The Matchlock Gun
by Walter D. Edmonds
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Book Summary Information
Author: Walter D. EdmondsEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1998-11-23
ISBN: 0698116801
Number of pages: 80
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780698116801
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Book Reviews of The Matchlock Gun
Book Review: A valuable piece of history
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a wonderful, elegantly written story, spare (even a juvenile reader should be able to finish it in one afternoon) and gripping. Edmunds touches so many different themes -- the challenges of establishing a life in "Wild America," the constant tensions between the native inhabitants and the newcomers, the spillover of ancient European hostilities into the New World, the ethnic divide between the Dutch settlers and the Palatines who followed them -- it's amazing the story flows as easily as it does. Edward, the little boy who fires the ancient matchlock gun, performs his duties with courage, but it is his mother, Gertrude, who is the real hero. Tough, smart, brave, and wholly undaunted by her mother-in-law's unkindness, Gertrude van Alstyne is one of the great characters of American children's literature.
The complaints that the book is racist are unfounded and wrongheaded. There is talk of slavery. Even in New York, there were slaveholders. The attacking Indians are described as remorseless, bestial killing machines. "The Unredeemed Captive" by John Demos, and David Wallace Fisher's recent "Champlain's Dream" both offer balanced, nuanced, and sympathetic views of the natives. Even in these works, there is acknowledgment that the natives were, by the colonizers' standards, mercurial, violent, and often terrifying. Edmunds's depiction shows us the "Indians" as Gertrude and her family would have perceived them.
As valuable as this little work is for its view of colonial New York, it is equally valuable for the insights it offers on 20th Century America at war. Teunis is the brave father, leaving home and hearth to defend all he holds dear, much like the GIs in Europe and the Pacific. Gertrude manages the home front, "Rosie the Riveter" in prototype. And millions of school kids could identify with little Edward, frightened enough to see armies of attacking French soldiers in his dreams, but ready to stand with his parents to defend his loved ones. Readers in the Forties must have felt the tug Chekhov describes in "The Student of Religion": when we pull on history's chain, we feel it resonate in our own time.
Highly recommended.
Summary of The Matchlock Gun
In 1756, New York State was still a British colony, and the French and the Indians were constant threats to Edward and his family. When his father was called away to watch for a raid from the north, only Edward was left to protect Mama and little Trudy. His father had shown him how to use the huge matchlock gun, an old Spanish gun that was twice as long as he was, but would Edward be able to handle it if trouble actually came? This classic, first published in 1941, has an updated, kid-friendly format that includes the original black-and-white illustrations.General Books
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