"The Apple and the Arrow" (reviewed by Madison)

If you have ever wondered who William Tell is, then this is the book for you. It is called "The Apple and The Arrow", and was written by Mary and Conrad Buff. The story takes place in 1291. It is about William and Walter Tell and the becoming of Switzerland. There are a lot of characters in this book but the ones that were real are, William Tell, Walter Tell, Hedwig Tell, Rudi Tell, Marie, and Gessler.

The people of Uri who had a good king and the King was good to them. He left them alone except when it was time for them to pay taxes. But then the good King died and his son became the new king. The son was very different then his father. He was mean and wanted all of his people to realize that they were his people and that he ruled over them. So he made certain people become his governors. The new governor of Uri was named Gessler. He was a very cruel man and very evil. He treated the people of Uri very badly. The people wanted to become free again and get rid of Gessler. The men of Uri held meetings that plotted against the governor. These meetings were very dangerous, for if the were caught they would all be hanged. They plotted and soon all of the people of Uri, except Gessler and his men, knew that there was going to be a revolt against Gessler on the first day of the new year. But people started to find out about the revolt in other towns and so William and Walter Tell went to find out what all they knew. When they got there they were told to bow down to the governor's hat but William wouldn't do it. He said he would only bow down to the Lord God and the King. This made Gessler made so he arrested him and his son. But he then remembered that William was said to be the best bowman in the land, so he tied Walter to a tree and put an apple on his head. He told William that if he could hit the apple in half of the top of Walter's head he and Walter could go free. William didn't want to do it for he was afraid he would miss, but Walter had faith in his father. Walter said that he knew that William could hit it. All of the towns people who had gathered around to watch all knew William could do it too. So William shot the apple and it went right thought the apple and hit the tree. Gessler had said that they could go free but he was a cruel man and didn't keep his promise. So he arrested William but let Walter go free. Walter went back to Uri and told his Mother what had happened. Later on the night a neighbor boy came and said that his father had seen a small ship with Gessler and four of his men in it. But steering the ship was William Tell! Everyone was excited. The Tell's waited all night until finally William came home. He was cut and bleeding and was very tired. After he had some rest he told his story. " They were taking me to another island, but a storm came and everyone knew that I was the only one who could save them. So they cut my chains and let me steer the boat. I knew where I was going and brought the boat right up along the shore, jumped out and then pushed the boat out to the sea. I wasn't for sure if they had drowned but I couldn't take my chances. I ran through the woods and scraped myself up along the way. After about three hours I heard the sounds of horses and men. I didn't know who they were until I saw Gessler. I knew that this was my chance to get rid of him. I waited until he was right in front of me and then I shot my bow and arrow. It hit him in the heart and he fell to the ground. I ran before anyone ever knew what had happened. And then I ran all the way back here." After everyone had heard the story and asked questions, they went to bed.
There were still other governors that needed to be stopped. On the night of the revolt, the men went to the mountain top with some of the children. They prayed and then they lit their fires, but before they had a chance to do anything, someone started shouting, " Look! The Governor's castle is on Fire! We are free!!" So in the end, Uri turns into a free country of Switzerland and William ad Walter Tell turn out to be heroes.
To me, Walter was not a hero. He didn't do anything. His father, William, was a hero because he killed Gessler and was also one of the main leaders of the revolt. William did a lot to save his people and his town. Maybe Walter was a hero because he had faith in his father. Or maybe he was a hero because his father was a hero too. I guess that's for you to decide.
This story was more about William Tell than his son but the authors made the book look like Walter is the main character by placing him on the front page and focusing on him the entire first chapter. That is one thing that I would have done differently if I were the author.
I like the title of the book. I think the title, "The Apple and the Arrow", fits this story because Walter had to trust his dad and believe that he could really shoot the apple off his head. One of the things that I thought of when I read this was that we should all trust our fathers and believe in them.

I really liked the part in the story where Gessler captured William and so William had to shoot the arrow off of Walter's head. If I had written this book I would have made it longer. I think it needed more of the story with more details.
I would not have liked to live in the time that this story happened. It would have been very hard to get food. Not many people could read or write, either. I would not like it if we couldn't read or write, because life would be very boring. They also didn't have any electronics. They didn't have computers, cell phones or any kind of music players. This would have been very hard! Although, people who lived then would have never dreamed of these kinds of things, so they would never miss them.

This story was very interesting to read. I would recommend this book to people who like history and books set in the early middle ages.