The Boy with the Bronze Axe
Written by Kathleen Fidler
Illustrated by Edward Mortelmans
Reviewed by Fred Y. (age 11)
Boy with the Bronze Axe is a historical fiction based off the finding of an ancient city Skara Brae. This village was on an island in Scotland and was guessed to be existing around 2000 BCE. The village seemed to be abandoned and buried underneath layers of sand. The book is about what life would have been like in the village, and how the author thinks it was destroyed. The book is also about a boy named Tenko coming to the village of Skara as a place to live after his family was killed. The problem is not everyone in the village likes Tenko. Many people desire to have his sharp bronze axe. Will Tenko be accepted in his new home?
The biggest lesson from the book is about how life was 4000 years ago. The author uses facts and research to give lots of details about the village and people. The moral is not to judge a book by its cover. People in the village who don't trust Tenko are punished at the end of the book.
In my opinion, Boy with the Bronze Axe is a great book. I liked it because it was historical fiction. I liked reading about people and nomads and then through the story, learning about what their lives were like. The book is a bit like The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. The main character, Tenko, has to overcome a series of obstacles one at a time as part of a bigger adventure. I like this pattern of the story. I liked the character of Lokar because he was wise. At one point in the book he came up with a clever idea for solving a crime. The illustrations were black and white pen and ink drawings. They looked like they were made four thousand years ago. They were cool and showed the action of the story.
I recommend it to all people who have a slightly old fashioned reading style. The pace is slow and it is not complicated. Anyone can read it, though, but it may seem dull to some. If you like history and learning about ancient civilizations, you would enjoy this book.