Does Anyone Else Remember The Story Keepers?

 

The Story Keepers is a children’s cartoon produced by Zondervan and Focus on the Family that ran from 1995-1997. I have vivid childhood memories of watching this show Friday mornings. It follows the adventures of Christians in first century Rome as they dodge the authorities to share the gospel.

I was surprised to learn that there were only thirteen episodes. For whatever reason, when I was a kid, I thought there were so many episodes I would never see every single one.  Although it is shorter than I remembered it was by no means incomplete. These thirteen episodes tell a complete story and end on a four-part Easter special. 

The animation for the present of 64AD is more goofy and fun, but the animation changes to different more elegant and artistic styles when it is focusing on a gospel story being told. For example the parable of the good samaritan is very angular and has dark earthy tones while the story of the calming of the sea is more fluid and uses blue and cool tones. 

Rome 64 AD

The first handful of episodes are more goofy and campy than the later ones. The animation also increased in quality the longer the show went on.  I think it took them a little bit to find their style, but even then I enjoyed the earlier episodes despite how absurd (or maybe because) they were.

The characters don’t fall into the boxes and tropes that I usually see in Christian fiction. Ben the Baker, our protagonist, and his wife are fostering several children whose parents have gone missing during the great fire of Rome. These children have a differing range of optimism and they aren’t always happy and hopeful that they will see their parents again. Some like Marcus, the youngest, are absolutely confident that their parents are out there waiting for them, while others like his older brother, Justin, are not. 

The Christians are not portrayed as being perfect and happy all the time, they disagree with one another,  they make mistakes because they are prideful and refuse to listen, sometimes with huge consequences.  Also, they struggle to be completely true to their faith. In the first episode, Tacticus, a sympathetic guard, advises Zak, one of Ben’s foster-children awaiting execution, to just proclaim Nero as a god because he has seen many Christians do so and their lives were spared.

Words cannot describe how much I despised this man. 

Not all non-Christians are super villains. The only two completely unsympathetic pagan characters are the major villains Nihilus (yes there was a villain named Nihilus this show is not very subtle in that regard) and Nero.

However, they are evil because the latter is a narcissist with a god-complex and the former is an unscrupulous follower of said narcissist. Although I hated Nero and Nihlus, it’s in the best way possible; they are entertaining and take over every scene they are in. Did mention? Nero is played by Tim Curry.

My favorite character is Tacticus who *spoilers* eventually converts to Christianity. However, he does not hear one gospel story and immediately asks to be baptized. He starts as an honorable man before he converts, and it takes the course of the series for him to believe in Jesus. I appreciate this more as an adult than I did as a child because in real life, most people who change their beliefs take time, and are not bad people before and after they make this change.

All episodes can be watched for free on YouTube here. If you have kids, I especially recommend you show it to them. The Story Keepers is up there with VeggieTales as one of the best Christian children’s shows ever produced

Who Killed Jesus?

 

An almost universally agreed upon fact by both Christian and secular scholars is that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified under the orders of Pontius Pilate in the early first century likely around 30-33 AD/CE.

But what caused Jesus to be crucified?

Who killed him?

 The short and literal answer is the Romans who carried out Pilate’s orders. It does not matter if Pilate attempted to wash his hands of the act, he was still the one who bent over to the will of the mob. He may as well have been the one to drive the nails into Christ’s hands and feet.

However, since  the fledgling days of Christianity many have pointed their finger at the Jews. It was the religious authorities of the first century who were unhappy with how Jesus was teaching and handed him over to the Roman authorities.  Never mind that Jesus and most of his first followers were Jews, in many unfortunate cases, Christians have attempted to seek revenge against them. 

At the end of the day, arguing over who is responsible for Jesus’ death and seeking “justice” for him, is completely missing the point and purpose of his sacrifice, and ignores the hard truth.

I, Melanie, killed Jesus.

 It was for my and the sins of everyone who ever lived that he died, but this is by no means a reason for despair or to attempt to harm oneself or seek out punishment. 

My mother once told me, we should not be doling out justice for Jesus or avenging his death.  Our salvation did not come without a price, but it is also important to remember what the sacrifice gave us. My mother also told me, if I were to look up at Jesus from the foot of the cross he would not say. “Look what you did to me.” 

His words would be, “I did this for you.”

