Ratings1
Average rating4
A young boy who volunteers to travel through time to the Middle Ages arrives during the Children's Crusade and is caught in its momentum.
Reviews with the most likes.
My thoughts
Cover: like the newly American better than the old nostalgic original version... [Correction the publication of 2003 by a imprint of lemiscaat i http://www.lemniscaat.nl/ s my favorite
Book: This was one of the very first books I read when I was younger. Can you believe it???s almost 40 year old and published again this year in America. When I saw it on netgalley I had to request it , I had a rush of nostalgia.I Loved it in the past. My native tongue is Dutch by the way. Iwondered if I felt the same after 10 years later and in English. It???s a pretty decent translation and my growing up resulted in a 4 star rating.
Rudolf Hefting, Dolf for short, our leading male from Holland. Who is smart, brave, courageous teenager and stand???s his ground which gets him in trouble in the 12th century.
When you begin to read the this novel, we find Dolf in the laboratory of the family friends , two loony ish professors after asking and persisting his parents to see the newly developed time machine. He persisted again while he was time with the Profs that he could be more useful than chimps, which they used for experiments.
Dolf is now in the 12 century france or so he thinks , but rather in germany. And meets a crusade formed completely by children ranging from the age of 4 to 14, 15, 16 to free Jerusalem from the Arabs.
He misses his ??????ride back?????? to the present and is stuck in the 12th century. I would have panicked but he is calm and collected. And he takes part of the crusade.
Some secrets are being hidden , lies are being told in the whole [massa massa, local tongue,sranang tongo] congregation of the child crusade.
Liked Dolf interaction with the 12th era folk, everything is different for this 20th century teen. He is very skeptic of this religious area, Europe of that time period. This has no doubt Christian/religious influences but it???s not preachy. So not religious folk can enjoy it!! I hope
There???s no minor lead or secondary character I did not like.
Maria a 11 year old taking part in the crusade is from the beginning with Dolf and befriends him and sees her like a little sister.
Leonardo Fibonacci, 15, 16 or 17 I think is very first friend Dolf befriends
THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO ROMANCE IN THIS BOOK. SO BOYS BE NOT AFRAID TO READ A 300 PLUS PAGE NOVEL.lol
After the big reveal, the secrets have come to light. It dragged on a bit let say 40 ish pages but that???s a short amount of page space and quickly begins to exite again when Dolf finds a way to go home, to the present. Will say this it was emotional for Dolf to leave his friends behind after let say 3 to 4 months with them. Roro signing out.