A sparkling retelling of My Fair Lady set in an alternate 1830s London in which Princess Charlotte lives to become queen.
Helena Higgins and Penelope Pickering are top students at the Royal Academy of Culinaria Artisticus who dream of being culinary consultants for England’s moneyed elite. While Helena is known for her bossy nature and discerning palate, Penelope specializes in drawing on international flavors to create memorable dishes. While shopping at Covent Garden, they come across street peddler Elijah Little, whose “Faraway Pasties”—actually empanadas—leave Helena convinced that with some polish she can turn Elijah into a sought-after gentleman chef. Cohen strikes a compelling balance between paying homage to her source material and telling a new story about two outsiders trying to make their marks in a deeply prejudicial society. Penelope’s White English father and Filipina mother live abroad in order to protect their White-passing child’s prospects. Orphaned Elijah’s family fled to England from Bavaria to escape antisemitism. Cohen seamlessly weaves historical facts about England’s Jewish communities throughout her novel, and readers will connect to both Penelope’s and Elijah’s desires to remain true to themselves in a world that would prefer them to stay on the margins.
A compelling novel that showcases the diversity of 19th-century England. (recipe, historical note) (Historical fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Jan. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-304753-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
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BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES
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This debut novel evokes a classic to present a girl searching for something true.
Tori Spring is a disaffected teenager: She can almost never finish a film in one sitting, she's smart but can't care about school anymore, and she dislikes her friends but is unwilling to forgo their company. About the only thing she cares about is her brother Charlie, who's recovering from an eating disorder. When a mysterious blog called Solitaire starts triggering pranks at her school, Tori isn't too interested, even if strange new boy Michael Holden tries to make her be. Tori's too trapped in her head, too convinced the whole world sucks, to care about Michael's overtures of friendship or the arrival at her school of an old friend, Lucas. But when Solitaire's pranks cross lines and people start getting hurt, Tori will be forced to discover if the world has anything good in it. Like Holden Caulfield, Tori is looking for something that isn’t phony, but while the story more or less achieves its goal of evoking a modern-day, English The Catcher in the Rye, it’s still not very engaging. Only Michael and Charlie are likely to engage readers’ sympathies, while Tori's unpleasantness makes it hard to see why Michael and Lucas are so fixated on her.
Still, Oseman’s novel will be popular with those who worship Holden. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: March 30, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-233568-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2015
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES
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