CIENCIASMEDICASNEWS: Loyalty never goes out of style

miércoles, 6 de abril de 2016

Loyalty never goes out of style

Reading Matters is MercatorNet’s blog about children’s literature. Our goal is to enable parents and educators to find quality books for young people. For an explanation of our evaluation system, click here. We welcome reader input and new reviewers. We love comments on the book reviews. Write to us at jennifer.minicus@mercatornet.com.

WEDNESDAY, 6 APRIL 2016

Loyalty never goes out of style

BY JENNIFER MINICUS

Knight's Fee
by Rosemary Sutcliff
written for ages 11-14 | highly recommended
published in 2013 (1960) | RHCP Digital | 288 pages

Randall has little recollection of his parents. His Saxon mother died in childbirth, his Norman father fighting the Welsh. He has grown accustomed to buffets and beatings at the hands of the various servants at Arundel castle and takes comfort in the companionship of the dogs he tends in the kennels. Nearly ten, he expects that the arrival of Hugh Goch, the new lord of the manor, will have little effect on his life. When he accidently drops his half-eaten fig on the nose of Goch’s horse, however, his life does indeed change.

Saved from Goch's severe punishment by the kindness of a traveling minstrel, Randal is sent to live with Sir Everard d’Aiguillon and his grandson Bevis. Randal and Bevis become close friends. They share everything, including their training as squires. Randal knows he can never become a knight as Bevis will. To become a knight, one must have the means of paying one’s overlord a knight’s fee. Just the same, Randal is content to remain Bevis' squire forever and demonstrates his loyalty to the d'Aiguillon household.

Rosemary Sutcliff has woven a story of a young man's search for purpose with the intricacies of British history. Knight's Fee portrays the political intrigue surrounding William the Conqueror's sons and the faithfulness of a young man who never forgets a debt. In spite of his difficult childhood, Randal acquires the virtues necessary to do what is right, even when it may cost him great loss. Sutcliff's descriptions of the story's setting and characters as well as her clever turns of plot will hold the reader's interest until the last page.

A former teacher, Jennifer Minicus is currently a full-time wife and mother.

- See more at: http://www.mercatornet.com/bookreviews/view/loyalty-never-goes-out-of-style/17861#sthash.zsbdwdIe.dpuf

In his piece on the LGBT bullying of the Dominican Republic by the US through its gay ambassador, Michael Cook references a White House blog post in which "Eight of the nation's most powerful out leaders, including ambassadors and an envoy to the State Department, explain how proposed trade agreements will export our values of equality and tolerance."

It's quite an eye-opener. It explains how "new trade initiatives"including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)" -- which the New Zealand government, for one, has signed up to and is busy right now explaining to a sceptical citizenry -- are doubling as means to export "values", a weasel word for LGBTQ etc cultural norms. They won't have much work to do in our country, where politicians have already bent the knee to gender ideology, but they are ready to ready to use neo-imperialist tactics on culturally conservative countries like the Dominican Republic. At that rate Mexico should welcome Trump's "wall" -- to keep the Americans out.