At first, the camp is a haven: food is plentiful, seed rice is available, and they form a bond with another family-brother Sarun falls in love with Nea, and Dara makes friends with Nea's cousin, Jantu, who contrives marvelous toys from mud and bits of scrap made wise by adversity, Jantu understands that the process of creation outweighs the value of things, and that dead loved ones may live on in memory. Narrator Dara, 12, and the remnants of her family have arrived at a refugee camp soon after her father's summary execution.
11-15)*justify no*ĭrawing on her experience with a relief organization on the Thai border, Ho tells the story of a Cambodian family, fleeing the rival factions of the 80's while hoping to gather resources to return to farming in their homeland. Not as vivid as Robin McKinley's Outlaws of Sherwood (Greenwillow, 1986), this nonetheless puts an intriguing, female- centered twist on the legend.
Though the cast is confusingly large, the author fills it with capable women, and a gory but memorable scene in which Marian kills a deer is the story's only overt violence. When Robert is hurt once again, Marian leaves the forest to nurse him upon her return she finds Agnes dead, the Forestwife's girdle and burden left to her. The evil deeds of lords and officials are bruited about, but the malefactors themselves remain offstage Tomlinson focuses on the afflicted common folk, ground down by misfortune and injustice. Agnes' rough, ne'er-do-well son Robin-er, Robert appears now and then, either wounded in fights or bringing food and news.
Agnes assumes the role, with Mary, now known as Marian the Green Lady, helping they heal the sick, deliver babies, feed the hungry, and rescue those ill-treated by the local authorities. Young Mary and her canny nurse Agnes brave a purportedly haunted forest to reach the solitary hut of the witchlike Forestwife, Selina, only to find her dead. Robin Hood and his men play relatively minor roles here.
The traditional image of the maid Marian takes on a faintly pre-Christian cast in this tale of a teenager who flees into the woods to avoid a forced marriage.
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