It was not Pilate, but it was my sins who condemned thee to death. -St. Alphonsus Ligouri 

Deadly Flowers: A Book Review

 

        

         Deadly Flowers is a middle-grade novel that follows Kata, a stellar student at ninja academy for girls. Kata has the honor of being assigned her first solo mission, an assassination. However, upon realizing that her target is a little boy, Kata has second thoughts about her mission and has to make a difficult choice.   I have very mixed feelings about this book, but I still prefer to start with what I liked first.

         The author certainly did her research when writing about the ninja. As a self-identified ninja enthusiast, I enjoyed it. I feel she could have gone a little further with the factual information about the ninja and the like, but I do know that the average reader may not appreciate this the same way I would and it’s a story not an encyclopedia.

         The beginning set at school and were my favorite parts. I liked how the girls, who are mostly orphans, looked out for each other in their own ways and the nicknames they gave to their instructors behind their backs. It all made the school feel more like a real place.

What didn’t work for me:

           Kata’s arrogance blew my mind. She’s a fifteen-year-old ninja who has been training her entire life. I think she should be allowed to have some confidence, but to a point. She constantly thinks about how she is so much better than her two companions, and mentions how it has been years since she has been punished at school for failing even the most difficult of an exercise because she is just that amazing. Speaking of her two companions, Kata has a strong disdain towards Saiko. Kata reminds the reader of this dislike every other page. In my opinion, I see it as believable that someone like Kata may not click with someone like Saiko immediately. However, we do not need the narrator to more or less say “I don’t like this person” nearly every time the character breathes. (That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it did happen enough to grow tiresome).

Towards the end of the book, the characters seem to only take action because the plot needs to keep moving so people need to do things. I don’t want to spoil anything so I will leave it at that.

         My final gripe is the way the book handles foreshadowing. During the story, things happen that may make a critical reader raise an eyebrow. That is okay. What is not okay to me is that when this comes to fruition, the narration reminds us of every single moment that led up to this. Stuff the reader is already aware of. This bothered me because it came across more like the writing saying, “You are too simple to remember what happened so I am going to remind you.”

         Deadly Flowers is okay. I feel it actually could have used more information on the Ninja, but I know I am just an enthusiast so this might not be the opinion of the average reader. The action scenes (mostly blow-by-blow descriptions) could also use some work, but it is not the main focus of the book.

I will admit that a lot of my issues with this book are personal pet peeves of mine, foreshadowing, the main character’s personality, etc so I would say if you read this and think what bothered me would probably bother you as well, then this book might not be for you. However, if my concerns don’t seem like that big of a deal then I think it would not hurt at all to give it a try.

Just Ella Sacrifices Magic and Wonder for "Empowerment"

      

    Just Ella is a retelling/sequel to the Cinderella fairytale. It follows our heroine Ella after the ball when she is getting ready to marry her prince, and her happily ever after is right on schedule. However, she quickly realizes that life at court as a future princess may not be what she wants out of life. A story about Cinderella not being completely happy with her life after the ball is a very creative setting for a fairytale retelling. However, I don’t feel it was executed all that well here. 

 Before picking up Just Ella I heard it was praised as a feminist retelling of Cinderella that was a more grounded and realistic take on the tale. I did not find it to be feminist as (although the line itself is never spoken in the book) Ella has the attitude that she is not like other woman and is very much the exception rather than the rule. This retelling also removes all the magic from the fairy tale (the carriage, fairy godmother etc.,) but it keeps other equally unbelievable elements. 

         Some of the elements I found unbelievable was the world building. They live in a fictional kingdom, but they speak languages like French, Latin, Greek, which would imply that they lived in our real world. Their religion is literally just Christianity with a different name. So this story is fantasy because it is most certainly not historical fiction. I have nothing against fantasy stories with little to no magic, but I don’t really like it when the magic is removed and the setting is said to be more realistic and/or historical because of it. 

The noble women only sit and do needlework all day which Ella scoffs at. Except noble women in medieval Europe had many responsibilities, one of the most significant being running the finances of the estate. Other un-official duties of noble women included hosting and receiving guests (who may or may not be foreign diplomats) and planning events such as parades, tourneys, etc. The Queen is never shown to partake in these activities nor does she try to teach these to Ella which if this was a more “realistic” setting she would most certainly be doing.  I was also confused why sewing was treated as being so useless because in pre-industrial times, sewing was an essential task because people kind of needed to wear clothes for warmth and protection.  

