Book Review: Sophia's War: A Tale of the Revolution, by Avi (Beach Lane Books, 2012)

Recommended for ages 9-14.  

The versatile Avi, who won a Newbery years back for his historical novel Crispin:  The Cross of Lead, pens a real historical thriller in his latest novel, Sophia's War, set during the American Revolution.  This is definitely my favorite Avi novel since The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.  Like that celebrated adventure/historical nove, Sophia's War features an indomitable young heroine, who thrusts herself in the center of political and military intrigue during one of the most famous betrayals in American history.

The novel opens in 1776 in loyalist-occupied New York City, the same setting for Laurie Halse Anderson's Seeds of America novels Chains, and Forge.   Twelve-year old Sophia Calderwood adores her older brother, William, who has enlisted in the revolutionary army.  Although she's a well-educated young woman who is well-versed in all the revolutionary rhetoric of the time, Sophia can't help herself when she becomes infatuated with the handsome and charming British officer, John Andre, who is billeted with her family.  But when her brother becomes a prisoner in the horrible prison ships off the coast of New York and Andre refuses to help, Sophia's feelings change, and soon she is eager to avenge her brother's fate.

When Sophia is approached by an acquaintance to spy for the revolutionaries by working as a maid at the British general's grand house, she discovers a nefarious plot--one which involves not only the handsome John Andre, but her hero, the acclaimed American officer Benedict Arnold.  Can she pass on what she knows to the revolutionary command, and will anyone believe her?

This is a tremendously exciting novel, one which I devoured in one sitting.  Told in the first person by Sophia, the novel is fast-paced, and action-packed.  While easy to read, the novel includes 18th century phrases scattered through the text, giving Sophia an authentic voice for the period without making the text too difficult for middle grade readers to read.  A few of the colorful phrases, such as "bosky," sent me to the glossary of 18th century words included in the backmatter.  Avi also includes an Author's Note, which explains that the characters of Sophia, her parents, and brother, are entirely fictitious, but the other figures who populate the novel are real enough and the stories of the American prisoners in New York and the handsome British officer John Andre are as historically accurate as he could write them.

Avi concludes his note with a passionate defense of historical fiction:  "History provides endlessly amazing stories.  Historical fiction, I believe, can illuminate these stories with the ordinary people who make extraordinary history...Truth may be stranger than fiction, but fiction makes truth a friend, not a stranger."

Thanks, Avi, for another terrific historical title for young people to add to your impressive canon of over 70 works.

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Book Review: The Time-Traveling Fashionista at the Palace of Marie Antoinette, by Bianca Turetsky (Poppy/Little Brown, 2012)

Recommended for ages 10 to 14.

In the second in her series about a fashion-obsessed middle-schooler who time travels by trying on vintage clothing, Bianca Turetsky turns to the court of Marie Antoinette, who was truly a fashionista before the word was coined.  Louise, our heroine, is once again invited to a vintage sale by the Traveling Fashionista, the same store she visited when she mysteriously time-travelled to the Titanic's maiden--and only--voyage.

Louise's father, an attorney, has recently lost her job, and now Louise can't go on her French class trip to Paris.  But no worries--Louise is about to have a much more exciting adventure than a class trip.  When Louise visits Marla and Glenda's mysterious vintage shop, which is located on a street that doesn't appear on any maps, she tries on a delicate blue satin ball gown, a genuine Rose Bertin.  Although the designer's name means nothing to Louise, Rose Bertin was dressmaker to Marie Antoinette, and as soon as Louise tries on the gown, she is magically transported to Versailles.  There she becomes Gabrielle, the Duchesse de Polignac, and the dear friend of a pretty blonde teenager that Louise soon figures out is the doomed Marie Antoinette.  Can Louise open Marie Antoinette's eyes to the suffering of the French people, and maybe save her life in the bargain?  And will she be able to get back to the 21st century in her magic dress?

