I was lured into buying this book because it had sparkly sticker saying it had won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. That sounded promising. In addition, I was further enticed by the blurb on the back cover which mentioned fantasy. Hook, line and sinker, as they say.There should have been some sort of mandatory warning that the glittery sticker was false advertising because, throughout the book, I was at a complete loss as to how it could ever have qualified in the children's category. I wasn't even sure about YA - rightly so, as it turned out, since in discussion with some American librarians, I discovered they'd shelved it in the adult section.It seems to have landed in children's almost because it's quite genre-defying, almost in the 'too hard' to define basket. Its vague fantasy element seems to have persuaded someone to off-load it as a children's book.The fantasy element however is somewhat thin. There is a more solid science fiction element. But there is an equally solid romantic element. Not to mention substantial historical and political facets. None of which remotely equate to the children's category.The action is violent. Excessively and, at least in my view, gratuitously so. The premise of the book is that a 21st century company has invested in a great swathe of land in the 16th century - they have negotiated with the English and Scottish crowns to buy the lawless troublesome area known today as 'The Borders'. Amongst the reivers who live in this area are the Sterkarms, known for the untrustworthiness of their agreements. The company sends scientists through to the 16th century to explore the mineral, agricultural and tourist potential of their purchase. To the locals, they present themselves as 'elves' and have ensured the cooperation of the Sterkarms by supplying small white pills which do a great deal to relieve the clan patriarch's arthritis. In the aftermath of a raid, the son of the Sterkarm patriarch is extremely seriously wounded. Taken forward to the 21st century to be healed, he is horrified by the land of the 'elves' and perceives himself - rightly, as it turns out - to be a hostage to ensure that the Sterkarms will keep their word. Violence escalates through the book and I might have enjoyed it more except that the security chief was the only character for whom I felt any sympathy at all. He underwent an abrupt character change that seemed totally forced to me, as if the author was preparing the justification needed for allotting him a grisly and violent death. This however didn't really gel with leaving the really nasty character - the CEO of the company - well and truly alive.Ultimately, although I know awards aren't based on what kids think is good but rather what adults think is good for them, this was going rather too far in expounding the message that big multi-national companies can be callous, violent and uncaring in their pursuit of profit.
A prize-winning YA novel that combines convincing historical detail, smart, engaging storytelling, and a simple science-fictional premise to produce an exciting, highly readable and morally complex tale. Andrea, an English anthropologist of the near future, has been hired by FUP, a powerful international corporation, to study and live among the residents of the lawless 16th century borderlands between England and Scotland. Having established a time-tube between the periods, FUP intends to exploit the natural resources of the past, and Bryce, the executive in charge, expects Andrea to provide him information to help him manipulate the locally powerful Sterkarm family. Far heftier than is fashionable in the 21st century, Andrea is the height of beauty in the 16th, and becomes the lover and intended bride of Per, son of Toorkild, the leader of the Sterkarms. While charmed by the warmth, wit and loyalty of the Sterkarms, Andrea is appalled by the brutality and squalor of a life without medicine, plagued by disease and constant deadly battles. When Bryce (a cartoonishly evil bad guy among otherwise multifaceted portraits; he even taunts Andrea about her weight), who interprets the Sterkarms lack of modern polish as stupidity, decides to ignore Andrea's council and use force and deception to control them, Andrea finds herself torn between her feelings about her adopted people and loyalties to her own time. Along with romance, adventure, and the wonderfully rendered picture of life in the 16th century--you can smell and hear it as well as see it--adults and more sophisticated teens will appreciate the ambiguities of cultural values in conflict.
Do You like book The Sterkarm Handshake (2003)?
This is one of those books that you read and can still remember years later. I loved this book. It had a wonderful premise of time travel. The characters were learning to see the effect of what time travelers would have on the outcome of world events if people from the future would travel back in time. Would it affect how our world is now? In what way? The book was riveting for me. I read this in 2001 when I was studying library sciences taking a children's literature course. This was a book that made the assignment of book-talking easy. I hope you will enjoy the story as much as I did. It won some awards when first published.
—Judy Desetti
I thought this was a very well imagined time-travel fantasy which places us in alternative future where a "time tube" has made it possible to travel back in time from the 21st to the 16th Century.Andrea is an unlikely employee for a soul-less corporation who moves to the 16th Century and lives among the Sterkarm clan. She seems to be someone who is isolated amid the modern world, slightly awkward and under confident however, she takes to life in the 16th - learning their language and about their culture, stories and lifestyle. Meanwhile, her employers seek out the means of controlling the indiginous people, exploiting the land for profit regardless of the cost and impact on the people and landscape.The book tackles these very pertinant issues of today within the context of a fantasy world and is one that I would recommend to teenagers and those of us that remember being teenagers.
—Em
The first chapter has a group of people, male and female, who get stripped down to their birthday suits, and later a male character is looking at the female, who is wearing nothing but a blanket, and starts wondering what she looks like underneath said blanket. It dumps you face first into a situation and established relationship, without much of an explanation. The narrative is a bit long-winded, and wasn't written in a way that pulled me into the story.I couldn't get into it, and it seemed like it was heading in a direction inappropriate for YA.
—Shali
