Joan of Arc - Softcover

Michael Morpurgo has written more than 60 books for every age group. The Wreck of Zanzibar won the Carnegie Medal in 1996. The Butterfly Lion (Collins) won the Smarties Gold Award. He has been short listed for all the major awards, with King of Cloud Forest, War Horse, My Friend Walter (all Mammoth), to name a few. Most recently, Kensuke's Kingdom (Egmont) won the Children's Book Award in 2000.

Following their Robin of Sherwood and Arthur, High King of Britain, Morpurgo and Foreman turn their talents to historical fiction about the Maid of Orl?ans. Morpurgo frames his chronicle of Joan of Arc within a contemporary story about Eloise, a 17-year-old French girl who has set her heart on playing Joan in the annual tableaux in Orl?ans, where Eloise's family has just moved. When Eloise narrowly loses a contest to portray Joan, she seeks the solace of the sparrow she has befriended down by the river. There a voice from on high ("from deep inside the light, deep inside the silence") tells her the complete story of Joan of Arc, including Joan's lifelong companionship with a white sparrow ("He was her best friend on this earth"). Told in smooth, expansive chapters, the narrative skirts some of the more searching questions about Joan's voices and vocation (such as those raised in Diane Stanley's recent picture-book biography, Joan of Arc) and accepts Joan's religious visions at face value. Indeed, with the introductions of a supernatural narrator and of a sparrow that enjoys an almost mystical relationship with Joan, Morpurgo signals that his storytelling is premised on faith. Foreman, too, adopts only the look of realism. His deceptively sunny palette offsets the often brutal matter of the narrative, and his familiar, informal, representational style balances his allusions to religious imagery. If the work is not as provocative as Stanley's, its polish and panoramic scope will lure and hold readers. Ages 9-14. (Mar.) contemporary story set in Devon and focusing on a storytelling grandfather and his grandson (Pavilion [Trafalgar, dist.], $16.95 paper 80p ages 7-10 ISBN 1-86205-192-5; Mar.).
-, $16.95 paper 80p ages 7-10 ISBN 1-86205-192-5; Mar.).
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