Synopsis
Apprenticed to a barber-surgeon, Elias sets sail for a new life in the Jamestown Colony where he discovers that he has a knack for healing. He meets Sacahocan, a Pamunkee Indian girl who is training to be a medicine woman and dream reader. Though their leaders are at war, Elias and Sacahocan forge a friendship by sharing their medical knowledge.
School Library Journal
Gr 4-5-This series instructs readers to begin with one child's perspective of a historical moment and then to flip over the book to read another version. While this is an interesting concept, children might tire of reading about the same events twice, even if they are from differing viewpoints. Jamestown is carelessly written and poorly researched. Some folksy passages using simile seem forced and serve to confuse. Elias is an English settler apprenticed to a barber-surgeon, and Sacohocan is an Indian girl and a healer. Elias is skeptical of his master's medical knowledge. Incredibly, he deduces that the Indians are dying from diseases introduced by the Europeans. Story lines are introduced but never finished, and the author incorrectly leads readers to believe that the Powhatan tribe engaged in ritual human sacrifice. Mill makes the British Chartist labor movement come alive. However, nonstop action impedes character development and some situations lack emotional resonance. In 1842, Lizzy works in a Lancashire mill. Her former friend, Josh, is the mill owner's son. After her father is fired for agitating for workers' rights, Lizzy, too, is fired and the family members are turned out of their home. Josh returns from being educated in London, disagrees ideologically with his industrialist father, and is surprised to learn that he must marry a member of the aristocracy to improve the family name. In reality, he would have been groomed for that eventuality since early childhood. This is an action-packed if simplistic introduction to the early labor movement.-Christina Stenson-Carey, Albany Public Library, NY Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.