Anson's Way - Softcover

Schmidt, Gary D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0547237618 ISBN 13: 9780547237619

Publisher: Clarion Books, 2009

Synopsis

It is the mid-eighteenth century, and young British subject Anson Granville Staplyton has traveled to Ireland, where his regiment has been sent to keep the king's peace. Anson has waited all his life for the day he would follow his father to serve His Majesty in the Staffordshire Fencibles. But the young drummer's notions of glory are shaken when he witnesses the violent injustices thrust upon the Irish people. Anson is torn even further when he meets an Irish hedge master who secretly teaches children the lilting language and history of their won country-lessons that it is Anson's duty to silence. Torn between family honor and his ever-changing sense of justice, Anson struggles to choose his own way in beautiful yet turbulent Ireland.

About this title

About the Author:

Gary D. Schmidt is the best-selling author of Pay Attention, Carter Jones; Orbiting Jupiter; the Newbery Honor and Printz Honor book Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy; the Newbery Honor book The Wednesday Wars; and Okay for Now. He is a professor of English at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 5-9-Six generations of English officers from the Staplyton family have served the Staffordshire Fencibles in support of their monarchs. The proudest day of young Anson Staplyton's life is when he follows his ancestors, arrays himself in full uniform, and becomes drummer boy to the troops his father leads for King George II. But after disembarking in Dublin, their latest port of duty and a center of unrest, the Fencibles find their assignment of keeping the peace something less than glorious. Anson, dreaming of noble battlefield deeds, is stunned when the first action he witnesses is the brutal whipping of Owen Roe Sullivan, a "hedge master" punished for clandestine teaching of Irish history, religion, and language, a high crime in 18th-century Britain. Added to this shock are a military operation that goes horribly, fatally wrong and the sight of Colonel Staplyton kowtowing to a powerful but cruel patron. Soon Anson's boyish fantasies are in tatters, and he begins to feel divided between his sworn duty and his growing respect for Ireland and its people. Anson's search for the right path results in a tense, exciting story peopled with lively characters moving through glorious Irish landscapes, all depicted movingly in this first-rate historical novel.
Starr E. Smith, Marymount University Library, Arlington, VA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0547237618
• ISBN 13: 9780547237619
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224