Rather than picturing the hard struggle to settle a “frontier,” the book deals with relations between people of many backgrounds-European American, Native American and Asian American-as seen through the eyes of her beautifully realized main character, whose mixed ancestry never holds her back. However, quite unlike Wilder’s books, her non-European characters are neither stereotypes nor peripheral to the story. It deals with a theme-the development of the West- familiar to fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder. If anything, this may be her most ambitious and best book yet. Even when dealing with truly sensitive subject matter, she always manages to bring out the basic humanity in her characters in ways that make her work accessible to readers of all ages. “I have always admired the subtle power and gentle clarity of Linda Sue Park’s writing.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |