Fearless by Elvira Woodruff

Fearless Reviews

• 
  Damon Kimball

  Amazing! I really loved this book because of the way Elvira put this and it's just amazing it sounded good it had good dialogue I loved it especially the parts where it goes quiet all of a sudden and then bursts out.
• 
  Kailey (Luminous Libro)

  In 1695, the Eddystone Reef off the coast of Cornwall is called the "Widow Maker" with more than 50 ships wrecking on the rocks each year. When Digory's father is presumed lost at sea, Digory travels to Plymouth to inquire about any possible survivors from his ship, hoping to find his father alive. He becomes an apprentice to an eccentric inventor named Henry Winstanley, who is the architect of the new Eddystone Lighthouse.
  
  I didn't even realize that this is historical fiction until the end, when I read the blurb about history at the end of the book. I was pleasantly surprised and it gave the story so much more depth and meaning. Henry Winstanley really did design and build the first offshore lighthouse on Eddystone Reef, saving thousands of sailors' lives each year.
  
  I loved the writing style, the plot, the characters, and the wonderful themes of courage and family. The writing really draws the reader into this historic time and makes the setting feel immediate and real. The characters are colorful and interesting, and I really enjoyed the smart dialogue.
  
  Digory is an excellent main character, filled with fear and anxiety at the beginning. Through the story, he ponders the meaning of courage, and wonders which is better- recklessness or caution, fear or bravery? I was so impressed with his character development, and his strong emotions that propel the story forward.
  
  The only thing that bothered me were a few small references to other characters' point of view. The all-knowing narrator tells us the story from Digory's point of view, but there are a handful of comments about the internal feelings or thoughts of other characters. It's slightly annoying because it is inconsistent with the rest of the book, but not enough to ruin my enjoyment of the book.
  
  The plot moves quickly and with a forcefulness that kept me in suspense. I especially loved the sense of wonderment throughout the book as Digory gazes in awe at beauty or destruction or whimsy around him. His reactions to the new world he discovers outside his little fishing village are what create a dynamic and energetic story.
• 
  Mr. Holt

  
  Fearless is a book that attempts to tell three different stories all at the same time. While some novels succeed at weaving many stories into one, this book was unable to successfully tell even one story throughout the novel. The book began with the story of two young brothers searching for information about their father the sailor. Midway through the novel, the author switched gears and introduced a new character. This was the start of the second story, which was far more interesting than the first. The author told the story of Henry Winstanley, the great inventor and architect. This part read well, but never came to full fruition. As the second story started gaining momentum, the author switched avenues once again and started telling the story of the great storm that ravaged England in 1703. While the characters were still involved in the story, little depth was given to their descriptions. The plot was like a ship ride during a great storm. While the prose was good and introduced me to a lot of seafaring terminology and British slang from the time period, it wasn't enough to leave me with a warm feeling inside. Unlike her previous novel
  The Ravenmaster's Secret: Escape From The Tower Of London, this book lacked a lot for me. Despite my bleak opinion of the book, I would still recommend it to someone looking for a historical fiction book about England during the age of sail.
• 
  Josh Newhouse

  I do not like historical fiction. I did not like her other book that was on the SSYRA list a few years back. I went in thinking "Ick". I came out thinking "Wow!" What a great book with a vibrant main character, with a fascinating but true funhouse, solid events, and an ending that while surprising and non-Hollywood was apparently for the most part historically accurate.
  
  I think this is one of the best historical fiction books I have read and that it will appeal, especially to boys but also to girls with its mixture of character, adventure and funny animal "quips".
  
  My only quibble was why name the one character Master Death, as I thought briefly it was going an entirely different direction...
• 
  Chelsea crawford

  Fearless is a moving story about a teenage boy and his little brother in the mid 1600’s. This book starts off with the two main characters Digory and Cubby in their aunt’s house. Their mother is dead and their father is away at sea, so their aunt is looking after them along with Digory and Cubby’s cousins. As you can imagine there was a lot of chaos in a house full of children. So their aunt sent Digory to go look for their father and said don’t bother coming back even if you don’t find him. So he set off... Cubby followed along of course.So they set off encountering many obstacles along the way. The end of this book is what you need to stay for,it ties the whole book together! Overall I would say that this is a great book!
• 
  Sarah Howard

  Since this was a book for kids, I was able to skim through this in nearly one sitting. That being said, I was consistently surprised at the authenticity of it. Even though it lacked the emotional depth of books for an older audience, it did have nice emotional beats in it that wouldn't have overwhelmed a younger audience, and it had a lot of really nice historical details woven throughout. The dialogue? Top notch, the author did a really nice job capturing a bunch of different regional voices. I can tell by the long bibliography at the end that the author put a lot of time and effort into creating an immersive story for a young audience.
• 
  Summer Lindsay

