Review: Brunswick by Ann Haines - Book Review
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 1, 2012
I don't know about the rest of you, but I love a good quest.  Ann Haines gives us a great adventure and incorporates a powerful message for young and young at heart readers with Brunswick.The story starts off with a young boy who is creative and loves to write.  His character grabbed me from the beginning.  His struggle with growing up is something that is real for all of us, especially those of us who live and breathe fiction.What makes the quest adventure work is the ability for the reader to identify with and struggle through the story along with a character and to be able to imagine ourselves becoming better because of what we have gone through during the quest.  Haines gives us something to struggle and identify with and in turn this makes the adventure real to the reader.Aside from the grammatical issues, the main problem I had with this tale was the pacing.  There were many things narrated that were unnecessary details (like Jonathan remembering home and friends).  In the end, I felt that these details had no meaning.  I also found that everyone was just too polite.  I know that sounds strange but in the heat of battle the characters were stopping the war to talk each other.  This again slowed the pacing, and it was hard to believe while under attack the characters would have time to complement each other as much as they did.In the end, like the main character I quested with, I did find something that made me a better person.  This is the key power of the quest plot, and Haines successfully delivered this.