Powder Monkey, by Paul Dowswell; Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books: New York, 2005; $16.95 Imagine the fear of being blown to pieces at any minute! Thirteen-year-old Samuel Witchall constantly faced this horror in the action-packed historical adventure, Powder Monkey. Being blown up was just one danger Sam had to endure aboard a Navy fighting ship in 1800. While reading this book, I kept wondering why any boy who wasn’t crazy would want to be a sailor in this time period. But it was the book’s vivid descriptions that helped me understand the thrill of a reckless adventure and how it could tempt men and boys out of their comfortable homes to the sea. The book opens with Sam wishing to be a sailor so he can discover the world beyond his tiny town. He ends up on a merchant ship which is quickly taken over by a British Royal Navy frigate called the HMS Miranda. This sleek, 32-gun boat is so precisely described I felt I was bobbing in the sea looking up at its dazzling beauty. Sam is forced to work on the vessel as a powder monkey, running back and forth to the Miranda’s gun deck delivering powder to the cannon crews. Sam is told he needs to be like a monkey because monkeys are nimble creatures. He’s also told if one stray spark floats onto his gunpowder delivery he will be blown to a pink mist! I’ve never heard of a more stressful job for a kid than powder monkey. Sam had to confront so much brutal stuff, including: fierce fighting, raging storms, punishment, mutiny, and death. Yet, the day-to-day annoyances of Sam’s life hit me the hardest. I’m not a morning person, and on a Navy ship in 1800 I would have been extremely miserable. If a sailor isn’t awake and out of his hammock in double speed, the hammock is cut down or the sailor’s head is assaulted by a knotted rope! I wouldn’t get used to this. Sam never did. Sam says he “dreamed of a fresh, warm bed, and the freedom to stay in it until the weariness left his bones.” Up until reading this book, I thought it was really hard to get out of bed for school. Now I realize things could be much worse. I can’t imagine giving up my safe, warm home for Sam’s life! This doesn’t mean, however, I wasn’t captivated by every word describing Sam’s adventures. By far, my favorite part of this book was when Sam’s courage is tested after a Spanish ship captures the Miranda in a miserable battle. Sam’s crewmates plan to take their ship over again, with Sam playing a key role. He sneaks through dark passages, swims through freezing, rat-filled water and outsmarts his captors on his way to the weapons room where he steals cutlasses, axes, and swords. Sam’s adventure made my heart race as I tried to imagine how stealthy and brave I could be in this situation. Until Powder Monkey, the author, Paul Dowswell, had never written a fiction book. He wrote mostly history and science books. For a rookie fiction writer, Mr. Dowswell sure tells an absorbing tale. Knowing the author’s background, I’m not surprised this book is brimming with actual history and technical maritime details. This is a really great book that I’d recommend to many people, including: historical fiction readers, Blackbeard and other pirate fans, maritime history buffs and lovers of the movie Master and Commander! In my case, I’m always looking for an unforgettable adventure. I found a WILD one in Powder Monkey! Jackson Jaro, 9Santa Rosa, California
Book-Reviews
Voices of War
Voices of War edited by Tom Wiener; National Geographic: Washington D.C., 2oo4; $3o Don’t get scared away by the title or how many pages in this book. It is really the Voices of Heroes. Veterans who served in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf talk about what happened to them in the wars. It’s like sitting down with someone’s grandfather or uncle or brother and hearing them tell stories that you will never learn about anywhere else. On page 127, Ben Snyder remembers on December 7, 1944 that it had been three years since he heard the horrible news of the Pearl Harbor attack by Japan. He was in the South Pacific still fighting the Japanese and he didn’t know when he would ever go home. When I read that, I remembered the attacks on September 11, 2001, and we are still trying to stop the terrorists. An army nurse, Isabelle Cedar Cook, wrote, “I keep thinking about the children that will soon only know World War II as a chapter in the history books. I wanted very much to share my experiences with them, so I decided to write a book. I called it In Times of War because in times of war things are very different.” One man told about how his brother had been killed. His mother thought the army would fly him home immediately. “Unfortunately, she believed the nonsense the government put in the newspapers during the war for civilian consumption, such as flying soldiers home when tragedy struck a family,” wrote the soldier, William Whiting. He was in the Army’s 802nd Field