Reception
The News & Observer's Elizabeth Ward listed Shiloh as one of the best children's books in 1991. She called the book a "heartstopping, but tough-as-steel story of a boy and an abused dog in the hardscrabble hill country of West Virginia". Author Timothy Morris deemed Shiloh to be the "most celebrated dog novel of the nineties". Michele Landsberg of Entertainment Weekly called Shiloh a "compelling read" and rated the novel an A. Equating Shiloh to classics like Charlotte's Web, author Laura Elliott praised the novel's "voice, suspense, and layer of themes".
After Shiloh received the Newbery Award, Jane Langton wrote in The New York Times Book Review: "Did Shiloh really deserve the prize? Surely there must have been a book more important than this agreeable but slight story." Langton opined that Shiloh was "a good book, not a great book" and that there must have been few worthy children's books that year. The Sacramento Bee's Judy Green disagreed, believing that Shiloh was "worthy of its award, which labels it the best fiction for children written last year". Green lauded Naylor for her "excellent portrayal of Marty's introspection and superb storytelling in the area's vernacular".
The Booklist's Ellen Mandel extolled the novel for its "moving and powerful look" at the virtues and vices of human nature and the murky moral choices in conflicts of everyday life. In her favorable review of Shiloh, Betsy Hearne of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books wrote that "readers will be absorbed by the suspenseful plot, which will leave them with some memorable characterizations as well as several intriguing ethical questions". K.B. Cartwright of The Reading Teacher also praised the novel for providing a "gripping account of family conflict and honesty". In a similarly positive review, Kirkus Reviews praised the book for being a "gripping account of a mountain boy's love for a dog he's hiding from its owner". Calling it "unusually warm and moving", Heather Vogel Frederick of The Christian Science Monitor praised the novel for being an "excellent choice as a family read-aloud".
Censors have objected to the profanity in Shiloh. Naylor received an angry letter from the parents of a 10-year-old boy, who were angered by the language in the book. The character Judd had sworn, "dammit". The author replied in an interview with The Virginian-Pilot that some people in the world "speak crudely" and "you can't put your child in a glass bubble and protect him always". Several West Virginian book reviewers have complained about the dialect in the novel, believing that West Virginians do not speak with a dialect. In one review, a newspaper writer said that when she read the book to her children, she chose not to read with the dialect.
Read more about this topic: Shiloh (novel)
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
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