Dark Shade [Board book]

Jane Louise Curry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1998

Sixteen-year-old Maggie attempts to save recently orphaned Kip from permanently going back in time to 1758 as an adopted Lenape in the primeval forests of western Pennsylvania.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-8AMaggie, 16, lacks self-confidence, but her problems pale in comparison to those of her friend Kip. Badly burned in a fire that killed both of his parents, he is silent and withdrawn. When Maggie follows him one afternoon, she discovers that he can slip back in time to the days when Indians inhabited the area and the British fought the French. In the woods, she encounters Robbie, a young 18th-century soldier who is suffering from a near-fatal snakebite. As she helps him, she begins to wonder how her actions might impact the future, which is, in fact, her present. Kip, on the other hand, plans to leave his unhappy present life and stay in the past. The action is set against a backdrop of primeval forest and a thriving Lenape Indian culture. As a time-travel fantasy, this works well. Maggie's preparations to enter another time are careful and thoughtful. She does not just trip blithely back and forth in 20th-century garb. Problems with this story exist in the present, however. None of the characters is fully developed. Adults are oblivious or indifferent to what is going on. Readers know little about Kip's inner feelings or emotions. The best developed and most interesting character is Maggie's dog Digby. Also, the denouement depends on meticulous records kept by Maggie's ancestors. While it is convenient for the teens to find old letters and documents dating back to the 1700s, it is highly unlikely that such things would really exist. On the whole, though, this is an enjoyable time-travel story.ABruce Anne Shook, Mendenhall Middle School, Greensboro, NC
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 6^-10. Skillfully weaving history, time travel, and a hint of romance, Curry creates a page-turner with lots to explore. The summer that Maggie Gilmour is 16, she takes American literature to get ahead of a fall program that will prepare her to study veterinary medicine, like her dad. In class with her is Kip, a childhood companion, now a silent presence, ever since a fire that left him scarred physically and emotionally. She follows Kip into the forest near their western Pennsylvania home one afternoon and into the year 1758, where the primeval forest is the Dark Shade of the title. Maggie finds she must rescue a young Scots soldier of the French and Indian War and find a way to free Kip from the affection and acceptance of a band of Lenape Indians, so that both can take their place in their own time. None of this comes clear at once, to us or to Maggie. She slips from now to then with her chocolate Labrador, Digby, at her side and a sense that what is wrong in time must be made right. The heat of Pennsylvania summers, the scent and texture of an ancient forest, Lenape food, and Redcoat clothing are rendered so directly that, like Maggie, we experience them with our breath caught in wonder. What Kip and Maggie discover about themselves and their ancestors in the days when Pittsburgh was Fort Duquesne makes an end both rewarding and revealing. Pair this with Felice Holman's Real , which is similar in its richly embroidered historical fantasy. GraceAnne A. DeCandido

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Board book: 176 pages
• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry; 1st edition (April 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689818122
• ISBN-13: 978-0689818127
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,857,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Tentative time travel story, February 4, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dark Shade (Board book)

The combination of its story about time travel to the French and Indian War and the Indian adoption of a white teen is what led me to read "Dark Shade." Overall, I was a little disappointed in the book, mainly because I didn't like how tentative the main character, Maggie, was about her time travelling adventures. I think it would have been a more intriguing story if Maggie had been allowed to more fully explore the 18th century world she stumbled in upon. Instead she only makes hestitant steps into it. Maggie's tentative reaction is probably a realistic one, but, since time travel stories are pure fantasy anyway, her reaction is not a particularly interesting one. Also I thought the sudden appearance of romantic feelings between two characters, who barely interact with each other throughout the book, came across as tacked on and contrived.

However, "Dark Shade" does have one great strength- the author's wonderfully detailed description of the primeval forest that once stretched across Pennsylvannia. Thanks to Ms. Curry's description, the reader can almost see, smell, and feel that dark, ancient, and never-ending forest. Also the author reminds the reader that people in the 18th century weren't so big on bathing so that their aroma must have been rather pungent.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars interesting, April 24, 2007

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Dark Shade (Board book)

Although there were some weaknesses regarding the character developement of the adults in modern time in this book, the novel's main strength lay in it's vivid discription of the old Pennsylvania woods, and the sympathetic and realistic way in which the Lennape Indians are portrayed. They are not shown as noble savages, but as an actual culture, with faults and strengths of its own. Kip and Maggie, were also very well developed characters. Although the author never outright explains Kip's feelings about the tragedy that occured, they are present throughout the book and serve as Kip's main drive in wanting to run away to the past. This book was very good, and i also particularly liked the way that it concentrated more on indian culture at the time, and not european culture in America, because there are enough books on European settlers, and not enough sympathetic and accurate portrayals of American Indians. This book was a very enjoyable read.

3.0 out of 5 stars Lacking Depth, January 5, 2010

By 

Tamela Mccann "taminator40" (Nashville, TN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dark Shade (Board book)

Dark Shade is a time traveling story with all sorts of potential. Sixteen year old Maggie Gilmour, honor student and future vet, becomes curious when her friend Kip starts withdrawing more and more after a fire killed his parents. On one of her walking excursions with her dog Digby, Maggie stumbles across a stream that somehow transports her back two hundred years, and discovers that Kip has been escaping his painful present by frequently venturing into the past. But will their presence back in time mess with the current age? Will Maggie's help for the stricken soldier she encounters lead her entire family history astray?

I wanted to like this short book and yet so much was missing. There were passages devoted to the disappointments and expectations Maggie's mother foists on her and yet that is never fully developed. Kip, while obviously suffering from his injuries in the present day, thinks nothing of leaving his remaining family to live with the Lenape Indians he encounters in the past. And so much happens in the past yet only minutes pass in the real world. I also wondered as to the intended audience for this book; with a sixteen year old protagonist, I felt the book should have been aimed for older teens and yet the entire feel of the book was decidedly children's literature.

It's not that this is a bad book; it is quick and readable and does give an accurate (right down to the often unpronounceable names) look at the evaporating Lenape tribe. It's just that so many themes were not explored after their introduction or simply glossed over quickly. I just don't think it would have a lot of appeal to many young readers.