The Liberation of Gabriel King

Author: K.L. Going
Recommended Age: 10 years +
Publisher: Penguin Group
ISBN-10: 039923991X
ISBN-13: 0399239915
Year Published: 2007
No. Pages: 151
Genre: Historical Fiction
Main Character Gender: Male
Read & Reviewed by: Jack



Frita Wilson once said, “Some people are just born chicken ain’t nothing gonna make them brave.”

Gabriel King, born chicken, has just graduated fourth grade, his one year of respite from school bullies, Duke Evans and Frankie Carmen. Gabe is not only worried about this but, he is fearful of everything. Now, he refuses to leave grade four and move up so he can avoid his tormentors.

Frita, Gabe’s best friend, decides that both she and Gabe need to make lists of their fears and they need to spend their summer overcoming each and every fear. Gabe’s list includes loose cows, spiders, Frita’s brother, but most of all, the fifth grade. Frita’s list is shorter, but since she is the only black girl in an all white school, hers will be the most challenging to overcome. Will Gabe and Frita overcome their fears and learn something about themselves in the process?

K.L. Going has written two of my favorite books, Fat Kid Rules the World and King of the Screw Ups. Both are witty, have a fun writing style and a young adult sarcastic tone. The Liberation of Gabriel King is a quiet novel with a hard hitting moral and historical message. I thought Going wrote in a young boy’s voice perfectly and although this seems intended for younger readers, it is not. The writing style had more of an impact on me because it was so different from her other novels.

Frita, one of the main characters, is discriminated against because she is African-American. I noticed that those who seemed to fear the unknown were the racists in the novel. I felt that this impacted me because this is something I truly care about. This novel taught me about some of the history of discrimination of African-American people and that both in the past and, today, it is not acceptable. I thought it showed that many people were racist then and, like those today, require education and open-mindedness.

Going weaves in historical facts like the election of Jimmy Carter, a peanut farmer from Georgia, who runs for president. Carter is not a main character in the novel, but he is definitely a factor in the novel, because he supports the Freedom Fighters who are a group of people that fight for freedom of blacks. This affects Frita’s family who are Freedom Fighters as well as Gabe’s family who support her family. The informational facts help the novel by bringing the characters closer to the reader and it helped me to understand history better.

I would definitely give this book a ten out of ten. I recommend this novel to everyone. It is an easy, quick read. The novel is fun to read yet, has a serious tone. This novel is definitely on my top ten list of books I’ve read this year.