The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope

Genre: Historical Fiction, Youth
Length: 266 pages

Reviewed by: Willow Locksley

Elizabeth Marie Pope’s The Sherwood Ring is not, as the title may lead some to believe, a tale of Robin Hood, though elements of the story follow that theme. The story is set in America, and alternates between a modern day girl named Peggy and her Revolutionary War-time ancestors. Sent to her ancestral home of Rest-and-be-thankful to live with an uncle that is distant at best, Peggy is left alone in a house full of history’s secrets… and a few ghosts with a tale to tell.

My reaction upon finishing this book was to flip it over and start again. I liked it the first time, but really warmed to it the second. The riddles and ciphers that Pope uses to enliven the book’s plot are clever and make it a fun read. Peggy and the supporting characters of Enos (her uncle) and Pat (a student from England with an mysterious lineage) come across as somewhat two-dimensional in contrast to the lively personalities of the ghosts – three of which are young patriots chasing after the fourth: a rogue Redcoat with a tendency to lean on things and a knack for stratagem that wins him the respect of his wittiest opponents.

Pope defines her ghosts thus: “…these spirits do never show themselves except to young maidens who are sorely neglected by their own kin... Wherefore (it is said) the shades of their family are permitted by the merciful providence of God to do what they can to cheer them in their need…” Theses ghosts are not, as the book says, the kind that “rattle chains or flap about wailing in misty sheets”, and there are no cases of them being invoked by Peggy or anyone else. Instead Pope uses the ghosts of Peggy’s ancestors to show us how one generation effects the next, and how parallels between their lives and ours could undoubtedly be drawn if we, like Peggy, could spend an afternoon conversing with our forebears.

In closing, I’d like to say that this book has one of the best-written brother/sister relationships I’ve come across in a while. Refreshingly, Pope also reinforces something that has been all but outlawed in literature today: the idea that men and woman are equally formidable in their respective places. The dangerous procedures of war are left to Pope’s honorable men while the (anything but feeble) females unite as a backbone not only for their friends and families, but for a budding nation.