The Children's Story

Rating:
Summary: SCARY
Review: The Children's Story is the scariest book in print today. Whenever I read it, I feel uneasiness, the book really makes my skin crawl. Every page is more and more chilling. It is a psychological masterpiece -- Clavell brilliantly X-rays the mind of a small child and shows what tricks can be used to change it completely. A must-read for everyone, especially for parents of little kids!!

Rating:
Summary: The only book from college that I keep on my bookshelf.
Review: This book is truly scary. No horror book will ever match this. Spend an hour with this book and your view about the Pledge of Allegiance may change forever. If you have kids, do yourself a favor and read this before sending them off to school. One read and you will never forget this book.

Rating:
Summary: THE Anti-Socialist book for kids (and grown-ups)!
Review: With all due respect, Ted Rushton is completely misreading the author's intent. A close reading of ALL of Clavell's work would show that the author loved freedom above all else. He was a happy emigre to our shores, spending the last years of his life in sunny California. A POW during WWII, his Japanese captors (from whom Orwell took the phrase and concept of "thought police") beat him down, but did not break his spirit, or his love of Asia, as his books demonstrate.
NOBLE HOUSE in particular is a masterful display of the conflict between Socialism and Freedom, with Russian/Chinese Communists as the former, and Hong Kong/British capitalists the latter.
As to THE CHILDREN'S STORY, Mr. Rushton's review does to this book what the new teacher does to the flag and the Pledge of Allegiance in Mr. Clavell's story. In the afterword, Mr. Clavell describes how his daughter came home from school and demanded a payment of ten cents after reciting the Pledge for him. He handed the dime over lovingly, but the incident got him thinking that there has to be more to learning the Pledge than the promise of a ten cent piece. He wanted his child to understand what she was pledging her allegiance to, and that is a symbol of freedom! The new teacher convinces all of the children but one that the flag is just a piece of cloth and the Pledge is just a handful of meaningless words. And if you cut the flag up and parse the POA to death then yes, she's right. But the pledge means that you support and intend to uphold the ideals of liberty and freedom that the flag has come to symbolize. Its obvious to me that the new teacher is doing all she can to replace the American values of liberty, freedom, and justice for all with the socialist values of...well, there are no socialist values. Unless unquestioning subservience is a value.
Mr. Rushton may think me a jingoistic rightist dupe for my views, and he's free to do so. You're free to do a lot, in America.