Customer Reviews

Dark Shade

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Dark Shade is about a girl named Maggie Gilmour and how she fells into a hole that goes back in time when there was Indian tribes.It was summer when this all happen.Maggie was 16, in school she takes American literature program that will prepare her to study veterinary medicine, like her dad. In class with her is Kip, a childhood companion,who is 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.Kip fell into a hole Maggie thought Kip lost her. Maggie falls into the same hole Kip falls in and she notices that every thing is differant from the place she was before she fell into the hole.It is a dark forest and there is lots of trees. Maggie founds out she has falling into time. She sees indians tribes and Kip. he does not want to leave the tribe, but Maggie does want to leave and go back home.Maggie finds she must save a Scots soldier of the War and find a way to free her friend Kip from the Lenape Indians, so they cound go home. At first Kip wants to stay, but every thing started getting rough, like war between the Indians and the French. They get away and they never forget that day they fall in time.