*Award-winner-Newbery Honor Book
I love Mr. Schmidt's writing and his thought-provoking books. He portrays the rawness and realness in life yet leaves the reader with a sense of hope.
Turner hates Phippsburg, Maine and its hypocritical residents. Since his father is the new pastor, he is required to have "acceptable" behavior. Trouble seems to cling to him. Residents report his behavior to his father. Then Turner meets Lizzie Bright and life improves. One problem-she is from Malaga Island and she is black. Phippsburg leaders and its people have plans to remove the residents on Malaga Island who they claim are squatters and thieves.
Turner reveals the hypocrisy of organized religion as they use the Bible and God to support their cause. If His truth doesn't support their opinion, then He is wrong, not them!!
Although I still hold to my opinion about Mr. Schmidt's writing, I am struggling with his incorporation of Darwin and his book Origin of Species. It seems like Darwin and his philosophies are what free Turner and give him courage and hope. It saddens me to see a character think they have found freedom in Darwin. On the other hand, the members of the church in this town represent a lot of individuals who claim to have a relationship with God but live in contradiction to what the Bible says. It seems like Turner was basing his faith on people, not God and who He is.
A faith-based blog I read on a regular basis did not seem to have a problem with inclusion of Darwin and how it provided hope for Turner. Their review surprised me.
This book will provide a lot opportunities to discuss race, racism, hypocrisy, religion vs. relationship, evolution vs. creationism, science and faith.
Points to discuss/warning: hypocrisy in church, Darwin/evolution, prejudice/racist characters, death (a few characters die . . .Turner sees two people die)
-Borrowed from the library.
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