CASSANDRA’S SISTER

Bennett portrays Jane Austen—Jenny to her family—at 19, writing stories and sharing all her thoughts, hopes and dreams with her cherished older sister Cassandra. She probably assigns far too modern conversation to the sisters, but that wouldn’t matter so much if it weren’t for occasionally clunky prose and a jerky narrative. A prologue set in Paris, 1794, starts the story in an odd place as it sees an Austen relative to his death by guillotine. Bennett puts too much work into making the manuscripts of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice reflect Jane’s life and feelings. Still, the narrative gives a sense of the life of a spirited young Englishwoman in the early 19th-century, and with the appearance of two movies about Jane Austen in the works, some teens may be seduced. They would be better off just to head straight to the original. (Historical fiction. 12-14)