Lara’s Gift by Annemarie O’Brien

Lara’s Gift, by Annemarie O’Brien.  Knopf, 2013, 193pages, including appendix

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12, Young Adult, ages 12-15

Recommended for: ages 10-15

Bottom Line: Lara’s Gift enters the world of a peasant girl in czarist Russia, with country estates, borzois, wolf hunts, and spiritual overtones.

Compared to most Russian peasants in the early 20^th century, Lara is born into a privileged position as the only child of Count Vorontsov’s borzoi trainer.  The borzoi are those exotic, long-muzzled, silky-haired wolfhounds bred for the Russian nobility, and Lara has inherited her father’s passion for them.  She also has inherited, or somehow acquired, something else: the ability to see visions.  All of her visions are associated with the borzoi, in particular the one puppy who appears to be the runt of its litter but whom Lara envisions as a lion among dogs.  But are the visions a curse, as her father believes, or (her mother insists) a gift from God that must be heeded?

The storyline is not as strong as it could be, and Christian parents may not be entirely comfortable with the prominence of mystical visions.  Still, there’s a lot to like about this book, including the author’s thorough knowledge of the subject matter and setting, which she communicates in a way that’s not intrusive.  And even though Lara is that stock youth-fiction character, the spunky girl who chafes as society’s restrictions on her, the theme isn’t hammered too relentlessly, and even gets some consideration from the other side.  Lara’s acquaintance with the icon painter Ruslan opens up another point of view, namely God’s: “Maybe this is God’s way of steering you down a different path.”  Knowing God’s will is an unspoken (perhaps unintended) theme of this story—does it always line up with our inclinations?  Or never?  Or more likely both.  

That place and time has a doomed romance about it (think Dr. Zhivago) underrepresented in children’s literature.  Though told from a girl’s point of view, there’s enough blood and wolf-hunting to interest boys as well.

Cautions: violence (mild)

Overall rating: 3.75

• Worldview/moral value: 4.0
• Artistic value: 3.5

Categories: Historical Fiction, Middle grades, Young Adult, European History