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Searching... Stillwater Public Library | J 921 SAVAGE | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Thomas Savage was just thirteen when he sailed to the New World and was sent to live with Powhatan to learn the Algonquian language and be an interpreter between the Indians and the colonists. Pocahantas was a friendly teacher, and soon he was relaying messages. But as the tensions grew between the groups, ThomasÂs job became difficult no matter how hard he tried not to take sides. Throughout the violent history of Jamestown, ThomasÂs position provided a unique view of early America, now illuminated through the incomparable lens of Jean Fritz.Jamestown is celebrating its 400th anniversary throughout 2007, and this child-centered account of history will draw young readers right into the drama.
Author Notes
Jean Fritz was born in Hankow, China on November 16, 1915. She received a bachelor's degree in English from Wheaton College in 1937. She wrote picture books and historical fiction before focusing on historical nonfiction. Her first book, Bunny Hopewell's First Spring, was published in 1954. Her other books included And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?; Will You Sign Here, John Hancock?; Can't You Make Them Behave, King George?; Shh! We're Writing the Constitution; Traitor: The Case of Benedict Arnold; Where Do You Think You're Going, Christopher Columbus?; Who's That Stepping on Plymouth Rock?; The Double Life of Pocahontas; and George Washington's Mother.
Homesick: My Own Story, a collection of linked narratives, traces her life from her girlhood in China to her longed-for yet uneasy passage to America. It won a National Book Award and was named a Newbery Honor Book. She received the Regina Medal by the Catholic Library Association, the National Humanities Medal, and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award and the Knickerbocker Award for Juvenile Literature for her body of work. She died on May 14, 2017 at the age of 101.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5-Thomas Savage, 13, accompanies Captain Christopher Newport on his second sailing from England to Jamestown, arriving in the "New World" in January 1608. Newport and John Smith give Thomas to the Native American leader Powhatan and ask the boy to learn the language and act as an interpreter. As tensions between the English and the Native people mount, Thomas's position becomes precarious. Eventually he goes to Virginia's Eastern Shore and becomes one of the first white landowners there. Fritz usually writes nonfiction, but she could not find a great deal of factual information about Savage's life. She says in her foreword, "Without documentary evidence of what went on in Thomas' mind, I have to call this book historical fiction." However, she seems reluctant to commit to the genre and, as a result, Thomas is not a fully realized character. Sentences that include "perhaps" or "he may have" preserve historical accuracy, but serve to distance readers from the action. The charcoal drawings were "colorized on a computer, printed onto stipple paper, and finished with acrylic paints," a process that gives the colors depth and texture. However, the depiction of the Native people does not fit historical descriptions from the period. Instead of looking intimidating, all the Natives appear avuncular and unthreatening. There are no shaved or partially shaved heads; no face or body paint in evidence. The whole book has a somewhat old-fashioned feel to it. However, libraries looking to expand their resources for Jamestown's 400th anniversary may want to include this title in their collections.-Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Several top-notch biographies come to the fore this spring. With her usual engrossing approach, Jean Fritz offers a window into the journey to and establishment of Jamestown through the eyes of 13-year-old Thomas in Who's Saying What in Jamestown, Thomas Savage?, illus. by Sally Wern Comport. Though Thomas traveled alone from England in 1607, Captain Newport found many jobs for him, and ultimately "gave" him to the Powhatan, to learn their language and act as go-between for the English settlers. Fritz's choice to tell this milestone event through the eyes of a teenager lends it a sense of immediacy for young readers, and Comport's full-color spot illustrations bring the period to life. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Intermediate) Coinciding with the four-hundred-year anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, Fritz's book introduces readers to a real but little-known colonist, thirteen-year-old Thomas Savage. Because information about Thomas's life is sketchy (Fritz herself labels the book historical fiction in a ""forward"" [sic]), we know only that Thomas was given to the Indians, learned their language, acted as interpreter, and spent his later years on the Eastern Shore. Fritz fills in the gaps of Thomas's story with colorful descriptions of historical figures (John Smith, for example, was ""a short man with a huge red beard that looked as if it might catch fire from his anger"") and by detailing the mess that was Jamestown: the politics, the egos, the tensions and violence between the colonists and Indians, and the unrealistic expectations for the colony. While this gap-filling includes some interesting information, it also interrupts the narrative flow, moving readers all over Colonial Virginia like a tour guide pointing out sights from a moving bus. Comport's illustrations re-create the setting and highlight major events while providing visually pleasing breaks in what would otherwise be dense-looking text. Appended with explanatory notes, a bibliography, and an index. Copryight 2007 of The Horn Book, Inc. All rights reserved. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Commemorating the 400th anniversary of Jamestown's founding, Fritz's latest venture into America's past sketches the career of a teenaged cabin boy who joined the beleaguered colony at the beginning of 1608. He spent enough time in Powhatan's settlement of Werowocomoco to learn the language, became an interpreter who survived the massacres and famines, then later went on to form an alliance with the neighboring Accawmackes and to settle on Virginia's Eastern Shore. Fritz notes that so little is known of Savage's life that her account should be regarded as fiction. But she fills in the large gaps in the story with so many verified historical details of Jamestown's tumultuous early years that readers will come away with an accurate picture of events--and also likely shaking their heads in wonder that the colony wasn't utterly wiped out on numerous occasions. Though Comport's low-angle illustrations have a distractingly flat, over-painted look, and the closing bibliography is composed of adult sources and hard-to-find journal articles, the narrative here is easily vivid enough to compensate. (endnotes) (Fictionalized nonfiction. 8-11) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Fritz takes what is known of Thomas Savage's life and creates a vivid if sometimes disturbing narrative that depicts aspects of life in Jamestown nearly 400 years ago. According to her account, in 1608, 13-year-old Thomas was sent to live with the Native Americans, learn their language, and become an interpreter. Shuttling between the two cultures, Thomas befriended both John Smith and Powhatan. When relations between the communities became troubled, Powhatan lured 60 colonists to his capital, where half of them were shot and one was dismembered, burned, and skinned while Thomas looked on. With the hope of peace destroyed, Thomas returned to Jamestown and grew up to become a landowner on the Eastern Shore. Cataloging-in-publication places the volume in nonfiction, but Fritz notes that Without documentary evidence of what went on in Thomas's mind, I have to call this book historical fiction. Librarians may want to heed Fritz and shelve the book in fiction collections, but the intended audience is unclear. A description of torture, even though not depicted in the artwork, seems out of place in a book for middle-grade children, while the many colorful illustrations give it an elementary-school look that may be off-putting for middle-school students. Also, one illustration depicts a European woman helping with the reconstruction of Jamestown after a fire in early 1608, though the first woman colonist would not arrive until fall. For purchasers, the book's intriguing story must be viewed against its many flaws. --Carolyn Phelan Copyright 2007 Booklist
