Alek: The Children of Crow Cove

The Children of Crow Cove #4

by Bodil Bredsdorff, Elizabeth Kallick Dyssegaard (Translator)

A little boy called Doup once came to live in Crow Cove, a little community nestled by the sea. Now he's ready to go by his birth name, Alek, and discover his own place in the world. Alek's journey takes him to the fishing village of Last Harbor, where he lives with his bitter older brother, works at an inn―and rescues a beautiful girl from ship wreckers who have killed her family. Murder, romance, and the eternal cycle of life and death all play a role in the exciting conclusion to the acclaimed Children of Crow Cove series.

Genres: Fiction, Middle Grade, Juvenile, Young Adult

134 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Bodil Bredsdorff is a popular Danish children’s book author.

Reviews

[Linda Lipko]

Reading this series out of order did not detract from the story. The previous books The Crow Girl and Eidi received many honors including the ALA Notable Children's Book and A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year.

Well deserving of honors, the author paints lovely, soft, fairy-tale like images. Her writing is a delight and it is a joy to read words used in such poetic fashion.

Her lyrical style is soft and brought to mind the ability to shake a snow globe and watch the characters interact inside.

Alek is a young man living in a place called Crow Cove, where he resides with a small group of people living off the land ,tucked in by the churning sea.

When his older brother leaves, Alek longs for him and travels to stay in another small fishing community. Finding his brother sad and depressed, Alek vows to stay. Awakened one night by the sound of a shipwreck. Alek discovers murderers who lured the ship to shore to pillage and kill.

Rescuing a small girl, Alek's life and that of his brother change dramatically.

While the story line is quaint and simple, I was enthralled with the images and now will look for the previous books in the series.

This is a wonderful book to read on a cold, very windy, rainy, stormy day.

[Austin Phadoungsyavong]

I think something this story are like fantasy in map not match from real world map just make not really and some mystery because boy name Alek and nothing last name cause they nothing told to him when someone murder his family but he find something for his family by himself.

[Rachel Dorminy]

A good little chapter book. I picked this up out of a free bin at the library. She has a way with words; leaving a lot to the reader’s imagination and serving one liners with a punch. A lot like Kate DiCamillo but not as introspective.

[Lissa]

What a sweet boy, who was called Doup, turned out to be. His plans to keep his family together forever, are slowly realized as he matures. He finds new ways to show love to big brother, Ravnar, and makes a place for a shipwrecked girl, Thala.

[Karoline Kjærsgaard Andersen]

Jeg ville rate den to stjerner, men den får tre udelukkende pga. slutningen!

[Erin Reilly-Sanders]

Let’s start with the things I was missing: How old is Alek? At some times he seems young, maybe 5 or 6 and other times maybe a preteen at 12 or 13. What does he look like? Not that I especially care but we got some sketchy descriptions of a couple of the other characters? Who exactly are all these people? I had a lot of difficulty keeping people straight, especially since they have convoluted relationships (foster mother, half brother, neighbor, estranged brother, etc.). A diagram would have been especially useful, more so than a list of characters that’s a bit much for a short book. When (and maybe where) does this take place? I couldn’t figure out if this is fantasy, historical, or modern day reality in another country. Was the small horse a toy or a real horse? Eventually I figured this one out since it produced a skull but until then it totally could have been a furry toy horse with eyes that can somehow be all the colors at once. I even felt that the part of the book that describes the wrecking would have been confusing had I not read other books that were more descriptive. In general, I really struggled with the ambiguity of the book, especially since I couldn’t identify a reason for it. Is there a reason that Myna and Kotka are described as sweethearts that live together but aren’t married? There’s no reason that they have to be but this doesn’t really seem to be a book that’s intent upon deconstructing traditional ideas of marriage and sexual relationships.
On the other hand, there were some things that worked, especially the ending. I really liked that Ravnar isn’t able to deal with his issues all at once but instead his progress is gradual and not-yet-finished at the end of the book. I found the cultural information pretty interesting but didn’t know what if anything it applied to and was curious where Thala came from as well. The language was often short and choppy but didn’t seem to read too badly. The book may actually work better as a read aloud where the listener can be more focused on imagining all that is not explicitly described. One last concern is over the translation of the word “soup” from which Alek’s old name “Doup” comes from. In the original Danish this would have been “suppe” rather than “soup.”

[Tasha]

This final book in The Children of Crow Cove series has Doup as the main character. Doup came to Crow Cove as a child with the Crow-Girl. He has lived there all of his life but misses his older brother Ravnar who has moved away. Doup reclaims his birthname of Alek and heads off with his father to town to find Ravnar. They discover his empty home that is dirty and dank. Ravnar only appears when his boat is in harbor, otherwise he is out fishing for a living. Alek’s father leaves him with Ravnar and returns to Crow Cove. But one night, Alek witnesses a shipwreck on the beach where the sailors were tricked into beaching the boat. He then sees a man murdered and discovers a young girl hiding away from the beach. Alek takes the girl home with him, though she doesn’t speak his language. Young Alek has to figure out what happened and then what to do about it.

Read the rest of my review on my blog, Waking Brain Cells.

[Linnae]

Alek, who used to be a little boy named Doup, is now all grown up and wants to track down his older brother. So with his father, he makes the journey over to the harbor where his brother stays between sea voyages. While he's there, he manages to get a job and start to make some friends.

Then he witnesses a murder, as shipwreckers plunder a ship they've lured to the coast. On top of that, he saves a girl from the shipwreck and is now hiding her at his brother's house. His brother is bitter about life, but eventually starts to thaw--a little.

Justice is meted out, and the girl finds her own place as she returns with Alek to Crow Cove.

I wouldn't recommend reading this one out of order. Each character has a lot of backstory that plays into this final tale.

[Melody]

The Crow Cove series ends not with a bang but a soft sigh. The last two paragraphs are maybe the purest, most beautiful prose I've ever read. The rest of the book is a little flat, a little mysterious. Probably I would have liked it better had I re-read the first three before I tackled this one- and I certainly recommend that you do that. There are always transcendent moments in Bredsdorff's books. This is no exception. You will want to eat oranges as you read.

[Thia]

interesting series, survival danish style