Review: A Boy Against the Boxers by Jacob Sharp

A boy living in Peking, China, wants some excitement. It is June of 1900. Excitement is coming at him faster than he realizes!

After nabbing some good shade to avoid the hot morning sun, Edward “Eddie” James Donahue watches the U.S. Marines as they march through the International Legation Quarter in Peking – now Beijing – China. It is the turn of the twentieth century, and Eddie is a fourteen-year-old boy fascinated by the Marines. He loves soldiers, but something about the Marines sets his heart thumping. He wishes that he could be one of them.

Eddie’s father, Robert Donahue, works for the American Oriental Trading Company. He brings silk to the U.S. by trading with the Chinese, utilizing his business relationship with prosperous silk merchant Mister Sun to accomplish this. If Sun cannot fulfill the order in its entirety, then Robert Donahue buys from other silk merchants to fill the gap, but he will call on Mister Sun first and foremost.

This morning, that is Eddie’s job: to go to Mister Sun and put in an order for silks for the company. Eddie spares a few more minutes to watch the Marines longingly. They look like cowboys. But he cannot stay and gets up to run his errand….

In the process, he literally runs into a newly arrived Marine sergeant.

The Story

Eddie apologizes to the Marine, who cheerfully tells him not to worry about it before introducing himself as Sergeant Joseph Campbell. New to the International Legation Quarter, Campbell asks Eddie for directions to the Marines’ barracks. Pointing them out, Eddie is awed to have met a Real Marine. He shakes the admiration off as he heads out to the market in Peking proper, arriving at Mister Sun’s Prosperous Silk Shop just in time.

Mister Sun and Eddie greet one another before the boy delivers the order from his father for the company. While Mister Sun goes to count on the abacus and Eddie waits patiently, a commotion starts out on the street. Looking around Mister Sun when the older man goes to investigate, Eddie watches a group of “Boxers” destroy the wares of a Christian Chinese couple before striking the woman’s husband in the head with the butt of a spear.

Worried for his safety, Mister Sun sends him away in a hurry. Eddie rushes home by another series of streets than the one he took to the market, but he soon realizes that he cannot tell his mother about the Boxers being so close. She worries over him and his father all the time; if he tells her of his near miss, it will only upset her.

His father is much calmer about such things, though, having served with the Union Army during the American Civil War. He needs to know how close the Boxers are, so Eddie tells him what he saw. Already privy to some reports that the rebels are nearing Peking, Robert Donahue frowns at the news but assures his son that they will be all right. He needs to stay in the Quarter and not tell his Ma about this, though. Got it?

For a while, Eddie gets it. But when the son of the French diplomat challenges his courage, Eddie must go see the Boxers’ “magic.” When this escapade leaves the two youths trapped with a wounded man in the city as the Boxers and the Imperial Chinese Army lay siege to the Quarter, Eddie needs to make some serious choices. He has to find a way back into the Quarter and then survive the siege. But what can one boy do in the middle of a war?

The Characters

Eddie has good sense, but he is also a boy. When he is insulted or his family’s name is dishonored, he feels it and reacts accordingly. He will stand up for himself and for others, but he will also (usually) obey his parents, no matter how much he wants to go on an adventure. What good is an adventure if you do not keep your word? Eddie must earn that honor back, something he does in admirable fashion as the siege continues and he gains more responsibilities.

Jacques, the son of the French diplomat, is a fop and a drama queen. Less mature in some ways than Eddie and overly fond of fashion, he nonetheless proves to have more mettle than his early behavior suggests. Mister Sun is an honorable old gentleman in the best Chinese tradition while Sergeant Campbell does Marines everywhere proud. Eddie’s parents soon show their caliber, demonstrating where Eddie learned his best qualities by their constant, steadfast courage under fire.

The World

The world is the first year of the 20^th century. The Boxers are rebelling and fighting their way across China in an attempt to expunge any taint of Western influence, often with the tacit help of the Imperial Army. When the siege begins, Frenchmen work with Germans, Austro-Hungarians work with Russians, and Americans rub shoulders with Japanese soldiers in the International Legation Quarter. It is a world on the cusp of change – bloody, horrific change. It is a world long gone but, for a brief period, it is visible again through the eyes of a teenage boy who has known no other world at all.

Politics

None.

Content Warning

There is some blood, and the threat of two pet dogs being made into a meal when the Quarter must tighten their belts as food supplies dwindle. Although this threat is not carried out, dog lovers be aware. When death is dealt during the siege it is hardly described at all, so that one would almost miss that anyone had been killed, making this book perfect PG reading for children.

Who is it for?

Boys will love this book, which carries on the best tradition of the Dear America pseudo-diary series and similar projects. It will entice any young reader to investigate history more closely even as it keeps them in the grip of excitement. Fans of the 1963 movie 55 Days at Peking will enjoy the novel as well, whether they be young in fact or young at heart. Anyone looking for an accurate historical story to supplement homeschool or even school reading would be wise to purchase this book for their sons, grandsons, or nephews. Girls will enjoy the novel as well, so those with daughters, granddaughters, or nieces should put this on the list of gifts for their young readers.

Readers with fond memories of the Dear America series and similar series who wish for more books in that vein should buy a copy of Raconteur Press’ A Boy Against the Boxers for their shelves or request that their local library acquire it so patrons can enjoy it at regular intervals. It is that good!

Why buy it?

It makes history interesting in the best tradition of juvenile fiction, focusing on a relatively obscure piece of past in the process. More than that, it makes the topic fun. What better impetus could there be than to purchase a novel than that?