Product Description
It started as a dare, a bit of fun. Catholic boys daubing paint on Protestant walls. But in the tense, angry atmosphere of a divided Belfast, things soon turn to violence. Kevin finds he's met his match in Sadie, a Protestant girl who will change his life for ever. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Interesting whether or not you know the background
This is a book for young teenagers, set against the backdrop of Northern Ireland just before the outbreak of the Troubles.

The plot is simple: a feisty Catholic boy and a feisty Protestant girl, living in inner-city Belfast neighbourhoods separated only by a main road, lead alternate mischief-making expeditions into each other's territory until things get out of hand and a sacrifice, Romeo and Juliet style, is required to bring the sides back to their senses. The characterization is a bit perfunctory (Kevin is feisty; Sadie, on the other hand, is feisty) but the setting, leading up to the Twelfth, is well drawn. The book was written in 1970 and is unobtrusively matter-of-fact about being poor at the time: no-one has a phone, cars break down all the time, and chip pan fires play a prominent role. The police are not reacted to in an openly sectarian way, as you imagine they would have been if the book had been written only a few years later, but it's noticeable that the Catholic parents are spoiling for a fight with them more than the Protestant parents are. Missing from the book's even-handedness is any strong sense of the real asymmetry of rhetoric that you experience on the ground (Catholics are inferior, Protestants are oppressive): actions on one side are almost exactly mirrored on the other, and when the symmetry is broken it's done against type (the Catholic girl is painstaking, the Protestant girl is careless). The best parts are the set pieces: a trip to the zoo, a trip to the beach, and especially the climactic scene where, without it ever having been explicitly stated, everyone becomes aware that a big fight's coming up.

It was fab!!!!
I thoght this book was really good. Joan Lingard wasn't afraid to show you what things are really like. All in all it was EXCELLENT.

By John Pears Cleveden Secondary Glasgow Scotland.(Oban Drive Campus)

Brilliant
I'm still giving this 5 stars, though Across the Barricades was better.It was really good the way they become friends at the end.

Enjoyable
What I enjoyed about this book was that it shows no matter how different people they can get along. Kevin and Sadie became friends in the end. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Belfast's Romeo and Juliett
Rarely do young adult books have the plotting, characterization and gravitas to reach beyond the teen years but Across the Barricades does so beautifully.Written in the early 70's, it really stands the test of time.

Sadie Jackson is a Protestant teen living in Belfast during the upheaval of bombings, barricades and fear.She is spunky, charming, blunt and courageous.She meets her old friend Kevin McCoy by happenstance and the two immediately renew their lapsed friendship.Kevin is a sweet Catholic boy living a few streets away from Sadie but it might as well be a few thousand miles.They both recognize their friendship will not be well received by either of their families.

These two fall in love and their romance is sweet against the nightmarish backdrop of violence around them.Soon, though, neighbors are alerted to their relationship and what is an innocent romance becomes a rallying cry for bigotry and suspicion.

Sadie is unafraid of accusations hurled at her from neighbors but she is worried about Kevin as he faces much more danger than she does in his part of Belfast.Kevin's neighbors see his relationship with Sadie as nothing short of traitorous. Help comes to these two from an unexpected source and amidst all the turmoil they make an oasis of peace but how long can this possibly last?

The author does a fine job of weaving this couple's romance into the story.What is especially well written are the wonderful dialogues between Sadie and Kevin.They interact very realistically and their conversations exhibit the long standing prejudices they have grown up with their entire lives.Kevin and Sadie argue about their faith and Ireland but wonderfully they realize that what binds them together is stronger than what keeps them apart.

Romantic!
this book waz just totally sweet, there were parts in this book that made me laugh and parts that made me cry!
i read it with my class the first time and in my room the second to really relate with it!
read it you won't be disappointed, i recommend it 4 chicks the most!!!

across the barricades
across the barricades is a fantastically written version of Romeo and Juiliet joan lingard is an excellent writer in the way that she can see true version of events from both sides without being biast and i am looking forward to reading the other stoies of sadie and kevin a story of friendship and forbidden love

My personal review on "Across the barricades"
17 year old girl from Belfast/N.Ireland When I first read this book I was nine and could hardly believe that a Protestant could go out with a mick. I really thought they deserved the way they were treated. Now that I'm 17 and in the same situation as the two main characters were I begin to understand...

The queen of England
it is a outstanding book,my class acted it out and it was really cool,now I know all about Ireland and how all the trouble started. I would like to read it again

goodbye from the Queen who loves eminem ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (50)

Irish Gothic
I happened upon this book by accident, and it caught my eye for two reasons, both of them having to do with modern music: I recognized the name Peter Murphy, though the Murphy I knew was the front man for the eighties gothic band Bauhaus (and currently a solo artist), and the title John the Revelator is a traditional Gospel song covered by Frank Black and by Depeche Mode (with altered lyrics).
It was a happy accident. This novel reads like an introspective Irish biography, told from the perspective of a young boy dealing with his eccentric and rather morbid mother. Think a more gothic form of Angela's Ashes (yet less depressing, thank God).
Take advantage of the access to the first chapter and get hooked.

