Hauntingly beautiful.
During the Irish potato famine, an Irish teen falls for the English heir of the estate where she works as a servant.
It’s 1846, and 16-year-old Ellen “Nell” Quinn is beginning her new job as a scullery maid in her wealthy landlord’s kitchen in the village of Ballinkeel. Lord Wicken has brought John Browning, the nephew from London whom he’s named as his heir, to his estate in County Mayo. Nell, an avid reader, had to leave school and begin working, but through her love of poetry, she and Johnny, though separated by differences in social class, nevertheless start to fall in love. Although their area escaped damage the previous year, Nell’s dad is worried about the spreading potato blight, a creeping disaster that forms a menacing backdrop to the love story. The exceptionally well-drawn characters include Nell’s adorable 10-year-old brother, Owen, and her best friend, Rose, whose impending marriage to local boy Eamon leaves Nell worried about the impact on their friendship. Acclaimed author Crossan atmospherically renders the rural Irish setting of this emotionally resonant and powerfully written, page-turning verse novel. The descriptions of trauma from trying to survive unconscionable suffering are intensely sad and moving. Many scenes are suspenseful: The stakes of the couple’s relationship are high, and Johnny is desperate, given the financial constraints on women at the time, to provide for his five sisters back home.
Hauntingly beautiful. (author’s note) (Verse historical fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9780063384910
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
An enticing, turbulent, and satisfying final voyage.
Adrian, the youngest of the Montague siblings, sails into tumultuous waters in search of answers about himself, the sudden death of his mother, and her mysterious, cracked spyglass.
On the summer solstice less than a year ago, Caroline Montague fell off a cliff in Aberdeen into the sea. When the Scottish hostel where she was staying sends a box of her left-behind belongings to London, Adrian—an anxious, White nobleman on the cusp of joining Parliament—discovers one of his mother’s most treasured possessions, an antique spyglass. She acquired it when she was the sole survivor of a shipwreck many years earlier. His mother always carried that spyglass with her, but on the day of her death, she had left it behind in her room. Although he never knew its full significance, Adrian is haunted by new questions and is certain the spyglass will lead him to the truth. Once again, Lee crafts an absorbing adventure with dangerous stakes, dynamic character growth, sharp social and political commentary, and a storm of emotion. Inseparable from his external search for answers about his mother, Adrian seeks a solution for himself, an end to his struggle with mental illness—a journey handled with hopeful, gentle honesty that validates the experiences of both good and bad days. Characters from the first two books play significant secondary roles, and the resolution ties up their loose ends. Humorous antics provide a well-measured balance with the heavier themes.
An enticing, turbulent, and satisfying final voyage. (Historical fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-291601-3
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
Poignant and real, beautiful and intense, this story of a girl struggling to define herself is as powerful as Xiomara’s...
Poetry helps first-generation Dominican-American teen Xiomara Batista come into her own.
Fifteen-year old Xiomara (“See-oh-MAH-ruh,” as she constantly instructs teachers on the first day of school) is used to standing out: she’s tall with “a little too much body for a young girl.” Street harassed by both boys and grown men and just plain harassed by girls, she copes with her fists. In this novel in verse, Acevedo examines the toxicity of the “strong black woman” trope, highlighting the ways Xiomara’s seeming unbreakability doesn’t allow space for her humanity. The only place Xiomara feels like herself and heard is in her poetry—and later with her love interest, Aman (a Trinidadian immigrant who, refreshingly, is a couple inches shorter than her). At church and at home, she’s stifled by her intensely Catholic mother’s rules and fear of sexuality. Her present-but-absent father and even her brother, Twin (yes, her actual twin), are both emotionally unavailable. Though she finds support in a dedicated teacher, in Aman, and in a poetry club and spoken-word competition, it’s Xiomara herself who finally gathers the resources she needs to solve her problems. The happy ending is not a neat one, making it both realistic and satisfying. Themes as diverse as growing up first-generation American, Latinx culture, sizeism, music, burgeoning sexuality, and the power of the written and spoken word are all explored with nuance.
Poignant and real, beautiful and intense, this story of a girl struggling to define herself is as powerful as Xiomara’s name: “one who is ready for war.” (Verse fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-266280-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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