  Really good book! It was easy to read, simple, and it was a great story! I only bought it because of Fearless, the album by Taylor, and read this because I’m behind schedule so all in all I didn’t really want to read this, but it was still good! The ending was a little bit predictable but with a small twist. In total, this was a really good book
• 
  Trixiter Marczak

  What a good story!
• 
  LilithinaRose

  One of my all time favorite book.
• 
  Ruth

  Left in the care of his aunt while his father is at sea, 11-year-old Digory Beale is plagued by nightmares of his father dying in a terrible storm. Digory has always been afraid of the sea, preferring to draw when other boys were competing for sailing jobs. When word comes that his father’s ship has gone down, it seems that his worst fear has been realized. Digory must set out for Plymouth to learn his father’s fate. His aunt tells him not to return unless he finds his father alive. With eleven children of her own, she can’t afford another mouth to feed. Digory and his 9-year-old brother Cubby (who decides to follow Digory rather than stay with their aunt) face a difficult journey with little food, no money, and dwindling hope that their father is still alive.
  
  In Plymouth, Digory and Cubby receive the crushing news that there were no survivors from their father’s ship. With their hopes of reuniting with their father dashed, the boys are alone and scared. Just when they think things can’t get any worse, Digory and Cubby are framed for stealing. A man named Henry Winstanley intercedes on their behalf and this chance meeting will drastically alter Digory’s life.
  
  Henry Winstanley takes the boys to be servants at his home in Essex, but Winstanley’s home is no ordinary country estate. An engineer with a fondness for gadgets, Winstanley has filled his home with many whimsical inventions including a "Flying Chair" (an early version of the roller coaster), a mechanical dragon, and fountains that shoot colored water into the air. When Winstanley discovers Digory’s artistic talent, he offers him an apprenticeship. Digory thrives under the engineer’s tutelage.
  
  When Winstanley receives news that the Eddystone Lighthouse, a beacon that he designed, is in need of repair after severe storms, he and Digory rush to Plymouth. Digory will finally have to face his fear of the sea in order to assist his beloved mentor.
  
  While Digory and Cubby are fictional characters, Henry Winstanley was real. In 1698, he took on what many thought was an impossible task: construction of a lighthouse off the treacherous Eddystone reef near Plymouth, England. The Eddystone Lighthouse sustained severe damage during its first year of operation and was rebuilt with a modified design. For five years not a single ship was lost to the reef. In 1703, the lighthouse was destroyed during the Great Storm, the worst weather disaster in Britain’s history. Henry Winstanley and five others were killed when the lighthouse succumbed to the sea. The Eddystone Lighthouse was later rebuilt, and thanks to Winstanley’s vision, thousands of lives have been saved.
  
  Elvira Woodruff has written an exciting and well-researched tale of courage and friendship. The book includes a glossary, a map of England in 1700 highlighting the key locations in the story as well as an extensive author’s note about the life and accomplishments of Henry Winstanley. Highly recommended.
• 
  Matthew Winner

  YES for our library.
  
  This book reminded me so much of Avi's Crispin: The Cross of Lead, a book that completely captures the feel of a historical place and time through vivid language, historical vocabulary, and by successfully transporting the reader to that time.
  
  Unfortunately Fearless, like Crispin, isolates its readership by being so accurate to the time. In Fearless, a young boy in the 1700s, terrified of the sea and nearly useless to his family, is sent north to a harbor town to see if his father survived a devastating shipwreck. He is sent because his family cannot afford to send any of the hardworking boys that manage to bring home what little food and money this family struggles by with.
  
  Many of the students in grades 4-6 will struggle with the countless unfamiliar words used to tell the story and maintain authenticity to the time. While an older audience might devour this story up, upper elementary students wouldn't be able to fully grasp or appreciate the world created by Woodruff, author of Fearless.
  
  Nevertheless, I would certainly recommend the book to above grade level readers and those that can grasp and appreciate historical fiction without having a lot of background knowledge ahead of time.
• 
  Phoebe

  Set in my favorite part of the world, the Cornish coast, 1703. Digory and his brother Cubby, extra mouths in their aunt's tiny cottage, head for Plymouth to find out if the news about their father's downed ship is true. They meet inventor Henry Winstanley, who takes them to his amazing home, the Magic House. Happy days ensue, as Digory becomes apprenticed to Henry. Then word comes that the Eddystone Reef lighthouse, an astonishing structure built by Henry five years previously on bare rock near one of the most dangerous stretches of English coastline, is low on candles and in bad shape. Henry takes the boys and travels back to Plymouth to sail 14 miles out to the reef and save his lighthouse. What he doesn't know is that the "storm of the century" is about to hit the coast. This is a really interesting story, based on actual events. Accompanied by an excellent afterword with images of the actual lighthouse and Winstanley, a real person. 5th grade and up.
• 
  Annette

