A Sound of Chariots

Reading Mollie Hunter's romantic/fantastical suspense novel, "A Stranger Came Ashore", you'd never figure her to be a particularly deep writer. After all, Hunter is perhaps best remembered for books about Irish creatures of the deep. "A Stranger" is about selkies and "The Mermaid Summer" concentrates on.. you know. That's part of the reason that "A Sound of Chariots" remains as amazing as it is. The book is probably the best fictional work written for kids and teens to talk about death, its meaning, and what lies beyond. There are some child readers out there who consider deep philosophical meanings and are turned onto the poetic undercurrents of everyday life. This book was written for them. Bridie McShane's father is not your typical dad. He's more likely to scream, "Christ was a revolutionary!" at the top of his lungs than idly stand by while the rich of Scotland lord their money over the poor. And that suits Bridie to a tea. She loves her father, heart and soul. Unlike her three older sisters (the Others, as she calls them) Bridie and her little brother William are her father's special kids. From her dad, Bridie learns pride, honor, and truth. It's all the worse for her then when her dad dies of a longstanding illness without warning. Suddenly, nothing's the same. Bridie finds herself consumed by violent disgusting nightmares involving decapitation and death. Her mother, overcome by grief, is unable to help her children, being in no position to even help herself. After her father's death, Bridie becomes enamored of a line from Marvell's, "To His Coy Mistress", in which the poet writes, "But at my back I always hear, Time's winged chariot hurrying near". Bridie is a poet through and through and she constantly is trying to find a way to escape death and its winged chariot. With the help of ministers, teachers, and people who once knew her father, Bridie is able to piece together what it means to grow up, die, and live. Heavy duty stuff. It's not every book for kids that talks about death as deeply and meaningfully as this one. Don't get me wrong, though. This is probably not the best text to hand a child who's lost someone near and dear to them recently. It may not even be a book to hand to a child. There's a maturity to this text that will undoubtedly sail high over the heads of your average consumer kid. Hunter cuts her heroine zero slack in this book, and she's not afraid to bandy about one-hundred dollar words when simple ones could've done just as well. This is a complex book full of complex ideas. Ideas that your everyday fifth grader may not appreciate. But there are some kids out there that are like Bridie McShane. Kids who see more than adults suspect. Kids that have had to deal with tragedy early in their lives and want to know... heck... the meaning of life! For these young philosophers, these pint-sized clerics, this book is ideal. It questions religion, standard practices for living, and even our