Forge

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown Large Print 4-week checkout	Teen Large Print Fiction	4-week checkout	Due 05-22-2024

Sequel to: Chains.
Separated from his friend Isabel after their daring escape from slavery, fifteen-year-old Curzon serves as a free man in the Continental Army at Valley Forge until he and Isabel are thrown together again, as slaves once more.

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emotionally intense submitted by camelsamba on June 28, 2013, 2:54pm I bought this book during a Borders going-out-of-business visit. I originally intended it for my middle son, who likes more realistic fiction; then i thought about sending it to a nephew who is a war history buff. But its fate was decided this past summer when we visited the Valley Forge Visitor Center (more for the bathrooms than the history lesson!). The boys really wanted to buy this book, but I wouldn't do it since i knew we had it at home. None of us had read the first book (Chains) - I wasn't even really aware of it.

So when the 9yo needed a new bedtime book, this is what we turned to. As I read it, I realized that it's definitely aimed at an older audience. The opening is very intense: Curzon stumbles upon a confrontation between a redcoat and a very young Revolutionary soldier. He throws a stone at a crucial moment and saves the boy's life, and thus begins a somewhat-tentative friendship between Curzon and Ebenezer. Curzon has to join the army in order to avoid a prickly situation with a former 'employer' (who never actually paid him). The first half of the novel follows Curzon's experience in a company of soldiers, and you learn about his prior life either through what he tells Ebenezer and others, or through his own internal dialogue (things hidden from the soldiers, such as the fact that he had been a slave and might not technically be free at this point). You also learn a few snippets about Isabel, who I gather is the main focus of Chains. Just when you think things are going to get better, his former master (Bellingham) shows up, and even though Curzon upheld his end of the bargain, Bellingham reasserts his claim over the boy.

The story is intense - not always battle intense, but emotionally intense. I gather it's fairly historically accurate, which means it's also culturally complicated. The 9yo could usually spot injustice where it occurred, but I found myself explaining quite a lot and pointing out a lot of subtleties. It definitely provides opportunities for discussion. Even teens (esp young teens) would benefit from having someone to discuss it with.

Although nothing specific ever happens, there are numerous suggestions that Bellingham has "lust in his heart" when he observes Isabel and has perhaps forced himself on her. This went completely over the head of my 9yo, but might require explanation for others.