On the eve of the American Revolution, as war approaches, Sarah Revere's father, Paul, is often away from home as he rides from town to town warning the militias about British troop movements and deployment in the region. Close family friend Dr. Joseph Warren watches over the large Revere household, but Sarah suspects that his interest in her attractive stepmother, Rachel, is more than friendly. She confronts him, but Dr. Warren is so hurt and angered by Sarah's suspicions that a rift is created. When the doctor goes into battle Sarah realizes that she may have misjudged him and cries out for forgiveness, never certain that he granted it. After determining that her actions were just a cover for her own unseemly feelings for him, Sarah is devastated by what she has done, and even more devastated by news of the doctor's death in battle. As usual, Rinaldi (Finishing Becca, 1994, etc.) has done her homework; the book is solidly researched and extremely well written. Readers will not soon forget these characters, whose actions and passions illuminate and enliven a historical era about which they may have heard much, but understood little. Vivid in the best sense of the word. (Fiction. 12+)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-15-200393-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1995
An unwieldy but emotionally intense fantasy.
In the Riew siblings’ debut, inspired by their Korean grandparents’ experiences during Japan’s early-20th-century colonization of Korea, a hunt is on for the last surviving tiger.
In the Tiger Colonies, this fantasy world’s version of occupied Korea, tigers have been nearly wiped out by the Dragon Empire. These oppressive rulers believe that tiger ki, or powers, strengthen the Tiger people, and therefore, the animals must be exterminated. Lee Seung, who’s from a poor Tiger family, works for the wealthy Chois, a Tiger family who collaborate with the Dragons. Choi Eunji might live in material comfort, but her home feels like “a cage” thanks to her parents’ high expectations and control of her every move. She offers to tutor Seung for the Adachi Training Academy’s entrance exam; graduates attain elite, powerful positions. In return he’ll help Eunji experience life outside her cloistered manor. Despite their class differences, both teens long for freedom, but Seung fails the exam, and their paths diverge. They reunite during a frantic search for the last tiger—but are their motivations aligned? Some plot developments feel contrived, and the introduction of real historical elements at times feels deliberately educational rather than naturally emerging from the story. Nevertheless, the story vividly highlights the plight of Koreans during a traumatic era.
An unwieldy but emotionally intense fantasy. (authors’ note, diary excerpts) (Fantasy. 12-18)Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9798217002047
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Kokila
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
Another soaring success.
Wein returns with another emotional flight through World War II, this time in Scotland.
Three young people’s lives intersect in a remote Scottish village, their bond cemented by the unexpected receipt of the first Enigma machine to reach Allied hands. Characters who appear here from earlier volumes include: volunteer Ellen McEwen, respected by others who don’t know she’s a Traveller; flight leader Jamie Beaufort-Stuart, alive but with a flight log of dead friends; and 15-year-old biracial Jamaican English orphan Louisa Adair, employed (by phone, without disclosing her skin color) to care for an elderly but fierce German woman. All of them are bound by a sense of helplessness and a desire to make a difference; Wein shines at exploring the tension between the horrors of war and its unexpected pleasures, many thanks to friendships that could only exist during a time of upheaval. In many ways a small story about big things—fitting in a novel thematically focused on the ways individuals matter—this is historical fiction at its finest, casting a light on history (with some minor liberties, noted in the extensive backmatter) as well as raising questions still relevant today, particularly around class and race, nationality and belonging; unexpected connections across those gulfs lead to moments of love and heartbreak for readers and characters alike.
Another soaring success. (author’s note, resources) (Historical fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-368-01258-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion/LBYR
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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