Lightning Time

As the plan to attack Harper's Ferry and free the slaves appears to become more of a suicide mission, Theodore Worth reflects on his two-year journey from Quaker son and dutiful Boston schoolboy to his role as one of John Brown's "Invisibles."

Grade 6-8. When 14-year-old Theodore first encounters John Brown, the charismatic abolitionist's rhetoric appeals to him. While his Quaker mother is a pacifist and his father is not concerned with the unrest in other states, Theodore is ripe for following a man of action. He steals away to join Brown's volunteer militia. When he and the other fighters learn that they are to seize the weapons at Harper's Ferry and flee to the mountains to establish a republic to which runaway slaves will flock, they are stunned. Theodore is torn about whether to continue on with his mentor, but in the end decides to stay and fight. Brown tells him that he will be fighting with lightning: relaying telegraph messages to Brown and sending false messages to their enemies during the raid. When the attack fails, Theodore is arrested; in a clever ending, he is rescued by his father and a friend. This historically accurate, richly detailed novel perfectly captures Theodore's angst as he stands on the verge of manhood, yearning to act, but lacking experience in decision-making. An excellent first effort that is a welcome change from the recent boy-turns-Civil War drummer/musician stories such as G. Clifton Wisler's The Drummer Boy of Vicksburg (1997) and Mr. Lincoln's Drummer (1995, both Lodestar), and Joan Nixon's A Dangerous Promise (Delacorte, 1994).?Peggy Morgan, The Library Network, Southgate, MI
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Theodore Worth first encounters John Brown, the charismatic leader who will change his life, when his family reluctantly agrees to hide the man in their Boston home overnight. Driven by strong beliefs and the unjust death of a black acquaintance at the hands of slave catchers, Theodore later runs away from home to help Brown in his ill-fated attack on Harper's Ferry. Theodore's role is that of survivor, the one who tells the tale. And like other chroniclers of tragedy--Ishmael or Tom of Warwick- -he is confronted by and makes use of passion and poetry to discharge his duty. Rees lights his story with flashes of lyricism that make plain the moral ambiguities of Brown's case: Did he intend all along to become the martyr whose death would light the fuse of the Civil War? Were his actions justified by the evil he fought? In much of historical fiction, the answers have to be fabricated; here, Rees trusts readers to ponder the excitement of the questions themselves. (Fiction. 10-14) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 6^-9. On a cold night in Concord in 1857, 14-year-old Theodore goes with his parents to hear abolitionist John Brown speak about "bloody Kansas." The boy's father calls Brown an assassin, but his mother, a Quaker, is more sympathetic to the cause. She invites Brown to temporarily hide out in their home, where Theodore comes to know and respect the man. Later, Theodore runs away to join Brown's company and takes part in events at Harper's Ferry. Rescued from prison by his father, he lives to tell his tale. Rees' novel not only introduces the charismatic figure of John Brown, it also looks at the morality of killing for one's beliefs and shows the variance of public sentiment about the advisability of war in the mid-1850s. Readers who have little knowledge of the period may find themselves confused at times, but Theodore makes a sympathetic narrator as he tries to decide what he believes and how far he will go in acting upon those beliefs. Carolyn Phelan