Book Review: Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
Rated by 1 member
What Parents Should Know
Based on true events, which readers may want to research,
this tragic novels offers much for discussion: in addition to
its depiction of New England racism, there are relationships of
many kinds to explore, moral growth and change in several
characters, majority vs. minority rights, and unintended
consequences of one's actions. Its lyrical and metaphorical
writing are terrific examples for writing classes.
Common Sense Media Review
Based on the true story of the destruction of the Malaga
island community (described in an Author's Note), this complex
and powerful novel deserves its Newbery Honor. Its richness of
language and metaphorical meaning, and its three-dimensional
and evolving characters are well summed up in a line from the
end of Charles Darwin's
Origin of Species which the author quotes near the end
of the book: "From so simple a beginning endless forms most
beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being,
evolved."
The beautiful and wonderful forms that evolve here are the characters and their relationships and viewpoints, all complex, and all undergoing change. There's Turner, of course, struggling to live up to his father's teachings even when his father doesn't; Mrs. Cobb, a crusty old racist who learns to love a black girl and an ill-mannered boy; Willis, who seems to be a bully but has an ironclad sense of what's right; his father, Deacon Hurd, whose pride goeth before a fall; and many others, a Dickensian wealth of real characters. And evolution is not just individual -- the relationships and understandings between the characters change, and change again. This lovely, heartbreaking, and very real story doesn't always go where you think it will, but in the end it goes to a movingly spiritual place.
From the Book:
And so Turner reached the whale's eye, and they looked
at each other. They looked at each other a long time -- two
souls rolling on the sea under the silvery moon, peering into
each other's eyes. Turner wished with a desire greater than
anything he had ever desired that he might understand what it
was in the eye of the whale that shivered his soul.
He stretched his hand out across the side of the dory and reached over as far as he could without tipping the boat. But the whale kept a space of dark water between them, and they did not touch. Then slowly the whale sank, the water closing quietly along its black and white back.
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