Nice try...
There is some splendid writing in this book, and some very powerful scenes, but I found that the book didn't hold together for me, since there's no real narrative arc in this Irish coming of age novel. A number of storylines get set up, but few of them ever resolve or pay off. This is the kind of book whose language sets it up as being better than it truly is, and hoping that the verbal conjuring trick will work, so that the reader will think, ah, fine prose makes a fine story. But there's not much of a story here, and the writing, while fine in spots, becomes terribly self-conscious after a while, and the prose occasionally moves from purple to mauve. The separate episodes with the symbolic crow aren't well integrated into the rest of the story, and thematically the book is a bit of a mess. That said, the dialogue rings true, and I liked the relationships between the characters, but the plot is so episodic that the story doesn't work organically. Still, it'll be interesting to see what Murphy tries next. He's got great potential and shows much promise.

The Wierd and Wonderful Drew Me In
...and the dark humor and captivating prose kept me enthralled. With John the Revelator, I was confronted with a coming of age novel (a genre I still enjoy in my early middle years) unlike any I'd ever read. I say confronted because, at times, reading of John Devine's travails was was almost like an assault on my senses. Murphy has a love of the written word that shines through, even when he's using them to slap the reader upside the face.

John's boyhood was so very different from my experience, but I found myself relating to all of the steps along his journey. John's mother is the pillar of his life and her declining health effects him more than any other outside stimuli could. Other events batter poor John and push him further and further into himself as well. His interplay with the busybody Mrs. Nagel. The unsettling relationship with his friend Jamey. This is a book of relationships rather than of plot, and that is where Murphy shines.

Some may find the prose flat, but after an initial "break in" period, I was hooked. John the Revelator was not always easy to follow and at times I was tempted to skip ahead, but in the end it was a rewarding read. Murphy has a voice that will hopefully continue to evolve in future novels.

What's Revealed?
Well for starters, in Murphy's John the Revelator, coming of age is not a matter of experience with sex, drugs, or even Rock and Roll. It isn't propelled by betrayal, madness, or corruption.

That's not to say that the protagonist, John Devine, doesn't experience all of those things-- he does in some spectacular and horrifyingly human ways. However, they don't transform him so much as push him further and further into himself.


For John, a world caught between the crows that fly to high to help, and the worms that start eating us while we're still alive, initiation comes only with death's attendant grief. It spurs him to pick-up his cross-bow and take a stand against petty evil's encroach.

Meandering
20 pages from the end, I couldn't describe what this book was about.I'm still not sure I know now that I'm finished, but I do know that the back cover text has virtually nothing to do with it - it's stuff that does take place in the story, but it's not what the story is about.

The book is a bit hard to get into, at least for an American, as the first few pages throw around a whole lot of Irish slang without a lot of context.That quickly falls off, though, in favor of the story.I would have to say that this book is simply cutscenes from the life of a small-town Irish boy growing up with a single, working mother.He has a friend or two, some misadventures along the way, some seemingly prophetic dreams, and typical mom-relation issues, but in the end it's about him growing up and his relationship with his mother.No mini story inside the narrative is ever told in full; the most you get is hints, but it's enough to build the impression of some full characters with lives and stories of their own (and some not).

In the end, I can't say that I'm _glad_ to have read it, and I probably won't seek out more by the author, but it was a pleasant enough way to pass the time. ... Read more

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US Weekly Magazine Issue #784, February 22, 2010 Bachelor Scandal Jake Pavelka & Vienna's Double Life, Jennifer Aniston & Gerard Butler's Sexy Getaway, Brittany Murphy What Really Killed Her ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Come Follow Me2
Seller did not view product before listing it.Workbook had been completely used and therefore not any help to me.My child did not have her workbook in time for school.Very disappointed!We did receive a refund, however it didn't help the fact that she didn't have the book.Also, the shipping time was very long. ... Read more

Product Description
Mission Statement:The mission of Come, Follow Me is to consistently and constantly extend Jesus' invitation to discipleship and to provide Catholic children with age-appropriate catechesis guided by a biblical faith, the teaching of the Church, and a clear vision of the Gospel. This is accomplished by: Building upon children's life experiences, Fostering family involvement, Developing a personal spirituality and involvement with liturgical prayer, Fostering religious literacy, Encouraging moral development, Challenging students to experience faith in a spirit of joy. ... Read more