Saturday, March 10, 2012

A Boy Called Dickens by Deborah Hopkinson

Did you ever wonder why Dickens wrote such sad stories about the poor in England?  Here's the answer.

Schwartz & Wade sent me a copy of this book for review (thank you).  This book has been published and would make a very nice addition to your educational shelf for young ones.

John Hendrix is the illustrator and he takes you right back to the dirty, rat-infested past where rags were all some people had to wear and most didn't get much to eat.

Ms. Hopkinson takes the facts known about Dickens and weaves them into a fictional account of his life.  He started poor and had a dream about writing that he held tight to for his whole life.  It's a good thing or we wouldn't have those wonderful classics he wrote.  It's easy to see that he lived the life of this characters and that's why he could express it so accurately.

This is an interesting account of the hard life in Old London and could easily lead the child to read more on the subject.  When the plague came, the potatoes turned black and folks ate black radishes would all be good subjects to read about.  History isn't always boring.

Happy reading.

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