Review of Strong Heart

[Brenda Lazariuk]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Strong Heart" by Charlie Sheldon.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Oscar Wilde's quote "With Age comes wisdom," is strongly tested in the novel by Charlie Sheldon's Strong Heart. One's age and even education may set them on a linear path of understanding history while negating all other possibilities. Combination of Sarah's stubbornness, in relation to her age, yet openness to all possibilities leads her to show another perspective to her family.

Tom's past requires not only closure but also hopefully answers to questions about one item he held in secret all these years. He is bringing along two friends, William and his adult daughter Myra, due to his age and in case he requires help. Night before the long awaited trip Tom meets the granddaughter, Sarah, which he never knew he had and she comes with all the awkward, hormonal and rebelliousness one can expect from most teenagers. What was not expected that during the trip is the abilities she had to connect with the history like no other they had seen to expose her true strengths.

Strong reflection of self and the exposing of my own beliefs were tested while reading this novel. The English proverb(an aphorism) "children should be seen and not heard," is untangled to show that we need to allow the children to express themselves more openly and this will lead to new conversations with them. The realistic multigenerational issues that they all faced woven into the story allowed to be an enjoyable read as the characters developed and grew through out the story.

The few things I disliked about this book was the second story should have been broken up over chapters creating more of a mix of the two stories. I still enjoyed both but felt that it would have flowed better if Sarah talked about her adventures over more than two sittings. The ending left a wanting of more so hopefully there is a second book to complete the stories of the different characters.

The novel was interesting but I question the editing as there appeared to be several grammatical errors hence the three out of four stars. This novel would be excellent for high school students reading lists in LA classes as there is conflicts, development and relatability of the characters.

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Strong Heart
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