Adara

by Beatrice Gormley

The soldier heaved me over his shoulder as if I were a spring lamb.
I am not Israelite I screamed.
I beat his back, hurting my hands. Let me go.Adara has always longed to do the things that well-brought-up girls of her time are not supposed to do. She wants to learn to read and write -- like men. And she wants the freedom to travel -- like men -- outside the boundaries of her sheltered life.One day she awakens to a blast of trumpets...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802852165
• ISBN13: 9780802852168
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.2" x 7.9"
• Age Range: 9 to 14 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 9

Customer Reviews

Enjoyable Bible historical fiction.

I really enjoyed this historical-fictional novel for teens, which tells a tale of a slave girl who changed the life of Naaman, Commander of the Syrian army. Based on the Old Testament account in Kings 2, chapter 5, the story begins in Biblical Ramoth-Gilead, where the spirited young Adara lives with her family. Soon she will be old enough to be given away in marriage to some unknown husband, but Adara yearns for more from her life -- to be able to read, and to see other lands. As a battle rages outside her village, between the Syrians and the Israelites, Adara impulsively sneaks out to watch the battle. She becomes stuck outside the city walls, and ends up a captive. Taken to Damascus in the land of Syria, Adara starts as the lowest slave girl in the pecking order in the house of Commander Naaman. But after some time has passed, Adara becomes a storyteller for Naaman's wife, and tells tales of the holy prophet Elisha, that Adara's foster mother had told to her. And so, when Naaman has leprousy, and no physician can give him any help, it is Adara who plants the idea that Elisha could heal him. Naaman, desperate to try anything, follows her suggestion, and travels to find the prophet, only to be told by the prophet's servant to simply "go and wash in the Jordan River seven times." Naaman is angry at this answer, since he was hoping for an answer that would be much more grand, and more grandly given. Adara fears that her master will not heed the prophet's advice. Though anyone who knows the Biblical tale knows how this turns out, this novel lets you travel with the emotions of the characters, and to see, in this land and time of many confusing concepts of different gods, that there is a God who heals, and who has compassion on the great and on the lowly alike.

Adara: by Beatrice Gormley

.The soldier heaved me over his shoulder as if i were a spring lamb - I screamed - I beat his back, hurting my hands. "Let me go."Adara was in the wrong place at the wrong time and before she knew it she was a slave. Brought up in the weathest family in her village she was now lower than the sevants that had looked after her all her life. This is the story of how she was brought thousands of kilometers from her home and family as a slave to a new and unknown world. It is a story of faith and trust in God and in what her can do. The book is aimed at teens and relates to the bible passage 2 Kings chapter 5 and the healing of Naaman in the Jordan river.This is a great book and certainly a worth-while read!

A novelization of an Old Testament story.

Adara, is a mistreated slave girl. In this story, she convinces her master, the mighty Syrian general, Naaman,who captured her from her homeland, to seek a cure from his leprosy from the prophet Elisha. I like this story because it's about a young girl, who finds herself special, in this retelling of the origonal story.