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Elizabeth George Speare (1908-1994) obtained her B.A. and M.A. in English then married and spent a number of years raising their two children. When her children were in junior high, she started to write seriously, though she had always been interested in the field. She ended up publishing six novels, of which two won the Newbery Award and one was a Newbery Honor Book (sort of a runner-up). Her first Newbery Award-winner was The Witch of Blackbird Pond, and a few years later, in 1961, she again won the Newbery Award for The Bronze Bow, which is the subject of this review. When you open this book, you will see that the author’s dedication is to her husband, which is nice to see.
The Bronze Bow is set in the Roman province of Judea, during a time that partially overlaps with the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. The title of the book is taken from the Bible, 2 Samuel 22:35 “He teaches my hands to make war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.” The whole chapter is David’s song of praise to God for delivering him from all his enemies.
Daniel Bar Jamin is a young man who hates the Romans with all his heart because his father and mother were killed by them. At the beginning of the story, he has been away from home for five years, living with a band of outlaws, though they call themselves freedom fighters, up in the Judean hills. He is a blacksmith by training and is persuaded to return home by Simon the Zealot, an old friend and fellow blacksmith (yes, that Simon the Zealot, one of the 12 apostles). He finds his grandmother failing and his sister Leah, who has been mentally warped and full of paralyzing fear since she was five years old, the same as always but now almost a woman and beautiful. Daniel is forced to stay home to care for them and takes over Simon’s forge for him to provide for his family. Simon needed someone to do this so that he could wander Judea and Galilee following the new rabbi, Jesus. A key part of the story is Daniel’s friendship with Joel and his twin sister Malthace, who are in a higher social class than Daniel but are sincere friends.
How Daniel’s heart full of hate for the Romans is transformed, how Leah is healed, and what “bending a bow of bronze” in 2 Samuel 22:35 could mean for them all makes for an incredibly satisfying story that also clearly testifies to the Lord Jesus. There have been many times where I thought the Newbery Award was given to a book that didn’t deserve it, but not in this case – The Bronze Bow is a dramatic and moving book.