Lester has taken on an immensely ambitious task, rewriting Shakespeare's tale and making a bridge to the play. A few of the bard's words are incorporated, and the basic plot is maintained, but this is primarily a literary venture. Reflecting modern sensibilities, Lester makes Othello black, enslaved by Moors, and shifts the story (it's not clear why) to England. Iago is also black, negating racism as a factor in his villainy. No longer is the title character burdened either by human flaws or falling sickness. With interpretive license and undue force, Lester makes his Othello a superman: he is apparently untraumatized by enslavement; speaks Arabic, Italian, English, etc.; he is a superb warrior; and having the wisdom of all humankind and a heart of gold, he is unable to recognize evil. Even murder springs from honor rather than the all-too-human flaw of jealousy. Unfortunately, enjoying this will be affected by one's reaction to or familiarity with domestic violence on both the minute and grand scales (the O.J. Simpson case, for example). To many readers, it will be troubling when Desdemona says, ``I want to greet each day with love burning as fiercely as the pain in the arrow-pierced heart of a deer,'' and is too foolish to see trouble brewing. She remains a traditional victim who ``asks for it'' and is just a means of exacting revenge for Lester's central characters, Othello and Iago. In spite of sensibilities over race and gender, this is a worthy effort for its exploration of the poison of jealousy, whether based on love or ambition. Lester revitalizes what for many would remain an unread text, through the all-too-fashionable concepts of notoriety and controversy, and the familiar old process of sedition. (Fiction. 10+)
Pub Date: April 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-590-41967-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1995
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
Energetic, clever, and absorbing.
Ada Lovelace and Mary Godwin—better known today as Mary Shelley—combine forces to create a living automaton: a real boy.
It’s the year “18—mumble mumble,” the timeline smooshed together into an imagined year when both girls are in their late teens. Ada, the abandoned daughter of famous poet Lord Byron, is a mathematical genius who creates delicate clockwork automatons. Mary’s the daughter of the late, famed early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. She’s half in love with poet Percy Shelley, her father’s mentee, and wonders if she’ll ever succeed at writing. The girls become friends when their fae godmother arrives through a hidden door in the back of Mary’s wardrobe to school them both on powers they may have inherited. Lo and behold, with Mary’s help, Ada’s automaton becomes a living—and lovely—boy named Pan. When villains want something from the girls, they take off, along with Pan and Mary’s two half sisters, on a romp through Europe. The trio of authors responsible for this entertaining smashup series get better with every book they write. Readers don’t have to know the characters’ real-life backstories to enjoy this story; for those who do, the parallels are intriguing. The novel effortlessly and entertainingly combines “Cinderella,” Frankenstein, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pinocchio, and Hamilton, and the ending reminds readers not to underestimate quiet women.
Energetic, clever, and absorbing. (Historical fantasy. 12-18)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-293007-1
Page Count: 496
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
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