Carol Schlorff. How to Kill a Giant. Elk Lake Publishing, 2023.
How to Kill a Giant is a middle grade or young adult novel that kids should get a kick out of. Readers may find echoes of Stories from Grandma’s Attic or the Magic Treehouse books—with maybe a touch of The House of the Seven Gables.
In this case Hugo and his friends, brother and sister Stefan and Julia, find a secret room in the old farmhouse of Stefan and Julia’s grandparents. In the room, which clearly has not been occupied in a long time, they find an old family Bible and soon are transported to Ancient Israel near Bethlehem where they meet up with young shepherd David.
From the title readers can guess the general trajectory of the story. Stefan, Hugo, and Julia are twelve, thirteen, and fourteen respectively. David is a few years older. But much of the story tells us how David takes care of his sheep. We also see how he handles a lion attack and an attempt by some Philistine marauders to sell the three young time travelers into slavery. Our modern youngsters do experience some culture shock, to say the least.
David tells his new friends: “Listen, I know it is not easy. I’m often terrified, too, but little by little, my courage has grown with each test of faith” (856).
We know the basic story of David and Goliath, but this shares more insight into what makes for a good shepherd. As Hugo comes from a broken home and has been victimized by a couple of bullies at his new middle school, he comes to see what courage really means. The junior punks who torment him have nothing on Goliath. But David may have been bullied as much by his older brothers. We know that at least a couple of them looked down on him.
David admits, “My brothers never really cared for me because I am the youngest, but something happened to make them hate and resent me” (1032). He then proceeds to tell them about the visit of the prophet Samuel and how Samuel anointed him—and not one of them.
In the hands of many this could be a somewhat saccharine moralistic story that accomplishes little. Schlorff makes it real. We begin to admire David even apart from his giant-slaying, and we begin to root for Hugo and his friends as they find themselves in various jams. To retell the David and Goliath story is hardly treading new ground, neither are stories of time-traveling teenagers, but this gets beyond the routine and helps us see some things with new eyes.
In her notes at the end, the author acknowledges Bill Myers for some help. Many readers of late elementary and young adult books recognize the name. He is one of the most prolific and popular writers of books for those age groups. Any writer would be wise to pay attention to suggestions that he may have made. Miss Schlorff was not taking Mr. Myers’ name in vain.
N.B.: References are Kindle locations, not page numbers.