Draft:Boy Without a Name
 | Draft article not currently submitted for review.
This is a draft Articles for creation (AfC) submission. It is not currently pending review. While there are no deadlines, abandoned drafts may be deleted after six months. To edit the draft click on the "Edit" tab at the top of the window. To be accepted, a draft should:
It is strongly discouraged to write about yourself, your business or employer. If you do so, you must declare it. Where to get help
How to improve a draft
You can also browse Wikipedia:Featured articles and Wikipedia:Good articles to find examples of Wikipedia's best writing on topics similar to your proposed article. Improving your odds of a speedy review To improve your odds of a faster review, tag your draft with relevant WikiProject tags using the button below. This will let reviewers know a new draft has been submitted in their area of interest. For instance, if you wrote about a female astronomer, you would want to add the Biography, Astronomy, and Women scientists tags. Editor resources
Last edited by Slgrandson (talk | contribs) 37 seconds ago. (Update) |
| Author | Penelope Lively |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Ann Dalton[1] |
| Language | English |
| Series | Long Ago Children Books[2] |
| Genre | Children's historical fiction[1] |
| Published | 3 November 1975 (U.S.)[3] |
| Publisher |
|
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Pages | 47[1][a] |
Boy Without a Name is a 1975 children's book by Penelope Lively, published by William Heinemann.
Plot[edit]
In the England of the 1640s (during the reign of Charles I), a nameless and illiterate orphan boy returns to his birthplace of Swinfield village,[b] whose parish priest gives him the first name of "Thomas" to fulfill the area's record-keeping requirements. Thomas, who was once an apprentice to a miller who had recently died, soon becomes one for a stonemason. Over time, after he learns to write, he musters up enough courage to inscribe his full name—Thomas Mason—upon stone. Having found a sense of belonging, he ventures off to play with the other village children.[1][2][5][6]
Background[edit]
Boy Without a Name was Penelope Lively's first non-fantasy title and historically based work; it was "commissioned by William Heinemann as part of its Long Ago Children Books series."[2]
Themes[edit]
In his 2006 book Four British Fantasists, Charles Butler identified Boy Without a Name as a thematic follow-up to Lively's earlier novel The Driftaway; the protagonists of both books have no parish to call home, and their tales take their ignorance by society into account. In turn, the Swinfield boy is introduced as one unaware of England's ruler or any other nations beyond that realm.[c] At the end of the book, "[t]he two parts of [Thomas Mason's] name...equitably acknowledge both his own and the village's roles in the creation of his identity."[2] As Margery Fisher remarked in her Growing Point journal, "The search for an identity and a place in the world is one which most children will appreciate."[6]
Release and reception[edit]
The book was published in 1975 by Heinemann in the United Kingdom,[2] and Parnassus Press in the United States;[1] reviews were generally positive. The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books gave it an "R" ("Recommended") grade on account of the "delicately detailed illustrations" and the story's "timeless quality".[1] Margery Fisher wrote, "A moment of humour, when Thomas wins the friendship of the village lads by walking on his hands, lightens a tale of effort and doubt which has an air of historical reality about it."[6] Kirkus Reviews was comparatively muted: The staff criticised the effectiveness of Ann Dalton's art, and added, "[T]he transformation from speechless outcast to proud craftsman has been too swift and fortuitous[;] [Thomas' obsessions in his trade are] too pat to justify Lively's solemn, self revering prose."[3] In a 1993 biography on the author, Molly Hurley Moran placed it in a subcategory of "short, easy-to-read, heavily illustrated books" which took readers, aged seven to nine, back into the past to help them learn about the customs of the time and "[look at a] world...very different from their own."[5]
Notes[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f g "New Titles for Children and Young People: 'Boy Without a Name'". Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. 29 (8). University of Chicago Press: 127. April 1976. ISSN 0008-9036. Retrieved 23 June 2024 – via HathiTrust.
- ^ a b c d e f Butler, Charles (25 April 2006). "Who's In, Who's Out?". Four British Fantasists. Scarecrow Press. p. 110. ISBN 1-4616-5870-5. Retrieved 23 June 2024 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b c "Review: 'Boy Without a Name'". Kirkus Reviews. 1 November 1975. ISSN 1948-7428. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
- ^ Let's Read Together Revision Committe (1981). "Historical Fiction". Let's Read Together: Books for Family Enjoyment (Fourth ed.). American Library Association (ALA). p. 47. ISBN 0-8389-3253-3. Retrieved 23 June 2024 – via Archive.org.
- ^ a b Moran, Molly Hurley (1993). "Lively's Themes: Style, Background, and Other Fiction". Penelope Lively. Twayne's English Authors Series. New York City: Twayne Publishers (Macmillan Publishing). p. 21. ISBN 0-8057-7028-3. Retrieved 23 June 2024 – via Archive.org.
- ^ a b c Fisher, Margery (March 1976). "Review of 'Boy Without a Name'". Growing Point. 14 (8). Northampton: Margery Fisher: 2818–2819. ISSN 0046-6506. Quoted in Senick, Gerard J., ed. (1984). Children's Literature Review. Gale Research. p. 159. ISBN 0-8103-0332-9. Retrieved 23 June 2024 – via Archive.org.