We received this book to give an honest review.

In this book we get to learn how life was in Colonial America. It honestly seems like it was really hard living in this time period especially when you only lived in a one bedroom home with a lot of family members. K and I both learned some things that we never knew before such as how they made plaster and what they called it to what people wore. This book is very informative for children age but it is not boring. The illustrations are done great and go well with the story.
It was nice to read how there were obstacles with the Americans that settled here and how they overcame them.

Questions and Answers with K

1. Did you enjoy the book?
"Yes"

2. Did you feel as though you learned anything?
"Yes, I learned how they made their houses and how the grew food."

3. Do you think this book would be good to have in a classroom or library?
"Yes I think my teacher should buy this."

Book Two of the Spirited Away Saga takes us into the teeth of the storm, where Freddy, Colin, Birdie and the children flee from Barbados in their quest to find a place to call home. Sailing to America brings its own terrors complete with colonial politics, religious persecution, and the ever-present fear of having someone discover that they're runaway slaves. Even in the New World, freedom is not truly free and a slip of the tongue could destroy everything.

Maggie Plummer continues an excellent story in Daring Passage. Freddy and Birdie are still the strong and sweet women we met in Book One, and we are lucky to learn more about Colin, with the story being told both by Colin and Freddy in alternating chapters. The author really makes the past come alive as we meet corrupt customs officials, Quaker Friends, and the every day colonials.

While I loved that the author was able to show us that the colonials weren't either good or bad, we were limited to seeing well-off officials and plantation owners. While I would have loved more interaction with the every day people of that era, the story revolves around their journey through the wilds to find Birdie's people, with the hardships carefully written so they are not overlooked nor made to be overbearing.

I highly recommend reading this book, especially if you are interested in the early colonial days and interactions with the native people. This is not a stand-alone story, however, and you will want to read the first book - Spirited Away - in order to get the most out of this tale. I'm happy to say that this second book is as strong and well-written as the first, and I look forward to reading other stories by this author.

Thank you to the author for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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The story of Pocahontas has become part of American mythology. The legend of the Indian princess who befriended the colonists of Jamestown, Virginia and saved the life of John Smith has been depicted in numerous books and films, usually in a highly romanticized way. In the animated Disney movie, as in many other portrayals, Pocahontas and John Smith were in love, star-crossed by their incompatible cultures.

It all makes for a great story, but these tales bear little resemblance to the history. In Tidewater, Libbie Hawker puts some of the historical back in historical fiction with a novel that sticks much closer to the actual events but turns out to be more interesting than the idealized version.

Pocahontas (a nickname meaning “Mischief”) was actually a child when she first met John Smith and certainly not a love interest. She was adept with languages, as was Smith, helping the colonists communicate with her father, the most important chief of the tribes in the region. Hawker uses Powhatan words unapologetically but naturally, adding to the sense of this unusual linguistic partnership of a Native American child and an English settler.

Pocahontas and Smith were both a little out of step with their respective people. Their mutual feeling of not quite fitting in formed another basis for their bond. Pocahontas unfortunately shared a weakness with the colonists as well, a hubris that came of overestimating abilities and underestimating challenges. Though more excusable in a child, the mistakes of all involved had devastating consequences that often erupted into violence. The constant threat of starvation coupled with the colonists’ fundamental misunderstanding of the native tribes sowed the seeds of conflict that would be passed on for generations.

Hawker creates a story that is by necessity much darker than the Disney version. Her research gives the novel authenticity, but it is woven into the story and the characters. Their decisions and interactions are plausible based on the time and circumstances. While some questions will never be fully answered by history, it could have gone like this.

Pocahontas (1616) (Image: Wikipedia)

Published in Canada as The Book of Negroes, this novel relates the story of Aminata Diallo –kidnapped at age eleven from interior Africa and brought to America as a slave.  What follows is brutal and devastating story, but not one that lacks hope or humanity.  I particularly loved the emphasis on names, language, and identity and the often surprising ways they relate to power.  This is a book that begs to be devoured, but also savored.  I shamelessly ignored my family for the past three days because of this book and still find I wouldn’t mind going back and reading it all again.

This is the second book of Kathleen Kent's that I've read, and I'm definitely a fan.  This I guess is a prequel to The Heretic's Daughter: A Novel - Kathleen Kent  and is loosely based off her family history and local Massachusetts historical lore.  I found it to be a gripping, believable account, and an engrossing story.

A good related read for this would be Accidents of Providence - Stacia Brown  which is set during the same time period, and also includes Leveler politics.