Dispelling the Tyranny

Dispelling the Tyranny: The Sequel to When the Morning Came, Piet Prins
(Inheritance Publications, 1994), pb., 152 pp.

As mentioned in the subtitle, this is the sequel to When the Morning Came, which we really enjoyed. In this book Martin, his father and Boudewyn are not satisified with their safety in exile but long for the freeing of their homeland from Spanish tyranny. They join with the army of Count Lodewyk, brother of William of Orange, to invade the Netherlands in order to drive out the Spaniards. This has been a fun way to learn about this era of history which is not often discussed.

We enjoyed this book, though it was not at the same level as the first book. The story itself just was not as compelling. This was made even more difficult by the reliance on Dutch place names which were difficult to pronounce and unknown to us. This seems to be a result of the fact that it was originally written in Dutch. Thus, the original audience would have probably recognized the place names. For us however, these were obstacles which made the story difficult to follow. There were also more instances of awkward sentence construction in the translation.

In spite of these criticisms, my boys are clamoring for the third book. If you can simply decide upon a pronunciation for names (right or wrong be consistent), navigate the place names, and help your children keep up with who is in view (I would often add, “That’s the bad guys,” or “These are the good guys”), then there is good action, nobility and sacrifice and good examples of perseverance.