Thursday, September 14, 2006

When history comes to visit...

Park, Linda Sue. 2006. Archer's Quest

Kevin is a young boy, Korean-American, who is just following his normal routine of doing his homework--his boring, irrelevant history homework--when history comes to visit him in a quite unlikely way. His baseball hat is quite literally lifted off his head by an arrow of a strange visitor who insists that he just fell off a tiger's back. Unsure whether to call 911 or assume it's a bizarre dream, Kevin goes along with the odd man's requests. As he begins to explain modern life--glass windows break when you try to shoot arrows through them--he determines that the only way to make his life return to normal is to figure out WHO this guy is and WHY he's suddenly in his room. This leads him to do research both online and in person.

The 'quest' is to find a way to send him back to his proper time. The solution--critical thinking skills, communication, math, and cultural research.

While ARCHER'S QUEST is not my favorite Linda Sue Park novel--her other works include A Single Shard (2001), When My Name Was Keoko (2002), and Project Mulberry (2005)--I think this modern-fantasy tale may prove interesting to young readers.

No comments: