Following on the success of The Night of the Burning, Linda Press Wulf sets her second historical novel for young people in the 13th century. In one of the two legends of the Children’s Crusades, quite possibly true, thousands of young children followed a charismatic twelve year old shepherd, Stephen of Cloyes, south through France to Marseilles, […]
Reviews in Full
Linda Press Wulf’s first YA novel, The Night of the Burning, was published in 2006/7. It garnered excellent reviews as well as a Sydney Taylor award and Honor. Based on the few facts her husband knows about his late mother, it’s set in the 1920s. Wulf’s second novel, takes us even further back in time, […]
Crusade isn’t the sort of book I normally read but I fancied a change and, to be honest, picked it off my reading pile on the strength of it’s gorgeous cover. I also know nothing about the Crusade but at the end of the book is a brief description of the events which was extremely […]
When a surprise copy of Crusade arrived for review from Bloomsbury arrived through my door, I was very excited as it sounded just up my street. Before, I hadn’t read any fiction about the Crusades or the Children’s Crusade but I learnt about them at school so I was eager to read the author’s interpretation […]
Crusade follows the story (albeit a bit loosely as it is hard to know exact details of the crusade as the official history on the topic is somewhat lacking) and focuses in particular on two characters who are part o the crusade: Georgette a peasant girl and Robert, an orphan who has been brought up […]
Crusade was a book I wouldn’t usually read. Though it is YA, I consider this outside my usual comfort zone, where I drown myself in teen romances and contemporary stories. In a sense, Crusade is a difficult read, but like the little kids in the story, pushing through to the end, I loved it. It’s […]
13th century France is an unusual setting for a YA novel, and in some ways readers would be correct in assuming that the characters in Linda Press Wulf’s historical novel Crusade have very little in common with those of 21st century teenagers. From the age of nine, Georgette has worked as a housekeeper for the village priest; orphan boy […]
Atmospheric, highly charged, this is the perfect introduction to historical romance for teens. A beautiful story, beautifully told. Stunning.
I received an uncorrected proof copy of this book which has a plain red cover with a very simple design. I have to just start by saying that I’ve posted the actual cover of ‘Crusade’ which I think is absolutely gorgeous. The girl on the front has a lovely face and I really like the […]
The Children’s Crusade is one of those extraordinary stories of the Middle Ages which have caught the imagination of historians and preachers. A young shepherd, who believed he was called by God to save the city of Jerusalem, managed to collect together an enormous horde of children and lead them all the way to the […]
Crusade is a tale which follows two children, Georgette and Robert, who join a children’s crusade heading for Jerusalem to save the Holy Land from ‘the infidels’. Set in France during the early thirteenth century this is definitely a story for history lovers and those interested about how religion effects people, particularly those who lived during that time period. Characters: You really feel […]
The Children’s Crusade is a little-known episode in medieval history, so it is good to see another book based on it – although this is very different from Henry Treece’s story. Orphaned Robert, an extraordinarily intelligent boy, and motherless Georgette are among thousands of children spellbound by the boy on the white charger, who encourages them to join his […]
Awards A Booksense.com Winter Children’s Pick A Sydney Taylor Book Award Honor Book Selected for lists of the best children’s books of 2006 by * the New York Public Library (“100 Titles for Reading and Sharing”) * the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (“CCBC Choices 2007”) * the Children’s Book Committee at Bank Street College of […]
Kirkus Reviews Special: SPOTLIGHT ON FICTION 2006 35 HOT DEBUTS AN AUTHOR DELIVERS A FIRST NOVEL ONLY ONCE of course, and with that book launches a career. Maybe that’s the reason, along with the consistent craving for things new, that so many readers have such optimistic curiosity about fiction debuts: Here’s a voice you haven’t […]
Raisins and almonds; Sleep, my little one, sleep Reviewer: E. R. Bird “Ramseelbird” (Manhattan, NY) If I were a writer of children’s books, which I am not, and I wanted to write my debut novel I’d start very slow. Maybe write something fluffy and fun to begin with and then slowly, over the years, ease […]
Haunted by the loss of her parents to war and typhus, and driven from her Polish shtetl during the murderous anti-Semitic pogroms of 1921, Devorah, 12, and her younger sister, Nechama, are taken with 200 other Jewish orphans to safety in South Africa’s Jewish community. The first-person narrative in this debut novel swings back and […]
WULF, Linda Press. The Night of the Burning: Devorah’s Story. 208p. glossary. CIP. Farrar. 2006. Tr $16. ISBN 0-374-36419-2. LC 2005052113. Gr 5-8 This first-person narrative is an insightful exploration of the effects of traumatic experiences, and an ultimately hopeful portrait of a young girl. In 1920 Devorah, 11, and her younger sister are the […]
Devorah and her younger sister, Nechama, have lost their uncle to war, their parents to hunger, overwork, and disease, and their remaining aunt to a Cossack sword in a bloody pogrom. Nonetheless, they are luckier than most Jewish orphans during the brutal post World War I years in Poland, because they have been selected to […]
KIRKUS REVIEWS Aug 15, 2006 Losing their parents to influenza and typhoid fever, Devorah and Nehama endure another frightening and brutally senseless experience in their young lives when their simple early 20th-century Russian shtetl is attacked in an anti-Semitic pogrom. The orphans witness the gruesome stabbing death of their guardian, while everything burns to the […]
