I Had Seen Castles

by Cynthia Rylant

Overview

Just 17 when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, John Duane wants nothing more than to enlist. Then he falls in love with Ginny Burton, who is against all war. But John would rather die than be judged a coward. Fifty years later, John is haunted by memories of 1942--of his family, of Ginny, and of the nightmare that was World War II. "A poignant love story."--Kirkus Reviews.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780756958343
Publisher:	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date:	08/15/1995
Pages:	97
Product dimensions:	4.50(w) x 7.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Cynthia Rylant is a Newbery medalist and the author of many acclaimed books for young people. She's well known for her popular characters for early readers, including Mr. Putter & Tabby and Henry & Mudge. She lives in the Pacific Northwest. www.cynthiarylant.com.

 
 
 

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

[star]"Wonderfully spare language and imagery . . . poignant."—Kirkus Reviews

[star]"Tantalizing. . . Rylant writes with passion and hearbreaking honesty."—The New York Times Book Review

[star]"Heartbreaking . . . Not to be missed."—Publishers Weekly

Editorial Reviews

An idealistic 17-year-old's life changes dramatically when he enlists in the service, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. According to PW's boxed review, "This finely drawn novel projects emotional truths to rival those of Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. Not to be missed." Ages 12-up. (Oct.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

This is a powerful, powerful book-one that no one should put off reading. Yes, it is a love story, and it is a loss-of-innocence story. But most dramatically, it is the story of one seventeen-year old's loss of the romanticized outlook on war typical of youth. This story of World War II, which is to me more powerful of its time period than The Red Badge of Courage is of the Civil War. What makes it so compelling is its art, the weaving of a richly colored poetic fiber into its beautifully crafted fiction-a book as close to poetic fiction as I have read: "I could not stay in America because America had not suffered. I needed to be with those whose eyes looked like my own, who had covered their faces and lain in the darkness as bombs fell" (p. 95). The book works. Read it. Bring it to your eleventh and twelfth graders.

The ALAN Review - Mike Angelotti

John Dante looks back 50 years to when he was 18 in Pittsburgh and rushing off to fight in World War II. He remembers the intensity on the home front, the urgency that made him grab at love, and the fervent glory of being part of a wonderful show. Then came the loss of innocence in battle, where such words as "patriotism" and "freedom" fell to slaughter. Then the return home, spent and weary, cynical and shaken ("No one knows who I am"). John's pacifist girlfriend is wise, beautiful, good, and altogether too perfect, and the narrative device of an old man remembering allows Rylant to spell out the antiwar messages too heavily. It's the plain prose and the physical images that evoke a strong and subtle sense of the times, both at home and on the front: the terror of being thought a coward, the confidence that "you" will be safe. The battle scenes are particularly strong, the dreams of chivalry and castles blown away by literal experiences of dismemberment and death. Teens might read this pocket-size, hardcover, intense volume with Hahn's "Stepping on the Cracks" (1992), about a girl who hides a pacifist deserter in Ohio during World War II; Myers' "Fallen Angels" (1988), about a Harlem teenager who's not sure how he got to be in Vietnam; and Kerr's "Linger" (1993), about patriotism at home during the Gulf War. "The enemy is always interchangeable," John finds.

Hazel Rochman

[star]"Wonderfully spare language and imagery . . . poignant."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

[star]"Tantalizing. . . Rylant writes with passion and hearbreaking honesty."--The New York Times Book Review (starred review)

[star]"Heartbreaking . . . Not to be missed."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

From the Publisher

First published in 1993, Rylant's spare classic is first and foremost a love story. John Dante is 17 and cannot wait to enlist after bombs rain over Pearl Harbor. As burning as his desire for revenge is his love for Ginny, the beautiful pacifist who tries to convince him not to go. She believes the cost of war is always too high. Fifty years later, an older and wiser John recounts their passion-now lost to history-and concludes, "Ginny, I want you to know that I am really alive. And I still love you." Treat yourself to a bittersweet hour in the company of these two remarkable lovers.—Angelina Benedetti, "35 Going on 13," BookSmack! 8/19/10

Library Journal