Edward Garboczi
Tag: Book Review
Marguerite De Angeli was a wonderful American author and illustrator, who lived to the great age of 98. She illustrated many books by other famous authors, but she is probably best known today for two of her own books: The Door in the Wall, which won the 1950 Newbery Medal, and Black Fox of Lorne, which was a Newbery Honor Book in 1956. Both are historical fiction set in the Middle Ages in the British Isles.
The Door in the Wall takes place during the Black Death years in England, in the 1300s A.D. Robin, a boy from a noble family, who is destined to become a page, squire, and then knight, suffers the loss of the use of his legs during a sickness. Because Robin is separated from his parents, a wise friar, Brother Luke, helps him recuperate and adapt to his new life. He tells Robin that in life, when you are faced with an insurmountable wall, always look for the door in the wall that will lead you onward, beyond the wall. A really lovely story, with beautiful illustrations, that gives a good feel for life at those times.
Black Fox of Lorne is quite different from the author’s earlier book but still is a wonderful story that has lovely illustrations by the author. It is the tale of identical twin boys, born into a noble Viking family around 1000 A.D. On the way to settlement in the part of England that was ruled by the Vikings (Norse and Danish), they are shipwrecked in western Scotland. Their father is killed and they are on their own, with their mother missing or dead. Their quest to survive and thrive in this new world of Scotland, while looking for their mother, makes a stirring tale and clearly illustrates the world of medieval Scotland that may be unfamiliar to many.