Two beautiful stories as well as a history lesson from Lois Lowry. ( )

This is a creative approach to middle grade historical fiction, sort of like [b:Woods Runner|6795756|Woods Runner|Gary Paulsen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320552751l/6795756._SY75_.jpg|7000800]. I thought it was interesting, but I prefer to get lost in a story, rather than have non-fiction essay sections that take me out of it. ( )

In first person, the author explains the discovery of the Windeby child in northern Germany in 1952, then goes on to imagine the story of that child's abbreviated life: a 13-year-old girl called Estrild, an eldest daughter who wished to be a warrior and was punished for her audacity. But when scientists discovered that the bog body more likely belonged to a 16-year-old boy, the author imagined a different story: that of Varick, an orphan, a friend to Estrild, and a student of the natural world.

Lowry pulls back the curtain on an author's thought process, and how history is constructed and reconstructed, imagined and re-imagined. A curious, unique sort of book: part historical fiction, part mystery, part thought experiment.

Quotes

But Estrild's passion was someplace else. She thirsted for what the boys had: the strength. The power. (48)

That's exactly what history consists of: people, and their stories. What happened to them. What caused those things to happen. How they reacted to what happened. And how did they feel on that day, or the day before, or the day before that? (185) ( )

In 1952, a body was found in a German peat bog -- an adolescent's body, about 2,000 year's old. Lowry takes the bare facts imparted by the remains and spins a story one way and then another, based on the region's history, the observations of archaeologists, and technological advances that have revealed more details since the discovery. The result is two well-written novellas bookended by brief but edifying historical notes. We know how the story will end, either way, but in spite of that, Lowry's tales are both touching and uplifting. Recommended for readers who enjoy stories set in ancient history. ( )

As a writer of historical fiction, I was immediately intrigued by this book by an excellent writer whose other books I've admired. HF writers ponder endlessly the liberties and boundaries one might take and make with history as we turn it on our fiction lathes. So I was very interested in what Lowry was doing with this one. In the course of interweaving historical facts and her imagination, she confronts directly the problem of interpretation, of error, of gaps in information, and how our own values and feelings can color or distort them in the stories we create.

She begins with a summary of information about "bog people" - who they were, how they might have gotten there, what a bog is, etc. She outlines Iron Age people and what they might have been like, and describes the actual young person found in a north German bog whose story she proceeds to imagine: a pubescent girl, frustrated by the drudgery women and girls are subjected to in her village, and proceeds to disguise herself to be recognized as a warrior among the boys. There is a proto-feminism imposed on Estrild's story, which might be appealing to a modern reader (and which I frequently see in historical fiction), but which is fairly unlikely, and brings her [SPOILER] to a fatal punishment.

But wait! It turns outs that with modern technological analysis, the youngster from the bog was not a girl, but a rather frail boy. So Lowry re-imagines the story with that as a base, and gives us a hunchbacked orphan boy named Varick struggling to survive as a forger's servant. He too dies eventually, a natural death from illness and neglect. Varick's story fits better with the "facts" as we can know them - less dramatic, surely, but more convincing.

The writing is sometimes pedestrian and, especially with Estrild, can feel a bit too much like a lecture or a polemic. Some reviewers have been aghast at the idea of having kids read a book where the hero/ine dies (but then, these days, there are so many topics being deemed "unsuitable" for young readers that it's getting pretty depressing). But this is the Iron Age - people were lucky to make it to adulthood, and this forlorn young body in the bog didn't. I'm not sure how well this story will go over with its intended audience (I'm not a parent or a teacher or a youth librarian). But I will stand by its value as an interesting example of how a novelist struggles with history, how to tackle the death of the young, the authority of faith and religion over humans, and Lowry's honesty in working it through, before our eyes. I'd think this is a good one for parents to read with their kids - lots to talk about here! ( )