From Publishers Weekly
With twinkling good humor and high spirits, Garfield tells of the unlikely romance of a forgetful Londoner and a courageous Saracen maid. Set "in the year eleven hundred and something or other," this chapter book begins as sieve-headed Gilbert sails to the East ("Remember to come back home!" his parents admonish him). But off the coast of Africa, Barbary pirates attack his ship and sell him to a greedy merchant who hopes for a large ransom from Gilbert's family. But the addle-pated Gilbert remembers neither his parents' names nor their address, and only the merchant's sympathetic daughter saves him from an ignominious end. The epic saga is jauntily told, its chipper dialogue interspersed with vivid prose ("the sailors were singing and swarming and swinging in a forest of masts") as a tale of true love unfolds. Garfield's deadpan sensibility is shared by O'Brien's understated artwork: Gilbert's wide-eyed innocence is endearing, and the exotic Eastern locale deftly sketched. A picture of the Saracen maid, vainly commanding her bedroom carpet to take her to London ("Alas! Her father must have told it not to fly"), wryly captures the flavorsome wit of the text. Ages 6-9.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 2-4-Garfield offers a pleasant mixture of humor, adventure, romance, and history in this short chapter book. Young Gilbert, the very forgetful son of a London merchant, sets out for the East in the year "eleven hundred and something or other." Captured by pirates and then sold as a slave, he is cast into a dungeon. The merchant who bought him had hoped to ask for ransom, but poor Gilbert has completely forgotten his father's name and his address. Fortunately, the merchant's daughter (the Saracen maid) takes pity on the prisoner, helps him to escape, then travels to London herself, finally locating the lad by shouting his name in every street until he finally hears her. The author packs a lot into this short story, deftly shifting from romance to adventure, keeping a lightly humorous touch throughout. O'Brien's watercolor illustrations also work well; backgrounds suggest the historical settings, while the characters' features are slightly exaggerated in keeping with the mild silliness of the tale. An appealing change of pace from the usual beginning chapter-book fare.
Steven Engelfried, West Lynn Library, ORCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