I loved the premise of this book, since my #1 time-travel destination would be to the court of Marie Antoinette, but I could not help but be disappointed in many aspects of the execution.  Marie Antoinette was indeed the "Queen of Fashion" (see the excellent biography by historian Caroline Weber, Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette wore to the Revolution), and in that sense a trip to her court is a perfect match for this fashionista series.  But I was troubled how Turetsky plays fast and loose with historical timetables, which bothers me in historical fiction, particularly for kids, where they might not know the historical facts.  For example, although no date is given, Louise remarks that Marie Antoinette is not much older than she is, so we can assume it takes place around 1770 --the year she marries the heir to the French throne, Louise-Auguste.  Turetsky repeatedly refers to Marie Antoinette's husband as Louis XVI, although he didn't take on that title until the death of his grandfather, Louise XV, in 1774.  She also has Louise turn into the Duchesse de Polignac, a very close friend of Marie Antoinette, but one whom she didn't even meet until 1775.  Also, Marie Antoinette is depicted as being unpopular with the French people, a development that happened much later in her reign.  And when they visit Marie Antoinette's dressmaker, they come home with boxes full of clothes, which were all made to order in those days.  Perhaps some of these details are cleared up by the author in a "Historical References" section, which did not appear in my advance copy, but I think if the author wanted to include some of these characters and events that take place closer to the French Revolution, she ought to have set the story a bit later, to keep the historical timeline more accurate, even if that would have made Louise and Marie Antoinette not quite so close in age.

An element of the book that I very much admired are the abundant fashion illustrations, done by fashion illustrator Sandra Suy.  They will be in full-color in the final version, although I had to make do with black and white in my advance copy.  The style reminded me very much of the vintage Barbie illustrations from the late 1950's and early 1960's, and fit very well with the Rococo style of the 18th century clothes.

Despite my criticism of the historical misrepresentations in this book, I do think that tween girls will enjoy this time travel adventure.  For those tweens who want to learn more about the endlessly fascinating Marie Antoinette, I would recommend the recent book by Carolyn Meyer, The Bad Queen:  Rules and Instructions for Marie Antoinette, a perfect match for that age group.

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Book Review: The Queen's Lover: A Novel, by Francine Du Plessix Gray (Penguin, 2012)

For ages 14 and up


I have long been fascinated by Marie Antoinette and her family, an interest dating back to when I was around 12 years old.  I was therefore really looking forward to reading this new novel about Count Fersen, who was perhaps the secret love of Marie Antoinette's life and the architect of the failed escape plan to Varennes, after which the royal family was captured and imprisoned in Paris. However, I found this entire novel a huge disappointment.  The story is told in the first person by Fersen himself, as a sort of memoir, with other parts narrated by his sister when it was inconvenient to have Fersen himself narrate.  

The novel added little to my knowledge or understanding of these important historical figures.  Moreover, I didn't feel the author captured any real chemistry between Fersen and Marie Antoinette.  There are some very racy sex scenes with the two of them which frankly I found very distasteful--it gave me a feeling of being a voyeur at the scene which rather than being titillating seemed simply tacky. In addition, Fersen comes across as a very unpleasant person--it was hard to even empathize when he himself is beaten to death by an anti-royalist crowd in Sweden some years later. The book was clearly carefully researched, with the author using primary sources, but the way the author incorporated actual parts of letters written by Fersen and others made the book very awkward--was she trying to write a novel, a biography, or a history book? It seems like she couldn't decide, and it's a messy melange that doesn't work well. If you want to read about Marie Antoinette, check out instead Abundance, by Sena Jeter Naslund, a much better novel, or Queen of Fashion, an excellent nonfiction biography by historian Caroline Weber.

Marie Antoinette, by court painter Vigee-LeBrun

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Blog Tour/Book Review: In Darkness, by Nick Lake (Bloomsbury, 2012)

Recommended for ages 14 and up.


Release date:  January 17, 2012


Fourteen-year-old Shorty is in trouble--bad trouble.  One minute he's in the hospital recovering from a gunshot wound, and the next thing he knows, he's in the dark, buried alive in the rubble of the Haiti earthquake.  Shorty's grown up the slums of Haiti, in appalling conditions of incredible violence, gangs, drugs, poverty, and oppression.  But now he faces something even worse.

"In darkness, I count my blessings like Manman taught me.  One, I am alive.  Two:  There is no two."

