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Title: Postcards from No Man's Land by Aidan Chambers ISBN: 0-525-46863-3 Publisher: Dutton Books Pub. Date: June, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.87 (15 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A mature novel for a mature audience
Comment: Chambers' story is an accurate piece of historical fiction; however, it is obvious after just the first chapter that Chambers does not intend for his novel to be primarily labeled as historical fiction. Rather, he intends his novel to be regarded as a coming-of-age story told in both the present and the past. As Chambers develops the narratives of Jacob and Geertrui, he shows that feelings of confusion, excitement and fear are common to all teenagers, regardless of their historical setting, as they struggle to come into their own.
Jacob and Geertrui are real, three-dimensional characters. They become persons with whom the reader can easily identify because Chambers allows the reader to hear their thoughts and observe how their emotions influence their decisions and often times change their rational or at the very least broaden their perspectives. I was thankful that Chambers explores the characters' emotions so in depth, because I believe that emotions are often more powerful than we realize and they are especially overwhelming during the teenage years. It is important that the emotions of Jacob and Geertrui are particularly potent for they find themselves in stressful situations.
The mature nature of Chambers' novel is shown in the first chapter. A mysterious, sexy stranger comes on to Jacob in an outdoor café. Jacob feels a rush of excitement because he's not used to attracting girls, but his excitement changes to bewilderment when Jacob realizes that he has struck a boy's fancy, not a girl's. I was just as surprised as Jacob to discover that Ton was in fact a boy, and I felt Chambers' description of this discovery was perhaps too vivid. (Jacob realizes Ton's true identity when Ton presses Jacob's hand to his crotch and Jacob feels his penis.)
Sexuality and sexual discovery are main themes in Postcards from No Man's Land. Chambers does not condone a particular lifestyle in his exploration of these themes, and I was thankful that he left the interpretation of Jacob's and Geertrui's sexual experiences up to the reader. However, I found it troubling that Chambers assumes Jacob is no longer a virgin because he is seventeen and that Geertrui and Jacob's grandfather can not restrain themselves from being sexually intimate.
Although Chambers does not seem to entertain abstinence as an option for teenagers, he does show that Jacob's and Geertrui's sexual choices, in particular, have consequences. Geertrui becomes pregnant with the child of a man who is never her husband, but the husband of someone else. Her pregnancy makes it necessary for her to marry another man who she does not love and to keep the true identity of her child's father a secret until her husband dies. Chambers accurately shows that Geertrui's relationship with Jacob's grandfather brings both pleasure and pain, but thankfully he illustrates how Geertrui's pain was tempered by the grace and forgiveness of others.
Overall, I was pleased with Chambers' novel. He writes with integrity and allows his reader to explore difficult issues without the fear of being judged. I would recommend this book to teenagers ages sixteen and above.
Rating: 4
Summary: A mature book for a mature audience
Comment: Chambers' story is an accurate piece of historical fiction; however, it is obvious after just the first chapter that Chambers does not intend for his novel to be primarily labeled as historical fiction. Rather, he intends his novel to be regarded as a coming-of-age story told in both the present and the past. As Chambers develops the narratives of Jacob and Geertrui, he shows that feelings of confusion, excitement and fear are common to all teenagers, regardless of their historical setting, as they struggle to come into their own.
Jacob and Geertrui are real, three-dimensional characters. They become persons with whom the reader can easily identify because Chambers allows the reader to hear their thoughts and observe how their emotions influence their decisions and often times change their rational or at the very least broaden their perspectives. I was thankful that Chambers explores the characters' emotions so in depth, because I believe that emotions are often more powerful than we realize and they are especially overwhelming during the teenage years. It is important that the emotions of Jacob and Geertrui are particularly potent for they find themselves in stressful situations.
The mature nature of Chambers' novel is shown in the first chapter. A mysterious, sexy stranger comes on to Jacob in an outdoor café. Jacob feels a rush of excitement because he's not used to attracting girls, but his excitement changes to bewilderment when Jacob realizes that he has struck a boy's fancy, not a girl's. I was just as surprised as Jacob to discover that Ton was in fact a boy, and I felt Chambers' description of this discovery was perhaps too vivid. (Jacob realizes Ton's true identity when Ton presses Jacob's hand to his crotch and Jacob feels his penis.)
Sexuality and sexual discovery are main themes in Postcards from No Man's Land. Chambers does not condone a particular lifestyle in his exploration of these themes, and I was thankful that he left the interpretation of Jacob's and Geertrui's sexual experiences up to the reader. However, I found it troubling that Chambers assumes Jacob is no longer a virgin because he is seventeen and that Geertrui and Jacob's grandfather can not restrain themselves from being sexually intimate.
Although Chambers does not seem to entertain abstinence as an option for teenagers, he does show that Jacob's and Geertrui's sexual choices, in particular, have consequences. Geertrui becomes pregnant with the child of a man who is never her husband, but the husband of someone else. Her pregnancy makes it necessary for her to marry another man who she does not love and to keep the true identity of her child's father a secret until her husband dies. Chambers accurately shows that Geertrui's relationship with Jacob's grandfather brings both pleasure and pain, but thankfully he illustrates how Geertrui's pain was tempered by the grace and forgiveness of others.
Overall, I was pleased with Chambers' novel. He writes with integrity and allows his reader to explore difficult issues without the fear of being judged. I would recommend this book to teenagers ages sixteen and above.
Rating: 4
Summary: Great book, but definately for kids 14+
Comment: This book is very different. There are two main characters, one a 17 year old English boy in the 90's and a Dutch family friend who is dying in his time, but knew his grandfather during WWII. The book is set in Amsterdam, so it incorporates a lot of Dutch, which is frustrating at first, but then it becomes second nature to find the translation of the phrase, or to remember it from earlier, and this adds to the sense of place.
There are a lot of adult themes covered in this book, so it's best if you have a mature teenager reading it, and are prepared to discuss it afterwards. Some of those topics include: homosexuality, bisexuality, euthanasia, war, and marital fidelity.
This book is well written, so chances are that you won't get lost, and the different writing styles make it difficult to get bored. As soon as something gets exciting in one part of the story, it switches off, making you want more.
Belongs on the bookshelf of the mature adolescent, and the discerning adult reader of adolescent fiction.
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Title: The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer ISBN: 0689852223 Publisher: Atheneum Pub. Date: 01 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos ISBN: 0374399883 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 26 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Feed (BOSTON GLOBEHORN BOOK HONORS (AWARDS)) by M. T. Anderson ISBN: 0763617261 Publisher: Candlewick Press Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.99 |
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Title: My Heartbeat by Garret Freymann-Weyr ISBN: 0618141812 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 29 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The First Part Last by Angela Johnson ISBN: 0689849222 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Pub. Date: 01 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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