AUTHOR: E.L. Konigsburg
AGE: 8th – 12th grade
REVIEW: It is an understatement to say that this novel ended where I thought it was going. Having read other beloved novels by Konigsburg, like From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and The View from Saturday, I expected a humor-filled story with an engaging plot and a lot of texture in characters and sub-plots. In Heroic World we get all that, plus a lesson in World War II intolerance, prejudice and decadence. Books for Kids offers a great summary of the story and characters or you can visit Barnes and Noble for a variety of reviews. NPR also has a nice excerpt as well.
This story is for an older group. At some sites I visited, the youngest age suggested dipped to 5th grade. I think that is a little too young for the content of this book. While approximately 80% of the book would be appropriate, the last 20%, where all the coincidences and histories begin to fall into place, brings in some rather mature ideas that might be too much for a young child or may be too much for a teacher/librarian/parent to be prepared to deal with. Themes of homosexuality, arranged marriages and the atrocities are of the mid-century Nazis are prevalent throughout the last section.
I enjoyed this book tremendously. The humor is more sophisticated and cynical than her other works. The children are precocious beyond their years. I did find it interesting, though, that the characters didn't seem to change or grow in the pages of the book. I think, instead, they all seemed to come to an understanding about one another—and the different understandings is really the point of the book. Through the characters' discoveries, we come to understand the deep effects the decisions from the past have played on the characters we see now. The coincidences are almost plausible, but we are asked to accept a little too much. Certianly, Heroic World is a worthwhile read. Just go in knowing where you start isn't anywhere close to where you'll end.
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