         Ella constantly berates he lady’s-in-waiting for being stupid and most of the humor stems from just how air-headed all the other ladies at court are. Actually pretty much everyone, but Ella and her love interest are so incredibly stupid its infuriating. There is a lot of conflict between Ella and these rich boneheads, but there is not really any tension from these conflicts because the courtiers are so wrong there is no possible way Ella could get them to listen to her, and because they are so wrong it also doesn’t make Ella seem all that clever herself. I don’t need to be exceptionally smart to tell someone not to drink gasoline. Ella is not that level-headed to think spilling a few drops of soup on a table cloth is nothing to lose one’s head over. 

There is also this one incident that probably bothered me way more than it should have. Ella is attending a tourney with her ladies and she is excited to finally have a break from all the gossiping and sewing. However as soon as they arrive outside the ladies sit in a pavilion that is closed shut and Ella is understandably angered by this because she came to watch a tourney and now they are shut inside a tent and cannot see anything. Ella is told that the curtains are drawn because women are forbidden from watching tourneys as they are to delicate for such action. Women regularly attended tourneys throughout history.

Ella snaps at this and during her rant over this matter, she asks her ladies-in-waiting what they are waiting for. A lady-in-waiting tells Ella that they wait for the men to get home. This irked me because a lady-in-waiting at least historically was more like a retainer and a secretary to a noble woman who she waited on. Hence the name.

Now without magic, how did Ella get to the ball? Throughout this story other characters discuss rumors that Ella received help from a fairy-godmother, but Ella makes it clear this was not the case. Towards the end of the story she explains how she gathered everything she needed for the ball. She, a peasant who is little more than a servant to her step-family, got them herself, the dress, the carriage, and even the glass slippers which she won from a bet she made with the glass blower.  I don’t really mind this per se, but when she is explaining this to her love-interest, the only other character in this book who has at least two working brain cells, comments. “People would rather believe in fairy godmothers and divine intervention than to think that you took charge of your own destiny.” I might be reading way too much into this, but I felt this line was meant as a “take that” towards the original story and people who like fairy godmothers and magic. 

This story assumes that Cinderella in the fairytale is a passive character who gets lucky, and this is true that she is lucky, but I wouldn’t say she is passive. In most versions of the story and the Disney movie, Cinderella tries her hardest to be allowed to attend the ball and in many versions completes impossible tasks that her step-mother sets up for her only for everything to go wrong. In most stories she receives assistance whether through a fairy godmother or in most cases the spirit of her late mother, but this doesn’t just happen. 

Ella is written as an antithesis to what readers expect a Cinderella character to be by being far more active. However, she isn’t any more active than other characters, she just doesn’t have things go wrong for her just before the ball. 

 I pushed through this book because, due to the praise it received for being a feminist retelling, I expected that Ella would have to check her internalized misogyny at the end, but she does not.  Ella begins and ends this book believing she is “not like other girls”.         

Do I recommend this book? Not really. It feels like a parody that, in some ways, disrespects people who enjoy fairytales and magic. More affectionate parodies/reconstructions of Cinderella that gives the original Cinderella credit where credit is due is My Fair Godmother by Janet Rallison and Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.

        

        

Queen's Peril Needs to Take its Audience Seriously.

Padmé has always been one of my favorite characters from Star Was. While I enjoyed the previous book in this "Padmé Trilogy" of YA novels, Queen's Shadow, I did find it far from perfect. However, I was still interested enough in Padmé's early adventures in the Galactic Senate to keep reading. Queen's Peril is a prequel that is set just before the events of Star Wars The Phantom Menace and is meant to focus on Padmé's early days as queen of her home planet.

However, I was very irked by the way Padmé is portrayed in this story. Instead of showing how a teenage girl can still be a good queen despite her age and inexperience, this book shoes how a queen can still be a (stereotypical) teenage girl in spite of her responsibilities. The first 75% of this book follows Padmé and her teenaged handmaidens sneaking off and getting into shenanigans and spends more time focused on these misadventures instead of how these young ladies participate in the government.

