Friday, December 27, 2019

REVIEW: The Light at Tern Rock by Julia L. Sauer


The Light at Tern Rock

Ronnie and his aunt are tending the Tern Rock lighthouse while the keeper takes a vacation. Ronnie loves living in the lighthouse, and looks forward to telling his family about it at Christmas. But will lighthouse keeper Byron Flagg return in time for Ronnie and Aunt Martha to make it home for Christmas? A Newbery Honor Book.




MY THOUGHTS
I have been trying to read more Newbery books so when I saw this at a used book sale, I decided to stick it into my bag. This was a fairly quick read and I was pleasantly surprised that it was a Christmas book (being that I picked it up to read only a few days before Christmas!), but I overall was not impressed with it. This was not a bad book, but I felt like it was too moral heavy and less character-driven. Part of that is likely due to when this book was published. This book was published in 1951 and, let us be honest, books for children then were a lot different than they are now (and there was a big gap between children's books and adult fiction). They were a lot more focused on teaching a lesson. Of course, there are children's books from this time that are not like that, I do not mean to overgeneralize, but this book did not focus as much on the story as it did the message.

In this short book, a young boy named Ronnie (his age is unclear) is told by his aunt that they will be living at the Lighthouse for the first two weeks of December. The aunt knows how to manage a Lighthouse, which is why she is asked to man it while the Lighthouse keeper is gone. The Lighthouse keeper promises Ronnie that he will pick them up the fourteenth and no later, and that Ronnie will not have to spend his Christmas at the Lighthouse, but the closer they get to Christmas, the more Ronnie worries that the man will not keep his promise.

Now the main messages in this story are about promises, forgiveness, and making the best of a situation. These are good messages to have and I have no issues with these ideas themselves, but I did have a slight issue with how forgiveness was presented. Going into some spoilers here: [highlight to view spoiler] The Lighthouse keeper does not keep his promise, which of course makes Ronnie upset. He calls the man a liar. His aunt seems to get really upset at Ronnie for being mad at the man when this is a perfectly normal reaction, especially for a child. They find a box of gifts and food at the Lighthouse from the man, things specifically for Christmas, which only proves that the man knew he would leave them at the Lighthouse at Christmas. He even leaves a letter telling them that he lied so that he could be with family for Christmas. Ronnie is still upset, but his aunt asks him to forgive and he eventually does and feels comfortable with the Lighthouse. Now, it is good to forgive and I think that itself is a good message, but the way the story as laid out, it made it seem like you should forgive someone if they give you presents. Or worse, you can lie to others as long as you give the people you lied to gifts. Which I do not think is a great message to leave children. It is good that the story ended happily, but it also bothered me that the man tells them this in a letter. It felt impersonal, but maybe that was not as impersonal in 1951? I also felt like the aunt’s attitude about the man and forgiveness contradicted her statement at the beginning of the book “children shouldn't be uprooted just to suit the convenience of their elders.” [end of spoiler]

Anyway, this is getting to be a long review for such a short book! I will say that I am not in the age group this is meant for, so maybe I am overthinking things, but I have grown up and grown used to books that focus more on character growth without an overpowering message. There was character growth here, Ronnie certainly changes throughout the course of the book, but I never felt connected to the characters. I never even knew Ronnie’s age, what he is like before the start of the story, or why he is living with his aunt. You may argue that this is a short book, so of course that information would not be there, but I have read short books that gave me a connection to the characters and a better understanding of them. Recently I read another Newbery, Sarah Plain and Tall, and that is the same number of pages as this book, but I understood the characters more in that book.

IN CONCLUSION
This was a quick and easy read but I wish it was more character-driven rather than moral-driven. It does have some great messages, but the why forgiveness is presented was a little troubling. I do like that this was a Christmas story because I do not come across very many Christmas books in YA/MG, but overall I was not impressed with this Newbery book.


I hereby give this book
2 Stars
Meaning: It was okay

1 comment :

  1. That cover jumped out at me- kinda evocative. But yes I think I'd feel the same way- sounds like maybe the book hasn't aged super well and I think I'd like it to be more character- driven too, from the sounds of it.

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