"Grandpa frowns when he plays chess, like he does when he prays."The abstract is hidden because it may contain spoilers. If you would like to read the full summary, simply use your cursor to highlight the next few lines and it will magically appear.
Ignatius "Brother" Alderman, nearly twelve, promises to help his grandparents keep the family's Oregon ranch the same while his brothers are away and his father is deployed to Iraq, but as he comes to accept the inevitability of change, he also sees the man he is meant to be.
Publisher: Random House; 161 pages
Ignatius "Brother" Alderman, nearly twelve, promises to help his grandparents keep the family's Oregon ranch the same while his brothers are away and his father is deployed to Iraq, but as he comes to accept the inevitability of change, he also sees the man he is meant to be.
Publisher: Random House; 161 pages
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7 comments:
I had a hard time with this one. I felt it was too disjointed and I had a hard time staying invested and interested in it. Not my favorite book.
Heart of a Shepherd is a touching story but reads a little too much like Christian Inspiration for my taste.
I loved this story...I thought it was beautifully crafted, and very refreshing.
I really loved this story. I respectfully disagree that this was Christian fiction. Yes, the book talked about religion, but more as a cultural aspect, rather than as "christian" dogma. This was a fabulous story about a young boy struggling to keep his ranch running while his father was in Iraq and all of his brothers were in the military away at school with only his grandparents to help. I really hope that Heart of a Shepherd is placed on the next mock list.
While I haven't read much Christian fiction for comparison, I felt like the references to religion in this story revealed a great deal about this family and it's dynamics. Religion was a big part of what the family was about, and it's omission would have left much lacking in the story.
Also, I really loved the way the grandparents each respected the other's traditions.
I found the treatment of both the Christian and military themes to be sensitive and even-handed. The relationships are so powerfully and beautifully drawn. And there's real art in the way she recounts the wild fire. It sneaks up on you, as a wild fire will. The book is masterful and compelling and affecting, imho.
What an unexpected mix of cultures! The clues that led up to the climax in this story stuck out like a sore thumb; but perhaps I think this because I share the same faith culture as our little shepherd? It was a nice story, but not a Newbery contender in my opinion.
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