear of both snakes and ghosts, and sharing her grief with Haggus in a way that makes him look past his own wants to help her reconnect with her grandson. While Jackson may have been aiming for a dark and spooky  adventure story, the way he portrays grief and love in this part of the story is what really touches the reader, and the darkness and shading of the images really bring that out. The adventure is incidental.

While the book has a professional look and terrific illustrations, the author really needed a copy editor. The biggest issue is that there are awkward changes in verb tense, and there are also occasional errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar. While most of these won’t impair understanding for the reader, they bothered me, and the lack of copy editing in a book that otherwise was clearly designed with care is really surprising.

Jackson strikes me as an author with potential, who needs the help of an editor to tighten and present his story. If he puts as much effort into his writing as he does into design and illustration, he’ll do great things. In the meantime, The Snake and the Ghost , with its focus on grief and love, has an immediate use as bibliotherapy for older children and adults dealing with grief, particularly over the death of a family member. It very much reached my own daughter, and I highly recommend it for this purpose. Beyond this audience, at its existing price point as a hardcover (and the Kindle edition can’t possibly reproduce the illustrations with the same impact), this book will mainly have appeal to individuals and libraries in his area, as part of a collection of local authors. With Halloween approaching, local libraries in the Louisville area may want to track down the author for a reading. Appropriate for ages 9 and up.

Highly recommended for bibliotherapy collections on grief.

 

 


Posted on August 25, 2016 by , Reply

Book Review: I Walk In Dread: The Diary of Deliverance Trembley, Witness to the Salem Witch Trials by Lisa Rowe Fraustino

I Walk in Dread: The Diary of Deliverance Trembley, Witness to the Salem Witch Trials, Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1691 (Dear America) by Lisa Rowe Fraustino

Scholastic, 2011

ISBN-13: 978-0545311656

Available: Used hardcover, Kindle edition

 

I Walk in Dread is part of the Dear America series, which consists of fictional first-person narratives in diary format by girls between ages 9-14,  in a variety of historical time periods. This particular book is the diary of Deliverance Trembley, an orphaned 12 year old girl living in Salem, Massachusetts in 1691, at the time of the Salem Witch Trials. Deliverance and her sickly older sister, Mem, are hiding a secret– their uncle, who is also their guardian, has left them on their own, with instructions to tell no one that he is gone. While Deliverance is definitely a girl of her time, she also, unlike most others, can read and write, both of which are considered tools of the Devil. Her dreams are disturbing, and her interactions with actual historical figures are varied. For instance, she worries that Sarah Goode, who she knows only by reputation, is a witch who has cursed her chickens, but still lets her and her daughter into the house during a cold night. She’s acquainted with many of the major players, but not intimate with them, with the exception of Martha Corey– an observer who is unsure what to think, and afraid of being found out.

Martha Corey is portrayed as an intelligent, kind, and God-fearing woman who keeps her own counsel. She is observant enough to notice that Deliverance and Mem are alone, and asks Deliverance to read aloud to her, allowing Deliverance to earn enough to feed herself and her sister. Martha’s wise conversation and good character are evident to Deliverance, and when Martha is accused, Deliverance becomes certain that the accusations of the afflicted girls are unjustified. Her behavior as the examinations progress even causes her sister to believe that Deliverance is a witch. It is a compelling story, as minor details like the ability to read and write, a fight with her sister that ends with a Bible sliding into the fire, strange dreams, and a refusal to attend the examinations all together take on an ominous cast as the story continues and the hysteria builds.

While some aspects of the story are implausible (it’s difficult to believe that in over three months, no one actually figured out that the girls were living at home without supervision), the author worked hard to develop a historically accurate representation of the time, place, and events of the witch trials, and I think she succeeded. The back matter includes a historical note, reproductions of primary source documents, an author’s note, and acknowledgments, all to create a more complete picture and provide historical background for young readers this is true for all books in the Dear America series). Fraustino does a good job of humanizing the accused, with her detailed character development of Martha Corey, and of expressing the confusion and conflicted feelings a young girl living in Salem but outside the main events of the story could be feeling about her peers, authority figures, and members of the community. For children, especially girls, who are not quite ready for a more graphic discussion, but are interested in the Salem Witch Trials, this is a good starting place.  Adults who like a compelling story may like it, too. Appropriate for grades 4 and up.