Padmé does call a summit to meet with ambassadors from neighboring planets, but this quickly turns into a romantic subplot between one of the handmaidens and a teenage ambassador. (This ambassador also flirts with this handmaid during the summit in front of several other diplomats, which I found to be a bit awkward).

In The Phantom Menace one of Padmé's handmaidens switches places with the queen to act as a decoy during the invasion. That handmaiden in question is named Sabé, and this young woman was ready to die in her queen's place so I never found it hard to believe this was meant as a last resort. However, Queen's Peril treats this "decoy procedure" as a common convenience.

They employ this whole switcheroo several times before Naboo is invaded by the Trade Federation and everytime is for a stupidly trivial reason. The first time Padmé and her handmaiden switch is because Padmé was having some menstruation cramps and was not feeling up to making any public appearances so she had Sabé stand in for her. The second time the two switch, was because Padmé's hands got covered in glitter during a concert that she and the handmaidens snuck out to with the teenaged ambassador Sabé was flirting with. This glitter could not wash off and apparently it would be insulting to a certain ambassador if she showed up to the summit with this glitter, but it would be offensive to another ambassador if she wore gloves to cover this up, makeup is not working, and none of he official royal gowns have sleeves below the wrist.

To circumvent this Sabé and Padmé switch places and no ambassadors are offended. That is until that afformentioned teenaged ambassador approaches Padmé thinking she is Sabé and tries to kiss her so Padmé panics and quickly runs off. This ambassador thinks Sabé doesn't want to be with her and breaks things off with Sabé so now Sabé is angry at Padmé and doesn't want to be her friend anymore. Now, I know these characters are teenagers, but they are also teenagers who are participating in a planet-wide government, this just makes these kids come across as immature with terrible priorities.

Also, the last third of this book really relies on the reader having already watched and be very familiar with the plot of The Phantom Menace to understand what is going on as it really jumps around the plot. I think this book could have been much better if it were a story that stood on its own and ending as The Phantom Menace begins. It could start just before Padmé becomes queen and ends as the blockade is build around the planet.

As for the plot, I recall from previous Star Wars books, Padme's predecessor was very corrupt. This would have been an excellent challenge for a young queen to overcome, especially if an invasion from outside the planet arrives just as she is making progress with the problems at home.

However, instead of the tension of the story being whether or not the girls will be able to sneak off to concerts with ambassadors or if Padmé and Sabé will be able to reconcile their relationship following the ambassador drama, the tension would be from Padmé trying to restore sanity to a government that had spent a little bit to much time not functioning due to corruption. It would also have been a good mirror to the situation of the Galactic Republic at the time.

I have read in other reviews, that since Queen's Shadow is a YA book, the more childish elements of the story are understandable and that teens will not mind them. I disagree. I promise as a former teenager, that teen girls will be interested in stories that do not have dating drama and fallouts between friends because of said drama. Books that take their target audience seriously regardless of their age can and should be written. Both teenagers and Padmé's character deserve better.

Series I Probably Won't Finish

 

         Just because I read and even liked the first book or two in a series doesn’t mean I want to make the commitment to read the following books. Whether it was because I was no longer interested in the direction the story was heading, the plot’s progression came to a screeching stop, or because my favorite character died and I cannot bear to go on without him/her the result stays the same.

Snow Like Ashes

  I read the first book and thought it was okay, but it ended on a very different note than I was expecting. Spoilers for Snow Like Ashes ahead. I thought the entire trilogy would be about the Winter People taking back their home kingdom. Except that all occurred during the last quarter of the book. (It should not take a hundred pages to take back a country). The book also ended with what looked to be the set up for a love triangle which I have personally seen enough of, so I decided to call it quits.

Throne of Glass

  My favorite character died (won’t say who because spoilers) so I couldn’t go on without them. I wish I could say more, but there really is not much to it.

Heroes of Olympus

  I loved the Percy Jackson books in early high school. Percy’s first-person narrative was especially enjoyable including the modern take on classical mythology. After I closed the final installment in the Percy Jackson series, I jumped right into the sequel Heroes of Olympus. However, I forced myself to finish the first one, The Lost Hero.

  Now it should be noted that Percy is not a main character in that book so I assumed my lack of enjoyment was because of it. The Son of Neptune is the sequel where Percy returns as a major character. It had the same enjoyable take on classical mythology, but Percy’s first-person narration was gone, and I feel the series lost much of its charm because of this.

