1942 - The Matchlock Gun

Dates read: April 2008
Read or listened to: Read
Pages: 62 pp. (with illustrations)
Rating: ●●●○○ (for readability and story)
Rating: ●○○○○ (for inappropriate racist content)

Hmmm...so this is a hard one to review. These are some objective things about the book: It was short so it only took me 40ish minutes to read it. (How can you not appreciate a book that reads so quick?) It read more like a short story than it did a novel. It was written during one war time (WWII) about another war time (the French-Indian War in the mid-1750s).

Here is what makes it difficult. I really like historical fiction and I found the story really quite intriguing and well written, but it was written 70 years ago. I found that the references to slavery and indian relations were discussed in ways that are not appropriate. Is it possible that the war time in which it was written contributed to a feeling of racism? I am not interested in political correctness, and I could look past much of it because I am aware of the cultural differences that come about as the decades pass. Unfortunately, however, the last page was rather disturbing. The 10-year-old boy was congratulated for killing more men than the adults. He was defending his family and, as the story was told, he was justified. But really is that the way it should have been treated?!? Thank him for defending his family, but don't tally up his killings and call him the winner! It is difficult for me to trust history in the way it was taught to me (very euro-centric). Is my impression of how history happened true or very slanted?

PS I read a bunch of reviews on Amazon. Some ignored the racist references. Some condemned the book completely. Many (like myself) found some redeeming qualities in the book as well as the offensive.