The Windeby Puzzle by Lois Lowry
Published by Clarion Books on February 14, 2023
ISBN: 0358672503
Pages: 224
Genres: Historical Fiction
Format: Chapter Book Fiction
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A book that is difficult to classify in a genre as it is a unique combination of fiction and nonfiction. A 2,000-year-old body was found in a peat bog in 1952 on Windeby Estate in northern Germany. Lois Lowry imagines the life that might have been, first for a young girl and then for a boy during the Iron Age. Estrild, not content with the dictates of what her life as a woman, wants to be a warrior. Varick, an orphan boy with a twisted back, is treated poorly because of his differences. We know how the stories will end with them blindfolded and left to die in the bog.

The reader learns much about bogs, bog people, and the history of the Druids in this rarely depicted time period. Although short and easy-to-read, the subject may be difficult for children because of the harsh content. Lowry takes quite a few liberties in imagining the two stories, but there is not a lot of information available about this first century time period. Interesting book, unlike any other, but definitely consider the reader before recommending it.

Reviewed by Barb Rehmeyer, Liberty Library