To keep himself sane as he lies dying, Shorty relives his brief and troubled life, as he lies in a coffin of rubble, dreaming of water, surrounded by dead and stinking bodies, hearing people shouting for survivors, but unable to make himself heard.  He tells us about how he and his beautiful twin sister were delivered by Aristide himself, how his adored sister was taken from him by gangsters, how his father was brutally murdered in front of him.  His story is mixed up with that of politicians and well-meaning white relief workers who come to Haiti hoping to do good.  We see how a "good" kid who was bright and eager goes "bad," getting sucked into a cycle of violence by joining the gangsters who kill without mercy but also pass out food aid and pay school fees.

Lake merges into Shorty's story another tale of Haiti--one from long ago--the story of a slave named Toussaint l'Ouverture, who led the only successful slave rebellion in the 1790's--another tale of violence, brutality, carnage, revolutionary idealism, voodoo, and power.  As Shorty lies dying in the rubble, somehow his spirit mixes with Toussaint's and the two of them are connected on some mysterious spiritual level. Are they connected by the ancient stone that contains the spirits of the ancestors?  Will Toussaint's indomitable spirit help keep Shorty alive long enough to be rescued from the rubble?

This powerful and unforgettable story of both present-day and long-ago Haiti is a gripping story you will find hard to put down.  Not easy to read and digest because of the many violent and disturbing scenes, Lake nonetheless manages to jump back and forth with great ease between Shorty's first person account and the third-person story of the historical Toussaint L'Ouverture, peppering his narrative with creole words and phrases.  This is a stirring book that seems to capture the tragedy of Haiti.  I would recommend it equally to adults and to teens, and apparently in the UK the book is being published for both audiences.

The challenging nature of the subject represents quite a change of pace for British author Nick Lake, a children's book editor at Harper UK whose prior books were the Blood Ninja vampire trilogy aimed squarely at tweens.  Nick admits to a long-time fascination with Haiti that goes back to studying Creole at Oxford.  To learn more about Nick, check out this interview on Simon & Schuster's website and also the outstanding website for In Darkness, in which you can learn more about Haiti, Toussaint L'Ouverture, the Haitian earthquake, get suggestions for further reading, see a book trailer with an interview with Nick, find out how you can help in the ongoing recovery, and even more! A reading group guide is also available here.

I was surprised to discover how few books for young people have been published on Toussaint L'Ouverture, one of the most inspiring characters in the history of the New World.  Young readers might look for

• Open the Door to Liberty:  a biography of Toussaint L'Ouverture, by Anne Rockwell (Houghton Mifflin, 2009); or 
• Toussaint L'Ouverture:  The Fight for Haiti's Freedom, by Walter Dean Myers, with paintings by Harlem artist Jacob Lawrence (Simon & Schuster, 1996).  

There is also a well-reviewed documentary DVD available from PBS:  Egalite for All:  Toussaint L'Ouverture and the Haitian Revolution.  In fact, Toussaint's epic story seems made for a Hollywood movie; entertainment industry buzz indicates that famed African-American actor Danny Glover has been working for years on a biopic/historical epic about L'Ouverture, but no word on when that film will be coming to theatres.  However, a French two-part television film on the topic is due to air in 2012, but no word whether the film will come to American audiences.

On the subject of the 2010 earthquake, several picture books for younger children have been published, including Eight Days:  A Story of Haiti, by Edwidge Danticat (Orchard Books, 2010), in which another young boy is trapped in his house for eight days after the earthquake; and Hope for Haiti, by Jesse J. Watson, in which a young boy finds hope in a soccer ball after the devastation of the quake.  Several nonfiction books suitable for school and public libraries have been released on the topic as well, including:  The Earthquake in Haiti (Essential Events series) by Anne Lies (Abdo Publishing, 2010) and Earthquake in Haiti-Code Red, by Miriam Aronin (Bearport Publishing, 2010).

Nick Lake

Lake is currently on a book tour in the States to promote In Darkness; if you're going to ALA Midwinter in Dallas, he'll be speaking at the USBBY talk on January 20.

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