This WWII story, more personal than political, shows one French girl’s struggle with the Resistance and the sacrifices and decisions forced on her family. Fifteen-year-old Marianne’s father, a soldier killed early in the war, told her to protect her deaf younger brother Michel. However, Michel and Maman insist on risking the family’s safety to work with the Resistance. Marianne’s life centers on men, including two German officers (one an obvious and repulsive rape threat, another billeted at her house and falling for her) and a sick English soldier hiding in her woodshed. Marianne wants only to quit involvement in the Resistance and be safe; but where is safety during wartime? Graber’s portrayal of the war, while moving, remains circumscribed within this village; commitment to the Resistance is motivated individually rather than by a broader sense of the Third Reich’s goals and atrocities. Characters and plot are stock but competent. (prologue, epilogue) (Historical fiction. YA)
Pub Date: April 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-7614-5214-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The author of several “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and “Mary Kate and Ashley” titles converts Shakespeare’s play into a frothy tale of colluding lovers with more than revenge on their minds. The plot follows its Elizabethan model reasonably closely—except that Hamlet’s gotten further with Ophelia than even Polonius suspects, both Ophelia (who sees the dead king’s ghost even before Horatio does) and her brother Laertes are in the know about Hamlet’s feigned madness, and with Ophelia supplying the necessary potions, everyone’s death except that of Claudius (and Polonius, but see below) is faked. In an artificial mix of antique and modern language—“I prefer we talk not on your nation of frailty and women, sir. In fact, I warn thee—go not there”—Ophelia recounts machinations of her own in support of Hamlet’s as she struggles, meanwhile, to fend off the leering advances of Horatio, Claudius, the guard Bernardo, and even, latterly, Fortinbras. Except for the jocular grave digger, who turns out to be Ophelia’s true father, all of the men here are such creeps that even Hamlet just seems the best of a bad lot. Consequently, despite sending the joyfully reunited lovers off at the end to Verona to visit Hamlet’s school buddy Romeo, Fiedler hasn’t transformed Tragedy into Romance, but into a heavy-handed tract on the battle of the sexes. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-8050-7054-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2002
This complicated and absorbing narrative, set in ancient Athens about 350 b.c.e., is told in the first person by 14-year-old Phano. Her stepmother Nera, once a courtesan, is married to Stephanos her father, but Phrynion, who had Nera once, wants her again. This convoluted dance of desire and possession—and treachery, for Phrynion is an evil man—is seen through Phano’s eyes, even as she herself is married to a man she loves, Theo, and he rises in the Athenian hierarchy to be an archon and basileus, king of the nine archons. Basing her tale on an ancient fragment of a prosecutor’s speech before an Athenian jury, Galloway (Snake Dreamer, 1998, etc.) weaves myriad details into Phano’s story as skillfully as Phano spins wool. The daily activity, food, and drink of Athens, the precarious position of women, even those not slaves, and the political situation of the city with Philip of Macedon threatening it are all a part of the intricate design. Readers will be caught by Phano’s casual attitude toward slavery, as well as her growing understanding of how Nera has used her body and her wiles to keep Phano safe and well. The recounting of sacred Greek feasts and rituals, a key one of which, the anthesteria, holds a pivotal role for Phano as wife of the basileus, is fascinating. Richly rewarding. (Historical fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2002
ISBN: 0-385-72907-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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