Reader’s advisory note:  Historical fiction readers looking for more might like The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare. A possible nonfiction follow-up for those interested in more detail is Witches! The Absolutely True Story of the Disaster in Salem. by Rosalyn Schanzer.

Or, for a list of books for varying ages (with varying levels of appropriateness) related to the Salem Witch Trials, check out this book list.


Posted on August 22, 2016 by , Reply

Book Review: Return to the Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz

Return to the Isle of the Lost: A Descendants Novel by Melissa de la Cruz

Disney Hyperion Publishing, May 2016

 

Last year, Melissa de la Cruz introduced us to an interesting, darker twist on the typical Disney tale in Isle of the Lost. In the Disney fairytale realm of Auradon, all the villains, along with their children, have been captured and imprisoned on the deteriorating, isolated Isle of the Lost. The first book introduced a variety of villain children, but focused on four in particular: Mal, the daughter of Maleficent; Jay, the son of Jafar; Evie, the daughter of Evil Queen; and Carlos, the son of Cruella de Vil. At the end of the book, the four of them were invited by Prince Ben, soon to become king of Auradon, to attend boarding school in Auradon.  Isle of the Lost was quickly followed by the live action, made-for-television movie musical, Descendants, in which Mal and her villain compatriots chose to defend Auradon from an attack by Maleficent, who had regained her magic and escaped. Mal defeated Maleficent, transforming her into a harmless lizard.

Return to the Isle of the Lost directly follows the events of the movie. Mal, Jay, Evie, and Carlos are adjusting to, and mostly enjoying, life in Auradon when they receive mysterious messages that they must return home. When they do return,  they make the disturbing discovery that their parents have disappeared without a trace, in an attempt to escape the island through secret, underground passages. Mal, Jay, Evie, and Carlos must find and travel the passageways to keep their parents from tunneling through to Auradon, but to do so, they each must face a challenge left behind by their parents. A note for English teachers: the meaning of the term “anti-hero” is hammered home pretty thoroughly.

In the meantime, Merlin has approached King Ben with a request to use magic, which has been forbidden, in order to deal with a threat to Camelot; the citizens there report attacks by a purple dragon. Ben’s immediate thought is that Maleficent is the cause of the trouble, but since she is still a lizard, that seems unlikely. If you’ve been watching animated Disney movies for most of your life, you probably can figure out who the purple dragon really is in about thirty seconds, but it was a complete mystery to my 8 year old daughter.

I found Return to the Isle of the Lost to be a disappointing follow-up to the first book and the movie. In those, we got to see some very complex characters dealing with conflicts central to their identity. The villain kids in Isle of the Lost are not nice kids. They steal, lie, destroy property, treat other people badly, and can often be shallow. Despite that, you can see these are kids who desperately want their parents’ approval, and there is something there that makes you want to root for them. In Return to the Isle of the Lost, that’s missing. Their parents are absent, so we don’t get to see that conflict, and the kids have pretty much settled on being “good”, although with a preference for painting gloomy castles instead of peaceful sunsets. Very little is done to further character development either; It’s just not as interesting. To be fair, de la Cruz is dealing with a huge cast of characters, and it would be impossible to do justice to all of them, but it seemed like even the main characters got short shrift.

While Isle of the Lost could appeal to those who like their fairy tales dark and twisted, I don’t think Return to the Isle of the Lost will satisfy. However, for your Disney-loving 8 year old who is tired of the same old princesses, I can speak from experience; the book will be a tremendous hit. Recommended for ages 8+.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 


 

Posted on August 4, 2016 by , Reply
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