Legacy of the King’s Pirates

  I read this book in high school back when I was young enough to like things. (Please don’t take that too seriously as I still like things that I read and watch. It’s the things that I write that I don’t like.) However, my taste changed as I read the fourth book not realizing it was the fourth book. I found the other book in the series to not be as enjoyable and contained material that really irked me so I decided it wasn’t particularly worth it to continue if I wasn’t enjoying it.

          

A Series of Unfortunate Events

  I didn’t realize how many there were when I picked up the first book. I don’t’ not know if this says anything about me and my inability to commit. Then again, I finished all 12 volumes of the Jacky Faber series so there is that. However, I enjoyed Jacky’s voice in the narration much better than Lemony Snicket. I found him to be pretentious and talking down to the reader. Also the books kind of have the same set up. The kids move in with a new adult and everything goes wrong which some people love, but I found it to be a bit too repetitive. 

Conclusion

I want to say if I listed one of your favorite series here that does not mean I think poorly of your reading taste. The reason I do not like a story could very well be the reason someone else loves it. An example is how I listed that I decided not to read on after Snow Like Ashes because I saw a love triangle in the future, but other readers really enjoy love triangles and look for books that have them, and there is nothing wrong with this. 

What I learned from all of this is that I do not need to finish a series if I am not enjoying it anymore. When I was younger I felt I had to finish what I started no matter what and I wasn’t enjoying reading anymore. 

The Black Swan Might Go a Little To Far

(Warning, this review contains mention of Sexual Assault)

Black Swan is a retelling of the ballet Swan Lake that is unique by being written from Odile's point of view.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first hundred pages or so of the book. I especially loved Odile and her never ending quest to earn the approval of her father who does not deserve a child like her, Odile’s relationship with the flock (the woman cursed to take the forms of swans) and her practicing with magic. The chapters that were written from Queen Cothilde’s (The Prince's mother) point of view and her set up as a major and scheming villain were also intriguing. However, for a book titled The Black Swan she is not the focus as much as I feel she should have been with the narration focused a little too often on other characters, particularly Siegfried, who ruined the story for me.

We all love a good redemption arc, following an individual as they change their deep seated ideals. However, the thing about redemption is that someone needs to be in a bad place before it happens, otherwise there is nothing to redeem and atone for. I do believe that a character with past sins can still maintain readers’ sympathy, but there is  a point where only God can judge someone. If this is acknowledged in the texts I can move on. That is not at all that happened here in the Black Swan. 

Siegfried starts out as an obnoxious womanizer, and I heard he gets better going into the book so I was looking forward to this little turd getting called out on his bad habits. Then he rapes someone. He has a nightmare about the victim commiting suicide and then seeks to turn over a new leaf, and meets the love of his life and with help from Odile saves everyone from the curse, and everyone lives happily ever after. Unless you are the minority girl who was raped by a river side and probably driven to suicide with crime committed against you unpunished. At least you can find solace in the fact that the rapist was able to save other people and marry the woman of his dreams. 

This is enraging because they literally could have had Siegfried realize the way he talks to and about women is disgusting and try to change from that. A rape is too far and I really cannot enjoy the rest of the story.

The Black Swan is a good idea with some flawed, but human characters to follow in the story, except for the “redemption” arc that I feel went too far and sloppily wrapped up did not leave a good taste in my mouth.  

The Crystal Snowstorm is a Hidden Gem

I first read this book in middle school and it quickly became one of my absolute favorites. Even after nearly a decade  (and too many rereads to count) my love for The Crystal Snowstorm (and the following Letzenstein books) has not diminished. 

The Letzenstein Chronicles follows the happenings of a small European country on the brink of revolution. Catherine, an adolescent visiting her estranged Grandfather the Grand duke and ruler, finds herself caught in the crossfire of not only the revolution, but the feud within her own family. 

The relationships between the characters are genuine and natural. In the author’s note, Ms. Trevor explained when she writes stories about difficult topics for children (such as political turmoil and revolutions) she tries to focus on the adventures of the characters foremost and it works beautifully here. These are friendships that I could see happening in real life. These characters, Catherine, Yolande, Edward, and especially Rafiel LeMarre have  stuck with me the way Luke Skywalker, Samwise Gamgee, and Katniss Everdeen did. 

