Customer Reviews

Bartlett and the City of Flames

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The intrepid Bartlett, explorer extraordinaire, is back---along with his sidekicks, Jacques le Grand and Gozo. In this adventure the three are captured and taken to the City of the Sun. When the city's "Pasha" mistakes Gozo for his long-lost son, Bartlett and Jacques must find the Pasha's real son, who has been kidnapped by a band of people from the "Underground."

Hidden beneath the sun-baked stonefields, the City of Flames -or Underground---as it is known to topsiders, is governed by the "Ahsap" and his band of quarreling counselors. Barlett soon finds the Pasha's son there. The Ahsap agrees to release the boy if, and only if, Barlett can give him his greatest desire: the sun.

How can one possibly bring the sun to the Underground? Certainly, this is an impossible task! Impossible, that is, for an ordinary person---and Barlett is no ordinary person. For like all truly first-rate explorers, he knows when to rely on those three great principles of: Inventiveness, Perseverance, and Desperation.

Witty, wonderful, and little wacky. Storytelling at its finest. Highly Recommended.

Reviewed by the staff at Education Oasis.

This is a *really* good adventure story for kids -- I'd say 3rd grade and up for independent reading, but if you are reading aloud, then even kindergarteners will understand the plot.

Bartlett, Jacques le Grand, and Gozo come out of the caverns, where they have been exploring and mapping for months and months, up into the glaring light of a barren, stony land. Almost imediately they are "captured" by soldiers keeping watch and taken to the Pasha. Everyone reacts strangely to Gozo, but the Pasha and Pashanne are delighted to see him.

Despite protests that Gozo is not who they think he is, Gozo is swept away and ensconced in the palace. The Pasha agrees that they can have Gozo back if they will bring someone back who has "disappeared."

Bartlett and Jacques then set out to try to be recaptured and taken to another land, a land where people disappear and do not come back. This land is an underworld carved and chipped under the stony plains, lit by torches and always on the watch. It is called the City of Flames. Once admitted to this world, they are interviewed by the Ahsap, who declines to release the person they must have. The Ahsap says he will make a trade -- they must bring the sun to the City of Flames, and then they can go their way.

A very inventive solution presents itself, and there is a reunion and reconciliation between the Pasha and the Ahsap. As with all these Odo Hirsch books -- the points for your kids include Perseverance, Inventiveness, and Desperation. This book also adds trust -- as the two worlds come together for trade and understanding, and faithfulness -- the explorers keep their promises.

Excellent adventure story.