Iain Lawrence

The cover led me to believe this book was fantasy, but it's actually a story within a story. It's 1955 and Laurie's best friend Dickie contracts Polio and ends up in an iron lung. Laurie goes to visit him and tells him an elaborate tale of a terrible giant and a boy named Jimmy whose destiny it is to slay the giant. The characters in Laurie's story represent the real kids in the Polio ward, and the giant pretty obviously represents Polio.

The giant story is not really told like it would be if a kid were telling it to a bunch of other kids. Laurie talks through where they are in the story and then it transitions into very writerly writing. This didn't really bother me because the giant story took up more of the book than the real world story did.

I was a little confused by the way the climax worked, which was a letdown, but I liked the book overall. Some of the fantasy elements of the giant story bled over into the real world story and I ended up thinking about the power of make-believe, especially to children, and especially especially to children who are struck by tragedy.… (more)

READING LEVEL: 4.8 AR POINTS: 9.0

Fantastic novel for young readers...and for me, and I’m 55 years old! I was immediately reminded of Lord of the Flies, but there were only two boys on this adventure of survival in the Alaskan wild, and this book was much easier to read. The boys find themselves stranded and learning to survive by scavenging for food, escaping bear attacks, and fearing the nights with all the noises of the wild and their over-active imaginations. But, mostly surviving each other. I loved both characters, the very sensitive, and a bit intuitive, 12 year old Chris, and the angry, know-it-all 15 year old Frank. But, I mostly fell for Thursday, the Raven, a huge part of the story, who was drawn to and befriended Chris. I read a book once called “Mind of the Raven” by Bernd Heinrich, who had a ½-acre aviary in Maine just for the purpose of studying raven’s. They are extremely smart and very peculiar birds.

As the boys scouted the area, they came across an old, deserted run-down cabin, which they made home. Their time was spent sharing a book, “Kaetil the Raven Hunter” by Daniel J. Chesterson, they had found inside the cabin. Bits and pieces of that story kind of followed along with the things they were learning about in Thursday, their raven. [NOTE: I'm not sure, but the book may not be real. An internet search did not bring up the title nor the author of the book mentioned. Awww! Too bad cause I actually wanted to read it...lol]

They also found a lookout ridge with a wide view of the ocean that had a tree which held several coffins of bones of the dead, with the smallest coffin at the top. They called it the skeleton tree. [NOTE: The author, himself, claims to have actually seen one of these burial trees while scouting about in wild Alaska. The North American Nations (nanations.com) website says these burial trees were once used throughout America.] In this novel, the raven is very connected to this tree. But, the boys were quite afraid of it at first.

As time goes by, at least 44 days alone together, the boys learn the secret of, and come to terms with, why each of them were invited by their Uncle Jack on this sailing expedition.… (more)