From Booklist:Gr. 4-8. The actual history, found in a note at the back of the book, is fascinating: in the 1850s the U.S. army shipped camels from Egypt and tried to train them in the Texas desert, with hopes they would help the army "cope with desert terrain." Karr draws on the history, but she tells the story from the viewpoint of one brave camel, Ali, who is torn from his mother in Egypt, sold to Christians, and shipped to America to work with the Camel Corps--until the whole idea is abandoned and he escapes to blaze his own trail. History through the eye of a camel is a cute idea, perhaps for a picture book, but it's tedious here and seems contrived in a long novel, despite Karr's careful interweaving of the real events and people of the time. Even so, readers will have fun imagining the animal's physical experience with those clumsy "soldier-beasts" and "silly natives," and many will spot the parallels with slaves and indentured immigrants torn from their roots, never to return. Hazel Rochman
Ouch, Hazel. I kind of like it. I like to read about the sands of Egypt in the summer, and this book is fitting that bill quite nicely even though it is set in the desert sands of this country. Ali is a proud camel who is trying to figure out his place in life and keep his dignity despite being a beast of burden. I want to visit a zoo just so I can spend some time watching the dromedary camels, great ships of the desert.
2 comments:
Nice review, Christine.
Something I miss about my kids being older now is that I'm no longer connected to the young adult reads. Some of them are delightful, but remain hidden treasures due to marketing exclusively to the younger age group. These books are like diet-reading for the brain, literature light, for when you'd like a quick, easy read but you can't stand Nicholas Sparks.
Thanks, Mary. I do like good children's books, and I enjoyed this little one. It took me to Egypt (briefly), and I loved the point of view of the camel and the way the author handled the idea of pairing up and having offspring. It is subtle and believable. She gives words to instinct and speaks of it as a waiting and a knowing when the time is right. Well done, Karr.
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