Alrighty, so I mentioned I was going to try to update the book blog every day for a year. And then I went 6 days without updating! Bad Book Banshee!
So here it is, 6 days late. The update I'm sure you've all been hankerin' for. I spent part of this beautiful Sunday afternoon upstairs in my reading nook (I would have read outside, but the mosquitos are the size of a Scottish Terrier!). I ended up reading an old book of mine called "The Great Green Apple War" by Barbara Klimowicz with drawings by Lee J. Ames. Now, I don't remember ever NOT having this book, so I'm betting it belonged to one of my older sisters before it fell into my hands. Ah yes, I checked the front cover and it used to belong to my older sister Jeanette. It was publised in 1973 and it doesn't look like its ever been reprinted. You can still get it used at Amazon (and probably ebay). Now to get on to the review.
First off, the book starts with a map. I have never met a book that began with a map that didn't draw me into the world immediately. Maybe I'm crazy and that's not true for everyone. Maybe I am just a bizarro map lover. But any book with a map - the Tamora Pierce novels, Clan of the Cave Bear series, etc - puts me a step closer to actually being in the author's intended world. The map in TGGAW shows only a few blooks of a neighborhood. And those few blocks don't have houses or businesses or trees or even cars. Those blocks have trees. Trees in mostly straight rows with intriguing names like Northern Spy. What's the Northern Spy, I wonder? See - drawn in, aren't you. And I didn't even show you the map!
The story follows an eleven year old boy named Ignatius who lives in a typical American neighborhood in probably the mid 50s-60s. His family is Polish, and he has the supreme misfortune of being the youngest, AND the only boy in a family of 4 children. His older sisters smother and cluck over him - just the thing a boy of eleven doesn't want. The town orchard, however, is the place he wants to be. And he wants to be a member of the Willow Tree Gang even more! The boys in the Willow Tree Gang rule the orchard. They climb the trees, camp out in the orchard and boy things.
The story flashes back to young Ignatius as a 6 year old, first stepping into the orchard and his quest to become a member of the Willow Tree Gang - an all consuming goal that distracts and tempts him at every turn. Throughout the book you watch Ignatius turn from a little boy with little boy dreams and goals, to a young man who usually chooses to do the right and kind thing. and when it seems like his life is going to turn out alright, when all his dreams have come true, the unthinkable happens.
The book ends a little anti climatically, and a little more realistically than most young adult stories. The hero doesn't win. All doesn't end up perfect in Ig's world. The story ends with a change and a new beginning. And it makes the reader (and Ig) a little heartsick.
Like many things from my childhood, this book didn't retain all of its magic for me as I've grown older. But I still enjoy reading it because it hearkens back to an early time and gives me a peek of what it would be like to live in a neighborhood with other kids nearby and different adventures than I had growing up in the country.
You can pick it on at Amazon.com used, or you can borrow my copy.
http://www.amazon.com/Great-Green-Apple-War/dp/068715684X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255907447&sr=8-1
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