Our heroine, Catherine, is another highlight of the story. She would rather  live a quiet life and get to know her newly found family than be involved with the politics her Grandfather has ensnared her in. However, she still strives to do what she can to help even if what she does seems very small. Catherine does fail at times and feels hopeless and frustrated but she does not become apathetic. 

I also enjoyed seeing Catherine, a very quiet girl at the beginning, develop unique friendships with different people. She comes to love and care about Con, Yolande, Edward, and Raf, but each relationship does something different for Catherine and the story. I will give special notice to Catherine and Yolande’s relationship because it is a sisterly friendship between a young girl and a young woman, something I do not see very often in fiction.

My only complaint (if it could be called that) is, I would have liked it if Countess Imelda, the sister of our antagonist Duke Julius, had been a bit more involved in the story. She mostly acts as a messenger for other characters. However, Catherine and co. have more than enough problems and as I reiterated all the other characters are very developed and this by no means ruined the story for me. 

    Overall, the Crystal Snowstorm is a solid first entry in a series that satisfied but also left me curious for the next installment. I would recommend it for children (and adults) who enjoy historical fiction and character focused stories. I feel it is appropriate for kids 10 and up, but this is subjective to the individual child’s reading comprehension.

An Uncertain Choice by Jody Hedlund

As an avid reader of historical romance, I have accepted not every book needs to be 100% accurate to the time-period it represents. No one is perfect and no author, (and no reader) will ever know everything about a particular time in history. If the story and characters are well written small mistakes can and should be excused. However, there is a difference between having small mistakes such as a character mentioning a book that was written a handful of years after the story takes place and having a character use a piece of technology that was not only invented centuries later (if it even existed) they utilize it incorrectly.

An Uncertain Choice  unfortunately is the latter. As I said earlier if I find a book to be enjoyable, I can overlook inaccuracies. However, I did not find the story to be anything to write home about and the inaccuracies feel as if no research was done at all. 

The premise is that our heroine Rosemarie must become a nun when she turns 18 because of a vow her late parents made. The inciting incident is when Rosemarie’s godfather finds a loophole to this vow. Rosemarie must marry before her 18th birthday so her Godfather introduces her to 3 of his noblest knights to compete for her hand, but it quickly becomes clear that someone is trying to sabotage the knight’s efforts in wooing Rosemare. 

Rosemarie, is not that much of a three dimensional character. What I know about her is that she wants to be a good ruler, she is opposed to torture, and she cares a great deal about the poor. Rosemarie’s relationship with the poor and peasants was presented as one of her greatest virtues. The peasants all adore Rosemarie, but not a single one of them have names and anything more meaningful than a parasocial relationship with her. They only exist to ask Rosemarie for alms  so that she could come across as a kind person when she gives them donations. 

There is also a gratuitous usage of medieval torture and torture devices. Although Rosemarie has long since outlawed such cruel practices in her territory, the story opens with our heroine running into the square to save an old man from being boiled alive because the sheriff cannot be bothered to respect Rosemarie as a ruler. Now, punishment for crimes was brutal hundreds of years ago, I am not going to pretend they were not. However, many of what we think in pop culture as medieval torture were rarely used if they were actual medieval inventions. Also, the mention of torture was explicit and very detailed, which I found did not fit the tone of the book.

Like the peasants, the torture feels as if it is only in the story as a tool to make Rosemarie likable. Torture bad. Rosemarie does not like it. Rosemarie good. 

The romance was not all that interesting to me as I found it difficult to root for a character who I don’t care for to find true love.  I also struggled to root for one of the three potential love interests when it was likely one of them was actively trying to harm the others. On the other hand, this mystery of who was the one playing dirty kept me reading as I was thinking it would be resolved excitedly. I was wrong. The one who was guilty was obvious, but as I was reading, I was convinced they must be a red herring. 

If this book was not explicitly stated to be set during the 14th century in England and was fantasy, many of my gripes regarding the historical and religious inaccuracies would be irrelevant. But I still would not be able to say that I would recommend a book as the romance and the subpar mystery and tonal issues would still be present. I wish I knew of a book with a similar premise I could recommend instead, but I cannot think of one. If anyone does know of one please feel free to mention it in the comments.