Publishers Weekly
- Publisher's Weekly
This gripping novel of a black town's resistance to the white South African government's plan to forcibly remove them to their ``homeland'' hundreds of kilometers away blazes with rage. Naidoo focuses on Naledi, a teenage girl, and her growing awareness of the depth of the hatred that has created the apartheid system. As Naledi and the other townspeople become more deeply involved in the resistance, casual cruelties, gross indignities, brutal atrocities and, perhaps most horrifying of all, betrayals from within mount. Chain of Fire is not easy reading, nor should it be; it tackles tough issues head-on and presents them with superb dramatic tension. Readers will fear for Naledi and her friends, cheer them on, weep with them and, when their tale is done, have a deeper appreciation for how precious freedom is. Illustrations not seen by PW. Ages 11-up. (Apr.)
School Library Journal
Gr 5-8-- Naledi and Tiro, the children in Naidoo's Journey to Jo'Burg (Harper, 1986), return in a longer tale that stands on its own but is enhanced by the reading of its predecessor. The story begins with the sudden announcement that the people of Naledi's village are to be removed to ``the homeland'' in four weeks' time. With every reason to believe few will survive the removal, the villagers choose to resist, their determination fired by the righteous indignation of their young. Naledi, her friend Taolo, and three others are elected student representatives in the resistance, and together they organize a peaceful student march as a demonstration of unity and strength. But the police anticipate their plan, and the march ends in violence. Events accelerate. Homes are bulldozed, families are separated, and Taolo's father is murdered. The removal is accomplished and, for the moment, it seems the white government has won. But Naledi and her neighbors are no longer the same villagers who once clung passively to subsistence. They are becoming a unified people, with a recognizable enemy and no end of heroes alive and dead around whom to rally--and the beginnings of a political mechanism through which to do so. As Naledi and the others have matured, politically, since the first book, so Naidoo has matured markedly as a writer. She demonstrates an insight into her characters and their condition--particularly the role of the young in initiating and sustaining rebellion that was far less evident in Journey. . . Chain of Fire flows effortlessly, with power and grace, as it succeeds in making a foreign culture immediate and real. Truly it is the grimmer tale, but one that, in light of its own truth as well as of recent events, readers might look at with a trace more hope. --Marcia Hupp, Mamaroneck Public Library, NY
