Annette is delighted that Denver-based Sonlight Curriculum, which is celebrating its 25th year in 2015, has selected A Distant Prospect as one of its Summer Reader choices. She is especially pleased by the way in which Jonelle brings out the carefully woven inter-generational themes in her video review below. Thank you so much, Jonelle!
Video transcript: Hi, I’m Jonelle Lilly. I’m one of the Holtzmann kids, and I get the opportunity to help select your summer readers. Today I want to talk to you about A Distant Prospect. This is one book that my Mom and I couldn’t put down!
It’s a story set in between the two World Wars, in Australia, which is kind of in a different place and a different time than we typically read about.
It’s not necessarily an easy-breezy summer reader, like a lot of the books that we like to choose. But it’s one that’s so gripping and interesting, between its subject matter, the context, what it covers, that we really thought that we wanted to include it.
We didn’t want you to miss this book!
Connecting two generations
The reason my Mom and I loved this book was not only the setting but the interaction between all of the characters. It is dealing with Lucy and her coming of age story, along with some of her friends, but it also touches on all of these adults who are dealing with the after-effects of war.
This was for me one of the first times I’ve seen this done in a book, where you’re working with these people who are young, and they’re figuring out their struggles and they’re trying to work out what is life, how to be a good friend, how do you survive, how do you fight back from all the hard things that you’ve experienced? But you also have this echoed in all of the adults. They too are dealing with what they have survived, what they’ve had to overcome, and all of their struggles.
And I love how you can see these two generational things connecting. I thought that was really helpful and not being that far removed from the younger generation, and not yet being part of the older generation, it was very interesting for me to read that.
So you might be wondering why we would include something that is dealing with the after-effects of war, with disease, with hardship and suffering, that’s why. Because we really want to make sure that we are giving you the opportunity to be exposed to the very best books, and this was one that fit that mould.
Deals gently with difficult subjects
I love, too, how it deals very gently with a lot of more difficult subjects. How does one come out of her shell? How does one deal with abuse and neglect? How does one deal with illness? All of these things are touched on, and in very beautiful relationships. How do they come together and help one another, support one another, care for one another? These are all subjects that are very dear to my heart, and one of the reasons I absolutely loved A Distant Prospect.
It’s a big book!
“It’s a big book!”
So that’s why I’d like to say that, if you want something a little bit more thoughtful, a little bit more intense, a little bit more deep to just kind of get your thoughts going, I would recommend A Distant Prospect for your summer readers.
- Buy A Distant Prospect at Sonlight.com
- More Summer Reader packages at Sonlight Curriculum
- Seven Pillars of Great Fiction, or How to Choose A Good Book
