This was an action-packed read about two boys from vastly different cultures who find themselves caught up in a holy war. Despite being sworn enemies, unusual circumstances keep throwing them together as gradually they develop a mutual respect and friendship towards each other. ( )

Crusade by Elizabeth Laird. Epiphany-OviedoELCA library section 12 D: Teen, Fiction. “Two Boys, Two Faiths, One Unholy War” describes this historical novel on its front cover. In 1192, during the reign of Richard the Lionheart, a teenaged boy, a Christian serf named Adam, is drawn into his local wealthy lord’s expedition to the Holy Land to retake Jerusalem. Meanwhile in Acre, the coastal city where English and French ships land enroute to Jerusalem, lives a Muslim merchant’s son, a teen named Salim. Salim can speak several languages because he has grown up around camel caravan traders, who come to Acre from distant lands. His facility with languages will come in handy. Salim is apprenticed to a Jewish doctor who will teach him medicine. On their way to the doctor’s home city of Jerusalem, they are more or less kidnapped by Mamluk Muslim raiders, and soon the doctor is treating war wounds, and the greatest of all Muslim sultans, Saladin!
The book focuses on the lives of these two teens, as the adventurous crusade becomes a stalemate in the city of Acre. The Christian knights surround the Muslim city, while Saladin’s armies sit in the hills above, trying to starve out the Christians before the city surrenders to the Christian armies. The boy’s lives intersect as they meet one another while wandering in the hills near the city. And then the plot develops, as Adam discovers a family history he never knew about, and Salim tries to find a way to get his family out of besieged Acre before they starve to death or are killed by catapult bombardment.
Of course, this book is very timely because it allows readers to see what happens when people make war based on religious fanaticism, or fear and suspect others based on religious ignorance or intolerance. Not only does it allow readers to return to 1192 to see what a crusade was really like, but it allows readers to think about their own faiths and how far one might reasonably go to defend one’s faith. An excellent book for teens and adults. ( )

This is one of the books I read for the Peel fiction review committee. The book is told in alternating chapters. Both of the main characters are young males. Salim, is a lame Muslim whose father heartlessly sends him to be an apprentice to a Jewish doctor, even though Salim does not desire this opportunity.
Adam is a young Christian boy whose mother died unconfessed. On the way to her funeral, Lord Guy, stops and asks who is being buried. He takes an interest in Adam, and Adam ends up being the new "dog boy" for Lord Guy at the castle Fortis. When the holy war breaks out, both boys become involved. Dr. Musa ends up becoming the personal doctor to Sultan Saladin, who is determined to keep the barbaric invaders from taking Acre and ultimately taking over Jerusalem, and so, as his apprentice, Salim ends up camped outside the besieged city watching those loyal to King Richard try to starve the city’s inhabitants. Inside the city is Salim’s family, including his little sister. Meanwhile, Adam follows Lord Guy as they attempt to take Acre and then Jerusalem from the enemy and reclaim the holy land. Adam is determined to save his mother from purgatory by obtaining some soil from the holy land and sprinkling it on her grave. Circumstances bring the two boys together several times, and they find that they have more in common than they want to believe. They learn that family, and honour, are important to both of them.
Crusade is a wonderful tale, especially for those interested in that historical time period. It is filled with details regarding life in the camps, and is thoroughly enjoyable because of its unpredictability. There are several surprising turns of events, and, although the book doesn't end happily ever after, the conclusion is satisfying. There are several secondary characters, such as the nefarious pedlar, Jacques, the lovely scullery girl, Jenny, and Salim’s pretend brother Ismail, who contribute significantly to the story. The book is definitely most suited to an accomplished reader, however, due to the subject matter and vocabulary. ( )

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Elizabeth Laird’s Carnegie shortlisted novel, Crusade, is a rattling good tale. I would love to still have a class of ten and eleven year olds with whom I could share it. It would read aloud very well indeed. Set in the time of Richard the Lionheart and Saladin, it tells the story of two boys, Salim, born and brought up in Acre and Adam, dog boy on the estate of an English Lord called to follow his King to the Holy Lands on Crusade. Laird traces their lives over the three year period during which Acre is besieged before eventually falling to the crusading forces. Salim finds himself apprentice to a Jewish doctor forced to follow the Moslem army and thus in a position to see for himself the integrity and generosity of the Islamic leader. Adam tends his lords hunting dogs and eventually as the crusaders numbers are depleted by illness and lack of food, acts as squire to Sir Ivo, a knight who for once gives knights a good name.
Using these two boys and their experiences as her focal point, Laird explores the similarities and differences between the warring forces and in the course of her narrative questions the whole basis on which the conflict is being fought. And it is, as I said, a rattling good story. But, it is also a polemic. This feels to me as if it has been written deliberately to raise issues. The parallels with current situations are too obvious to be comfortable. It is a story told for a purpose rather than a story told because it had to be told. There is a self-consciousness about it which doesn’t belong in a first-class narrative. I suspect its place in the shortlist and will be disappointed if it wins.