Beorn the Proud

Beorn the Proud, Madeleine Polland
(1961; reprinted, Bethlehem Books, 1999), pb., 185 pp.
Ages7-12

This is a story of Viking raids, Ireland and Denmark in the 9th century with an adventure centering around a boy and girl. We really like good historical fiction and have enjoyed many books from this publisher so we were excited to get back to this book which we ran out of time for the last time we went through this time period. However, this book was a disappointment.

On the positive side, the book has an explicit Christian message. The girl in the story, Ness, is an Irish Christian and she advocates the faith to her Viking captors, including Beorn, the son of the chief. The contrast of a God of love versus a god of war and slaughter is discussed, as well as the value of humility rather than arrogance. This is good. However, the Christianity discussed is fairly vague.

Negatively, the story is just not told well. At a couple of places the telling is so vague as to cause confusion for several pages before ideas were explained. There was some adventure and intrigue but it was not compellingly delivered.

So, this book is tolerable but there are plenty of others which provide a more realistic portrait of the era in a more engaging manner.

Children's Bio of Saint Patrick

Saint Patrick, Michael J. McHugh
(Christian Liberty Press, 1999), 150 pages.

Stories about key historical Christian leaders are always attractive to me but we have learned from experience that a good idea for a book does not insure the good writing of the story. This book, however, is really well done. The story is told well, including good action. My boys really enjoyed it. The author also does a good job at various places in the story of presenting the gospel- not in a cheesy or truncated manner as so common in many kids stories. The gospel arises naturally as Patrick considers his soul during his enslavement in Ireland eventually resulting in his conversion (which is related well), and then in his missionary preaching later on. Each time the gospel call is repent and believe.

Now, this book is not Narnia level writing. It does seem a little heavy handed at times, but I do warmly recommend it. It presents courage, perseverance, the importance of obedience to parents, sharing of the gospel, gospel removing fear of death and enabling boldness. The author clearly seeks to distance Patrick and the British church from Rome, which is fine with me, but I do not know how historically accurate that is.

(Note: I cannot findthis book listed on the publisher's website currently. I have contacted them and will update this post when I hear something. Sadly, this book like several others we have enjoyed is nto available through Amazon. Amazon does have an Audio version)
UPDATE: The link above will now take you to an Amazon page where the book can be purchased.