The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg

I bought this book because the title intrigued me. When it arrived, I realized it was meant for teenage readers. I decided to read it before giving it to my grandkids. The Civil War history, details of the underground railway, and New England life at that time were fascinating. If you buy it for your kids, be sure to read it first, before you give it to them.

I don't know exactly why I picked up this book, but I'm glad I did. The characters were very interesting (and believable) and the story built and built with tremendous energy and originality. It grabbed me right from the beginning. I hope the book finds the young audience for which it's intended, because it has a lot of valuable things to say about courage, loyalty and determination. Plus, there's a surprising (and welcome) amount of Civil War history thrown in, including an adventure dealing with the Underground Railroad.

This was a very unique way to look at the civil war. It showed how the war effected families and how those families fought to stay together. This book is very age appropriate for 5th through 8th graders.

Ah, the inveterate child liar. The chronic juvenile dissembler. Is there any more classic character you can name? Whether it's The Artful Dodger, Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, The Great Brain or Soup from the Soup books, there is always room in the canon for just one more boy fibber (girl fibbers are not yet appearing the same numbers, I'm afraid). Now the best tellers of untrue tales often come from Southern soil. They are born below the Mason-Dixon line and are capable of great feats of derring-do, all the while escaping their own much complicated shenanigans. Credit Rodman Philbrick then with coming up with a fellow that's so far North that to go any farther he'd have to be Canadian. It's Homer P. Figg it is. Orphan. Storyteller. And the kid that's single-handedly going to win the Civil War, whether he intends to or not. When you're stuck living with a scoundrel there's nothing for it but to make the best of things. And for years Homer P. Figg and his older brother Harold have made the best of living with their nasty ward and uncle Squinton Leach. A man so dastardly that he finds a way to sell Harold into serving as a soldier for the Union. The year is 1863 and when Harold ends up accidentally conscripted Homer is having none of it. Why his brother shouldn't legally be serving at all! Without further ado Homer takes his propensity for stretching the truth and Bob the horse so as to catch up with the army and get his bro back. Things, however, do not go smoothly. Before he finds Harold again Homer must endure blackguards, nitwits, shysters, pigs, a traveling circus, and an unexpected tour of the stratosphere. It all comes together at a little place called Gettysburg, though, where Homer must face the facts of his situation and do his best to keep the people important to him alive. Backmatter includes "Some Additional Civil War Facts, Opinions, Slang & Definitions, To Be Argued, Debated & Cogitated Upon." I'm a sucker for a children's book that knows how to coddle a tongue-happy phrase. Why just last year I was charmed by Sid Fleischman's "The Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West" with it's delightful play on Twain's flexible language. Now I've not read Philbrick before. Maybe if I picked up something like his "Freak The Mighty" or that "The Last Book In The Universe" of his I'd find a similar bit of wordplay. Whatever the matter, I found myself much taken with the syllables that get bandied about in "Homer P. Figg". First there are the names. Villains get to luxuriate in monikers like Squinton Leach, Stink Mullins, and Kate and Frank Nibbly. Then there are the descriptive sentences. Leach's villainy is pitch perfect, particularly since it is first introduced as "A man so mean he squeezed the good out of the Holy Bible and beat us with it, and swore that God Himself had inflicted me and Harold on him, like he was Job and we was Boils and Pestilence." Another nasty character is described as

"I say my 'true' adventures because I told a fib to a writer once, who went and put it in the newspapers about me and my big brother, Harold, winning the battle of Gettysburg, and how we shot each other dead but lived to tell the tale. That's partly true, about winning the battle, but most ways it's a lie. Telling the truth don't come easy to me, but I will try, even if old Truth ain't nearly as useful as a fib sometimes." - Homer Pierce Figg (p.7) The year is 1863 and the American Civil War is raging. This story is about the unbelievable adventures (and outlandish prevarications) of 12-year-old Homer P. Figg during June and July of that year. After suffering hunger and abuse inflicted on him and his brother by his nasty uncle Squinton Leach in Pine Swamp, Maine, who assumed guardianship and then mistreated both Homer and his older brother Harold following their mother's death, he runs away from the farm to look for, find, and rescue his big brother Harold...illegally "sold" to the U S Army by their mean uncle Squint. While following the trail of Harold, Homer meets up with an unusual array of people. Some are good, some are foolish, some are scalawags, and some are downright evil. Among the many interesting things that happen to him during his entertaining odyssey: Homer finds himself involved with runaway slaves and slave catchers, rides on a train to Portland and then sails to New York aboard a steamship for the very first time, is featured as an attraction while traveling with a Medicine Show, is accused of being a spy, has a close encounter with a hot air balloon, and witnesses the above mentioned battle of Gettysburg. These and other wild adventures await the reader of this humorous book. I highly recommend THE "MOSTLY" TRUE ADVENTURES OF HOMER P. FIGG to young adults and to "old folks" who, like myself, enjoy reading YA literature. I'd give it 6 stars if I could. Rodman Philbrick is a terrific storyteller.