  Good period story that's also historic in places, it takes place in 1703 in Cornwall, England and is about a young boy Digory whose fisherman father is at sea. While he's gone, Digory and his little brother Cubby are sent to live with their aunt and 11 cousins. When they learn that their father's boat crashes on the reef, the aunt says she can't feed them anymore and they must venture out on their own. They meet a man in Plymouth who takes them in to work at his mansion. Henry Winstanley is an inventor who has built the lighthouse and will do what it takes to keep it lit.
  The adventure continues when Digory is faced with a deadly trip out to the lighthouse to deliver the candles in a storm. They must keep it lit!
  
  Lively story with lots of adventure. A bit quirky in places, but it was good.
  
  
• 
  Katherine

  Filled with action (although, I would agree with Kirkus reviews on this -- it is labored action) and drama, this is a story about the relationship with the sea in coastal England in the 1700s. The inspiration for the story was Henry Winstanley, who built a lighthouse on the Eddystone Reef off of Plymouth England in the late 1600s. He wanted nothing more than to be in the lighthouse during a storm -- and he got his wish during The Great Storm of 1703. It took his life.
  
  It is primarily the story of how Digory Beale grew up. He had to face many of his fears throughout the story, and the decisions he made will definitely determine what kind of adult he will be.
  
  The character development and the action, while both dramatic, were somewhat...slow.
• 
  Katrina

  This is an historical fiction novel set in the year 1703 in Cornwall, England. The main character through hard times eventually meets the man who built the first lighthouse on the Eddystone Reef, saving thousands of sailors from a watery grave, Henry Winstanly. Who would dare to build a lighthouse on that murderous reef? Meet Henry and his House of Wonder, a fun house of gadgets and inventions.
  Although the story suffers in a spot or two in favor of presenting some interesting history, I still recommend this book to readers of all ages.
• 
  E

  This one took some time for my investment in the outcome to occur, and even then I cared a lot more about Henry Winstanley than our intrepid orphaned protagonist. Although Winstanley is not the main character, he stands out as intelligent and fascinating, giving Thomas Jefferson a run for his money in my "who I most wish I could talk with for a few hours over tea" list.
  The climax was dramatic and the ending tearfully satisfying.
  
  And, guys? Best cover I've seen on a book in a very long time. I couldn't stop staring at it.
• 
  Donna

  I love lighthouses. This book gets an extra star because it is a historical novel about a very real lighthouse. It is actually geared toward young readers, but I really enjoyed it-read it in 3 days. The history of the lighthouse and its builder are accurate, as is the description of the Magic house and other inventions of Henry Winstanley. The young boys, and many of the other characters are fiction, but blended into the actual history extremely well by the author. Mr. Winstanley was a "fearless" man well ahead of his time.
• 
  Duane

  Although I found Digory (the main character) to be interesting, I would have preferred she spent less time on the earlier chapters and focused more on the later chapters. The book really only got interesting in the last five chapters or so. It is nice that this book is based on historical people and places, just wish more would have been done to showcase the lighthouse and storm. A nice read for advanced readers or teens.
• 
  Mrs. Bajema

  When I read _Fearless_, I kept waiting for a fearless character to show up, or for Digory to transform from a boy pretty much scared out of his wits to an amazingly fearless kid. That never happened!
  
  What I now realize is that this book is all about facing your fears, and doing things in spite of your fear. Digory does grow up in this book, faces his fears, and finds a new life. It is an inspiring story of life in early 1700s England.
  
• 
  Bob

  I read this book as part of a pen pal program I do for a teacher friend in Winchester. I am partnered with a fifth-grade student, and we share our thoughts back and forth about books the students are required to read. Fearless was quite a boy's adventure story, and I enjoyed reading it a great deal. As my pen pal pointed it, it was a real page-turner! Elvira Woodruff packs quite a bit of description in with very few words - her pictures are vivid and her action is well-played.
• 
  Spencer

  Its good and the main character has to leave his home and start his life at 12 he has to get job and live on his own because his aunt can not feed him with the money they have. This book in my opinion was good a little depressing near the end. The tides seem to turn on diggory's life nearing the end of the book. Overall its an extremely good book and its amazing to watch how diggory matures and makes choices that either turn out good or bad
• 
  Chad

  I really liked this historical fiction tale. I did not know anything about Henry Winstanley until I read this book and now I want to read more about him. A great book for readers of all ages, but the best audience would probably be middle school aged young men. The main character is 11 and has quite the story to tell as he meets Henry Winstanely and experiences the monster storm of 1703. A well-written and researched book by Elvira Woodruff.