A compelling story grounded in historical pain but weakened by its handling of racism.
This prequel to Flying With a Broken Wing (2013) and Cammie Takes Flight (2017) addresses a dark chapter in Nova Scotia history.
When 12-year-old Tulia May is not busy helping her hardworking laundress mother, she dreams about meeting the baby Dionne quintuplets. Tulia’s widowed mother works for the Ideal Maternity Home in rural East Chester in 1939. It’s a facility where unwed mothers can give birth in discreet secrecy—however, as Tulia and her friend Finny Paul begin to suspect, not everything is as it seems. The mystery becomes even more urgent when Becky, Tulia’s unmarried older sister, finds herself pregnant and resident in the home. It emerges that some babies are being starved and their bodies secretly disposed of while others are sold to wealthy families. Tulia naturally wonders what will become of Becky and her baby. The book does an admirable job of navigating the painful complexities of adoption, infant death, unplanned pregnancy, and women’s limited choices, all presented through Tulia’s young eyes. Most characters are White; First Nations character Finny is the target of verbal and physical racist assaults throughout. His portrayal unfortunately lacks depth, and his treatment is given inadequate context by the publisher’s opening note on language, with the result that his suffering feels voyeuristic and exploitative. While this work, based on real events, can stand on its own, the unresolved loose threads will leave readers wondering what happens next.
A compelling story grounded in historical pain but weakened by its handling of racism. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: April 30, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77108-934-0
Page Count: 232
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
A 13th-century princess wants to be a warrior; the old tale's less forced than usual when set in the Mongol Empire with its legends of fighting women. Emmajin is Khubilai Khan's (fictional) oldest granddaughter, and she would rather be a soldier than a wife. Emmajin struggles to convince the Khan, but her desire is complicated by a growing attraction to the hairy visiting foreigner, Marco Polo. Emmajin's stubborn drive brings both her and Marco to combat and the novel's highlight: a lusciously described brutal engagement of cavalry, archers and elephants. Unlike much of the rest of Emmajin's tale, the battle and its profound emotional aftermath don't suffer from dry overdescription. Otherwise, Emmajin writes as if alien in her own home: She serves "Mongolian cheese," notices her cousins' "distinctive Mongolian male haircut" and rides with a "traditional Mongolian wooden saddle." With such a narrator, it's unsurprising that she finds exotic Christendom compelling, but it is a disappointment. Gorgeous cover art packages this blandly informative adventure, which is spiced with just enough blood and sexual tension to keep readers turning the pages. (Historical fiction. 12-13)
Pub Date: Jan. 11, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-385-73923-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Thirteen-year-old Sarah’s new classmates at Glades Academy don’t welcome her—she’s there on scholarship, and her mother works in the school cafeteria. On a field trip to the Everglades, Sarah seizes the chance to get away by sneaking off on an airboat ride through the saw-grass marsh with the guide’s 15-year-old son, Andy, taking only her backpack, a camera and some mosquito spray. A stop at a remote fishing camp ends in disaster when the boat sinks, and they’re stranded, surrounded by alligators and snakes, with half a bottle of Gatorade and a can of SPAM. Andy knows what they’re up against, but Sarah refuses to believe that they must leave the tiny island to trudge the 10 miles back to land. Wildlife and vegetation are vividly described; Sarah’s fear is palpable in scenes of near-disaster, and readers will cheer when she and Andy make it safely out of the swamp after five days. However, the first-person narrative is uneven, marred by gaps that make it hard to fully visualize some situations, and there are too few transitions to support some rather sudden instances of closeness between Sarah and Andy. Rorby cleverly offers only subtle hints that Sarah is African-American and Andy is white until late in the story, adding depth to this survival story framed within the story of an outsider. (Adventure. 12-14)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7613-5685-1
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: Feb. 10, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2011
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