My Name is Asher Lev

by Chaim Potok

A Ladover boy, Asher Lev, discovers at a young age that he has a gift: he is an artist. Millions of people can draw, but Asher Lev is a true artist, a diamond in the rough. As a small child, he enjoys doodling aimlessly, pictures of his family, his friends, his street. For a time the gift hid itself, only to return again, stronger and more insistent than before. But is the amazing talent a gift from Ribbono Shel Olom, the Master of the Universe, or the sitra achra, the Other Side? Some feel, at first, that it is a harmless gift, one granted by Ribbono Shel Olom to make the world sacred, while others like Asher's father feel strongly that it is from the sitra achra and should not be used. After a while, many believe that it is a sacred gift, and Asher is sent to train with Jacob Kahn, also an artist, but a cut-and-polished stone rather than one yet uncut. As you follow Asher through his life, his struggles, his victories, his failures, you discover that a life as an artist is no easy task, especially for a religious Jew such as he.

I first heard that this book was assigned and dreaded reading it. Some time previously, I had attempted to read The Chosen, another novel by Chaim Potok, and utterly despised it. It had failed to hold my interest and reading it was a struggle, like slogging through thick mud up to my waist. Thus, I was not too big on the idea of reading another book by the same author. However, upon reading even the first chapter, I was utterly and completely hooked. My Name is Asher Lev is a powerful and moving novel, one that I may reread years from now and find different meanings in it than I do now. I highly recommend it, but also for older readers, simply because it's very deep and younger readers may not understand it quite as well nor appreciate it nearly as much. I fear that a reader who is not mentally mature enough for such a journey will end up much like I did trying when to read The Chosen--frustrated and bored, never wishing to read it again.

The Once and Future King

by T.H. White

The Once and Future King is the story of King Arthur, beginning with Arthur as a child known as the Wart and telling his tale through his life until he is an old man. It is subdivided into smaller books, the first of which is The Sword in the Stone. I think that the first minibook is the best and it is my favourite... after that, the story gets longer and less interesting. The beginning is awesome--adventure after adventure, with Merlyn turning the Wart into all sorts of different creatures. As the story goes on, however, Mr. White gets wordier and wordier, dragging on the smallest points and taking a roundabout route to return to the actual plot. Since libraries and bookstores do carry just The Sword in the Stone all by itself, I'd recommend it, but not the whole book.

The Once and Future King also falls under the same category as Animal Farm and 1984: not for younger children. The original tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table tends to be a bit graphic at times, and also contains some things that people under the age of twelve don't really need to know. Otherwise, it's an interesting story, though I'd suggest reading only The Sword in the Stone.

When I saw that this was on my summer reading list I had no idea what it was. Upon opening it, I found that the first section was a story that I knew and loved, The Sword in the Stone. I fully expected the rest of the novel to live up to the same standards and was bitterly disappointed to see that it did not.