From: Roxanne Feldman <fairrosa>
Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2003 14:58:34 -0500

I second Kate's assessment that Crispin is more appropriate for readers in the 4th and 5th grade range, rather than higher.

I have to disagree with Steve when he said that the book is a long one -- it is only 250 or so pages, with a LOT of white space and big print. If the book is designed differently, it could have been easily be under 200 pages.

I agree with many others that it is wonderful to read a historical fiction mainly for the adventure, the story, and the atmosphere -- not for gleaning information about a certain time period. Although, Avi's skill in incorporating the terminology of the period is masterful (the various "bells" of the day, for example.) I recently read another historical fiction where a very exciting scene that in the "story time" would only take about 2 minutes to happen is dragged into a 25-page history lesson between the beginning and the end of that otherwise very brief, but potentially thriling event. I, as a contemporary reader demanding fast-paced actions, will take Crispin any day. I suspect child readers will react in a similar fashion.

I have one more comment about Crispin -- I took off the gold dust-jacket and put the book on the display shelf with the entire cover art and polled a bunch of middle schoolers -- they ALL said that the Covered-up Cover Art makes them want to read the book a LOT more than the "artsy" design of the dust-jacket. One 6th graders commented that "from a design point of view" (his actual words) he liked the dust-jacket better. But, even he admitted that the entire artwork that shows Crispin holding the cross and the people holding torches in the background, pursuing him, tells him more about the nature of the story and much more enticing.

I wonder if anyone from Hyperion is reading this and can shed some light on the decision of the dust-jacket??

-- fairrosa
Received on Sat 15 Feb 2003 01:58:34 PM CST