Free Passage


Fiction - Historical - Event/Era
90 Pages
Reviewed on 06/01/2017
Buy on Amazon

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.

Author Biography

J.R.Poulter has worked as a senior educator, librarian, lecturer in English Expression, editor and in a circus. A multi-awarded author/poet with over 40 books to her name, she also writes poetry, YA and general readership fiction under J.R.McRae.
Illustrator/Designer
Illustrator
Terry Hand has had a long and varied career in almost all areas of illustration. He has exhibited prints at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and The Royal Society for Painter Etchers. He lives in England.
www.terryhand.com
http://terryhand.blogspot.co.uk
http://www.aoiportfolios.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=777&Itemid=101

    Book Review

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

Free Passage is an historical coming of age novel for young adults written by J.R. McRae and illustrated by Terry Hand. His commanding officers were stunned when Dane Maguire abandoned his post during combat and later handed in his commission. The heroic soldier was an inspiration to all who came in contact with him, which made his subsequent court martial and mandatory death sentence that much harder for all concerned. Dane stood there in front of the court and offered no excuse or justification. Despite his distinguished service and leadership, they had no option. Dane didn’t care. Something had happened on that field of battle which tore at everything that he held dear. He had no choice but to lay down his arms and surrender to the harsh field justice. McRae’s historical tale follows the lives of young adults whose lives were forever changed by the Civil War. Dane Maguire is one of them. Girl, a deaf-mute slave, who was never given a name, but found love in the least expected place, is another.

J.R. McRae’s historical coming of age novel, Free Passage, is a spellbinding and gripping story about young survivors of the Civil War. While I enjoy history and historical fiction, my focus has always been more on the first and second World Wars rather than on the American Civil War, and I was totally blown away by the power and intensity of these young adult tales. Each story radiates from that tale of the two brothers, Dane and Paul Maguire, yet each of the characters the reader meets assumes center stage at some point in the story. McRae’s heroes pop up in the least likely places in the hostile and frightening terrain of the post-Civil War years.

My favorite character would have to be Herr Adolphus Schmidt, an itinerant tinker who helps Girl, who reminds him of his own missing daughter, find Dane’s Uncle Pelletier. But there are so many unforgettable characters and stories in this superb and moving novel. Terry Hand’s illustrations are masterful, from that first grim court martial scene to the portrait of a shivering Mina after she escapes from the steamboat; each panel fleshes out the characters and their stories beautifully. Free Passage brings history to life brilliantly. It’s most highly recommended.

Review for FREE PASSAGE; Commendations

For more about J.R.McRae/J.R.Poulter, http://wordwings.wixsite.com/publishing/about

Review of "FREE PASSAGE" by Louise Lavery, Families Magazine [abridged]:
There is much in Free Passage, a haunting novella by J.R McRae, that will resonate with [readers] long after they have finished the final page.
J.R McRae weaves together four perspectives that highlight the tragedy of war. Readers will trace the connections between these tales as a means of unpacking the inter-connected nature of the human experience – for every action, there is a subsequent reaction. Conflict in one story can lead to compassion in another and, as the narrative voices shift and different identities reveal themselves, readers can develop empathetic relationships with the characters.

The action races off the page which will assist younger readers’ imaginations as they immerse themselves in a world of shifting alliances, hulking danger, and betrayal at every turn. The treatment of women in this novel is confronting but necessarily so to show just how fraught with danger the very act of being feminine was in such vicious times.

Giving historically maligned characters such strong voices is a stand out quality of Free Passage and one that offers its audience the chance to see this historical conflict from a very different perspective.

Commendations for J.R.McRae [JeRu McRae]:
"J.R. McRae is a master storyteller. The Doll's House in the Forest is sure to capture the imagination of its readers and take them on a magical, mysterious and truly mezmerising journey."
Adrienne T. O'Connell, teacher, B.A., Grad. Dip. Ed., has taught children from indigenous classrooms in the wilds of the outback to multicultural suburban classrooms in a big city.

J.R. McRae is Australia's Scheherazade. She has a thousand and one tales yet to tell in fiction and verse... As a creator, she is endlessly inventive and daring.
Dr. Florence Lewis, PhD, English Professor, University Of California, Berkeley, CA, co-author with New Zealand's Bernie Gadd, "Who Wants to Be Lillian Plotnik's Mother." Taught Daniel Hand, among many others.