Returning from Britain in 1832 to her family in Rhode Island, 13-year-old Charlotte tangles with a tyrannical sea captain and his mutinous crew. In the book's first half, Charlotte paints a painfully chilling self-portrait of a girl brainwashed by her father into acceptance of male, and class, authority. But after persistently acting as Captain Jaggery's spy—long after the reader knows he's a villain—and even betraying the well-justified mutiny that's brewing, Charlotte makes a heroic turnaround in response to Jaggery's brutal lashing of Zachariah, the ship's cook as well as the wisest person (and only black man) aboard. She wins the crew's forgiveness by climbing to the royal yard (as they've dared her to do) and becomes one of them—only to find that, after such a taste of independence, home is not the safe harbor she imagined. Plucky Charlotte, whose hard-won competence as a sailor is paralleled by her moral growth, survives enough surprising reversals and suspense to rival the adventures of Jim Hawkins. Tautly plotted, vividly narrated, carefully researched: a thrilling tale deepened by its sober look at attitudes that may have been more exaggerated in the past but that still persist.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1990
ISBN: 0380728850
Page Count: 244
Publisher: Orchard/Watts
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1990
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
A visceral, weighty read.
An unflinching portrayal of the complexities of one teenager’s journey through alcoholism and recovery.
Bella took her first drink when she was 11. Now she’s 15, and she and her friends have perfected the art of asking strangers outside liquor stores to buy them booze. It’s the best way to cope with her parents’ fighting, the grief and trauma of watching her beloved grandmother die, acting as a caregiver to her younger sister, and getting dumped by her first boyfriend, who said she was “too much.” A party a few weeks ago led to the drunken mess of a night known as Bella’s Extremely Unfortunate Public Downfall, after which her mom ruled: “no drinking, no parties.” But Bella’s parents are divorced, and when she’s staying with her permissive and inattentive dad, who’ll stop her? After Bella blacks out at a Thanksgiving party and her friends drop her on her mom’s stoop, she ends up hospitalized with alcohol poisoning and a broken face. Her mom sends her to an outdoorsy rehab center with a program focused on building self-awareness and self-reliance. Bella’s experiences with the program and her fellow residents are depicted with realistic nuance; nothing comes easily, and Glasgow carefully addresses relapses, anxiety disorder, self-harm, and death. After Bella’s treatment ends, she discovers that returning to her life may be the most significant challenge of all. Most characters are cued white.
A visceral, weighty read. (author’s note, resources) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9780525708087
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
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