I was surprised by this book and how fascinating it was. It is set at the time of Christ, with Jesus as a character, which is the first surprising thing about it. (I don't think a book like that would win the Newbery Award today. Actually, it definitely wouldn't.) But it was actually about a Galilean boy named Daniel who is filled with anger and hatred towards the Romans who are occupying their land. He wants to take them down and wants the Messiah to come to kill them all. The story is about how he is trying to go about doing that, and the lessons he learns as he is metaphorically beating his head against the wall again and again. I thought the ending was just beautiful. I wished that Daniel had had a little more of a transformation--up until the last six pages he was still angry and hateful and raging, and then he repents and changes his tune. I feel like it should have been more obviously gradual. But I did really enjoy the rest of it and I felt like it really gave me a much better view of what it was like living in those times and what the political groups were like.
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