Reviews for Red Sun girl

The average rating for Red Sun girl based on 2 reviews is 1.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-06-05 00:00:00 Jonathan Murray WARNING! SPOILERS! Children may well enjoy this book, with its shape-changing families, magical seasons and benevolent witches. But it's worth considering what they're taking in along with the adventure. The book struck me as questionable in several ways. Kiri's family and village are unaccepting of her difference, and she must learn to be the same as them, at considerable risk, before they welcome her back. The Animal Singer gives her a ruby that keeps her from dying of thirst, and she trades it to another magical person for the ability to transform. The ruby comes back to her magically, so she never pays for her new ability, nor is it a gift, because the other magical person wanted the ruby and did not return it willingly. This cheating is acceptable in the morality of the story, because the second magical person is marked BAD GUY, while the Animal Singer (who sets up the scam) is marked GOOD GUY. Nice to know that people are to be judged on their demeanour, not on their actions. When Kiri returns home, no one in her family seems particularly distressed about her having vanished, or the possibility that she might have died of thirst in the desert. That she can conform is the only important thing. I don't demand a moral in children's books, but the morality in this one seemed to be negative!

Review # 2 was written on 2009-04-19 00:00:00 Matt Anderson This was one of my favorite books when I was younger, but I'm reading it now and it really disturbs me. It seems as though the lessons we are meant to take away are that it is greedy to accept payment for a service and it's not ok to be different. I do still love the illustrations.