Power of One (Courtenay) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
The Power of One has everything: suspense, the exotic, violence; mysticism, psychology and magic; schoolboy adventures, drama.
New York Times


Marvelous.... It is the people of the sun-baked plains of Africa who tug at the heartstrings in this book. . . . [Bryce] Courtenay draws them all with a fierce and violent love.
Washington Post Book Wor


Unabashedly uplifting...asserts forcefully what all of us would like to believe: that the individual, armed with the spirit of independence–"the power of one"–can prevail.
Cleveland Plain Dealer


Totally engrossing...[presents] the metamorphosis of a most remarkable young man and the almost spiritual influence he has on others.... Peekay has both humor and a refreshingly earthy touch, and his adventures, at times, are hair-raising in their suspense.
Los Angeles Times Book Review


Episodic and bursting with incident, this sprawling memoir of an English boy's lonely childhood in South Africa during WW II pays moderate attention to questions of race but concerns itself primarily with epic melodrama.
Publishers Weekly


(Grade 6-up) The book packs a powerful emotional punch, evoking horror, laughter, and empathy. It is a condensed version of the first part of Courtenay's adult book of the same title, and the ending feels artificial and unresolved. In all, this is an extraordinary and unusual survival story. — Sue Giffard, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, New York City
School Library Journal