Artillery Battalion. When he saw dead German soldiers he wrote that “even though they were .the enemy, once they were dead you could no longer hate them. You could not help but remember they were or had been someone’s son, husband, father, brother.” That’s what this book is about. How the war is for regular people like nurses, soldiers and sailors. That’s why you should read this book. So you can see how Americans coped with war. I feel like a walking version of Voices of War I am involved in the Stories of Service Veterans History Project. I am a youth producer. I videotape interviews of veterans for the Library of Congress. Then the veterans’ interviews will be preserved for future generations. These interviews will give information for speech writers, college students and book writers. Each veteran that I interview becomes part of me. I am hearing firsthand accounts of what happened to these men and women. Every one of them has a great story and lesson to pass on. One thing I hear the veterans say is that they want peace. These people know what war is and they want peace in the world. At DePortola Middle School, where I am a seventh-grader, war is not something students think about, but this book would be a very good book to have. It can be used to write history essays and learn about how soldiers and sailors lived and felt then and how they think about the wars now, which is thirty or forty or sixty years later. In history we learn about the generals and presidents and the famous battles. This book tells the real story of the people who fought the wars that became history. Celia Arguilez Smith,12San Diego, California
My Last Skirt: The Story of Jennie Hodgers, Union Soldier
My Last Skirt: The Story of Jennie Hodgers, Union Soldier by Lynda Durrant; Clarion Books: New York, 2006; $16 To be free can have multiple meanings, but to Jennie Margaret Hodgers, in My Last Skirt: The Story of Jennie Hodgers, Union Soldier, it symbolizes having no skirts. For her, losing her skirt would mean losing all the limits that come with having the identity of a woman. The first time Jennie Hodgers puts on men’s clothing is because, like many Irish families of the time (late 1850s), her family didn’t have a lot of money. So she takes the role as a shepherd boy, until, after her father’s death, she and her brother Tom move to America. It is here that you witness betrayal from Tom. When he sees how much more successful she is in America, he reveals her secret to their employer. This scene was very touching to me. My brother and I are very close. Just picturing him doing something such as that made me feel heartbroken. Although the author, Lynda Durrant, doesn’t come out and say it, Jennie, or as she soon changes her name, Albert Cashier, is feeling a similar emotion. Afterwards, “Albert” knows she can’t stay in New York anymore. She gets on a train that takes her to Chicago. It is there that she does the unthinkable: Albert Cashier enlists in the Union Army The army is the test of whether the skinny Irish shepherd boy Albert Cashier or the tomboy Jennie Hodgers will survive. In the end Albert Cashier wins, but not without disadvantages. The years in the army have changed her mental state, which insists that, at times, she really is a man, as well as her physical state. All of the laborious training has changed her gentle lady’s body into hard, unnatural muscle. I couldn’t help but admire how she keeps going in spite of these drawbacks. The way the author creates Jennie is remarkable because Durrant has to give insight into Jennie’s secret. She has to describe conflicts that prevent Jennie from revealing her identity and the personal pain that comes with the burden of keeping this secret. As I read, I was in constant argument, as Jennie meets a man, Frank Moore, and will not let herself fall in love. I wanted to yell and say, “Just do it! You’ve lived a hard life. Do something that will make you happy!” It is in these ways that the author sucks you in. Every author has their own way of drawing the reader in like that. For some, it is with conversation, or with others it could be descriptive details. In Durrant’s case, it is with emotions. If something sad or depressing happened to Jennie, I could feel my eyes start to water. If something uncertain or scary was taking place then my hands would tense up around the book. My Last Skirt: The Story of Jennie Hodgers, Union Soldier is for anyone, boy or girl, mom or dad. There is so much in it, including history, romance and adventure. However, because this book isn’t meant to focus on the battles, the action scenes aren’t the greatest ever. There is an easy-to-follow plot line, with surprises on every page. You’ll find that you walk away with a lot of respect for Jennie (who was a real person) and the other petticoat soldiers who served their country, even though it didn’t recognize their contributions. Hannah Sellers, 12Chagrin Falls, Ohio
