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A review by listen_learn
The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm by Nancy Farmer
4.0
With a diverse set of characters and an amazingly rich world, this sci-fi/fantasy pulled me in and kept me reading. I'm not usually good at remembering details from books, but this is so unlike almost anything else I've read that I found I remembered many things from a previous read. This wasn't a drawback, because the people and places were fascinating. Also, the language Farmer uses is often beautiful, funny, and vivid. You're right there with the characers, even when they're eating breakfast:
Another strength of the book is its strong female characters. While Tendai, a 13 year old boy, is unarguably the protaganist, there are plenty of women who feature as well. His mother is a university professor who actively works to find her children when they go missing, they are captured, but also saved, by a slave-trader who is a frighteningly strong woman, Rita, Tendai's sister, gets them out of numerous scrapes with her courage and sense, and Myanda, the gatekeeper of a village that has cut-itself off from the modern world, has an interesting mixture of kindness and cunning.
The book has many dark parts, and talks about things like abandoned babies, gangs, alocholism, twisted sacrifices, and people being posessed by evil spirits. The language is also not sparkling clean with mild curse words and lots of name calling. Still, many of the characters do the right thing at great risk to themselves and for its messages of courage, tenacity, and hope I would recommend it for a mature 5th grader.
."Lizard eggs" muttered Rita, poking her omlet..
"Don't start," Tendai said in a low voice.
"Chickens are descended form reptiles. I read it in a book."
"Be quiet."
"Nasty old cold lizard eggs."
"Is something wrong?" thundered Father from the head of the table.
"No," said Tendai, Rita, and Kuda all together.
Another strength of the book is its strong female characters. While Tendai, a 13 year old boy, is unarguably the protaganist, there are plenty of women who feature as well. His mother is a university professor who actively works to find her children when they go missing, they are captured, but also saved, by a slave-trader who is a frighteningly strong woman, Rita, Tendai's sister, gets them out of numerous scrapes with her courage and sense, and Myanda, the gatekeeper of a village that has cut-itself off from the modern world, has an interesting mixture of kindness and cunning.
The book has many dark parts, and talks about things like abandoned babies, gangs, alocholism, twisted sacrifices, and people being posessed by evil spirits. The language is also not sparkling clean with mild curse words and lots of name calling. Still, many of the characters do the right thing at great risk to themselves and for its messages of courage, tenacity, and hope I would recommend it for a mature 5th grader.