Can you name any of the coming-of-age-books that left an indelible mark on your life? For me, one was this fantastic, Newberry-winning novel, The Bronze Bow.
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When I was roughly 13, my mom gave me her own childhood copy of this book—which I still own and which is sitting in front of me as I write this—and I was whisked away for the very first time to a rebellious adventure of murder and thievery that was entirely mother-approved! My budding hormones ate up the innocent Daniel-Thacia romance, and to top it off, I simply couldn’t believe that there were other perspectives to consider about Jesus than the four we have in the Gospels. This book changed my young imagination, and in that way, I think it also changed my life.
As we were preparing our international move this past summer, I took my 13yo son out for a weekend to enjoy the Milwaukee Brewers, some coin-roll hunting, and–oh yeah—an opportunity to discuss the birds and the bees. The whole ordeal brought back so many memories, one of which was this novel. When we got home, I was sure not to pack this book away into storage but instead set it aside for one of our next nightly reads. We finally got around to reading it, and while I don’t think it left the same indelible mark on either of my kids (13, 11) that it had on me, I believe they enjoyed it immensely–even though for the first few chapters they were skeptical—and will be tempted to read it again someday.
Elizabeth George Speare (The Sign of the Beaver) sets this tale in the Judean countryside during Jesus’ earthly ministry. The main characters are Zealots, friends of the Apostle Simon, who in turn is a brand new friend of Jesus. Daniel, the main character, is an angry young man who’s joined the rebels in the hills as they seek to fight the Romans and usher in a new era of Israeli peace. Daniel befriends a brother-and-sister team, Joel and Malthace, who themselves also hope to join the resistance, but the deeper the three get into their rebellion, the more unsettled their own worlds become. Add to this Daniel’s responsibility to his likely-demon-possessed sister, and it’s a recipe for violent drama that aggravates many a nerve.
I feel a little like the grandfather in The Princess Bride explaining the book: “fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, monsters, chases, escapes, true love—” But really, this book has it all. Scratch that. This entire story lacks humor, which is sort of new territory for us. Even a minor “Ron Weasley”-type character would have perfected an already almost-perfect book, just to break the tension a bit; but nothing doing.
We struggled our way together through the drama and danger, and I think what ultimately hooked my kids more than anything was the fact that Jesus himself was a minor character in the book! They’d never heard of such a thing, this new way of viewing Christ’s story through someone else’s eyes. It’s that new perspective I mentioned above that proved the most shocking for them, and I’m so glad! And I’d note, too, that it’s a new perspective, yet entirely biblical (unlike other nonsense stories out there like Ted Dekker’s The Promise).
This novel might not have changed their thinking or worldview or literary tastes overnight like it sort of did mine so many years ago, but it’s a least another slot in their have-read library that will guide them toward that end eventually. I love this book and was so happy to enjoy it again, this time with my own kids. If you’ve never read, know that I rank it high among my all-time favorite books, and thus highly recommend it.
©2024 E.T.