The Maiden's Court: November 2012

Friday, November 30, 2012

Movie Review: Sarah’s Key

Sarah’s Key
Hugo Productions
111 mins.
July 22, 2011
Rated: PG-13

Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay was a book that I devoured and the subject matter would not let me go. It was so passionate, emotional, intense, and heart-rending. When I saw that the movie was coming out in theatre I had a mixed reaction to seeing it – would it be one of those that is faithful to the book or something that spins its own yarn? And more importantly, would I like it? I didn’t see this in the theatre – because the only way I wanted to see it was at a little local indie theatre, but I didn’t make it there before they switched films – however I finally got around to requesting it from Netflix.

This movie, like the book, jumps back and forth between the historical events of the 1940’s and the present day. In my opinion the historical sections were the much more interesting and well done; this is where the action of the story takes place, the Vel’ d’Hiv round up. You could sincerely feel the fear and emotion of what was going on then. These scenes were beautiful to look at – in a sort of macabre way. The modern day scenes featuring Kristin Scott Thomas as Julia Jarmond were more reflective and about solving the mystery.

I thought that the “historical” characters were well acted while I found the modern characters to be more one-dimensional with less than believable emotions. I found that I did not really care about what happened to Julia because they did not fully develop her story as much as in the book. Here she was primarily a vehicle to find out the story of Sarah Starzynski, and her own personal ordeals were only touched upon in the briefest of ways. For someone who has read the book, the narrative of the film didn’t quite pull at the heart strings – it hit all of the main elements, however it lost some of the pathos. In order to love this story you need to really be invested in both the modern and historical characters – this film half-heartedly does this with the historical, but didn’t put much effort on the modern. I would have liked a little bit more from the historical tale – to visually see a little more of the harsh reality Sarah faced. While a terrible ordeal, I think it would have created a deeper sense of the characters future decisions and created more of a connection to the character – as done in the book.

As is common for me, I preferred the book to the movie – however if you had not read the book, and did not have any intention to, it was a decent rendition. I do think that you get more out of the film by having read the book as you can fill in some of the gaps.

You can read my review of the book here.

Check out this trailer:

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Book Review: Daughters of the Witching Hill by Mary Sharratt

Daughters of the Witching Hill by Mary Sharratt
Hardcover, 352 pages
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
April 7, 2012
★★★★☆

Genre: Historical fiction

Source: Received from the author for review

“Daughters of the Witching Hill brings history to life in a vivid and wrenching account of a family sustained by love as they try to survive the hysteria of a witch-hunt.

Bess Southerns, an impoverished widow living in Pendle Forest, is haunted by visions and gains a reputation as a cunning woman. Drawing on the Catholic folk magic of her youth, Bess heals the sick and foretells the future. As she ages, she instructs her granddaughter, Alizon, in her craft, as well as her best friend, who ultimately turns to dark magic.

When a peddler suffers a stroke after exchanging harsh words with Alizon, a local magistrate, eager to make his name as a witch finder, plays neighbors and family members against one another until suspicion and paranoia reach frenzied heights.

Sharratt interweaves well-researched historical details of the 1612 Pendle witch-hunt with a beautifully imagined story of strong women, family, and betrayal. Daughters of the Witching Hill is a powerful novel of intrigue and revelation.”

Going in to reading Daughters of the Witching Hill I had never before heard of the Pendle Witches. I of course had heard of, and read widely, about the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, and had read some about various witch trials in England, but this particular group was unknown to me. Mary Sharratt does a fabulous job of initiating a novice into the basics of who these Pendle Witches were and what brought about their downfall.

While I found the story of the Pendle Witches to be not nearly as dramatic as those that surround the Salem Witches, I discovered that there seems to be a set of characteristics that typify these witch hunts/trials: they tend to be poor women from the outside of town, usually based on some type of grudge, and more often than not their spells and potions were types of religious prayers and homeopathic cures. One thing I always find interesting is how easily a town will turn on people they had traditionally went to for a cure when their horse was lame or their child was deathly ill. These were people that they obviously trusted and had developed a history as a person who could cure ills - however when bad news comes knocking at your door, the innate nature of self-preservation kicks in.

The first half of Sharratt’s book focuses on developing the characters of her witches and I surprisingly found them easy to make connections with. The second half deals with the unraveling of their life as accusations of witchcraft and their sham trials spiral out of control. This was a very fast read for me – read it in one day – and while it is not a high action novel – the drama of the daily life of these women pulls you in. There was one thing that I did not like about the novel – and I won’t go into much specifics because it might give the ending away – however I think the book would have been overall more enjoyable for me if the last chapter was omitted. It felt very out-of-sync with the rest of the novel and a little contrived. The information it contained would have possibly been better included into the afterward or an epilogue rather than as the last actual chapter.

If you would like to preview the story before reading it, why not try out this excerpt of the book?

You can also watch the book trailer below.

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | RJ Julia

Also by Mary Sharratt:

Illuminations
[My Review]

The Vanishing Point

The Real Minerva

The Dark Lady’s Mask

Summit Avenue

Find Mary Sharratt: Website | Facebook | Twitter

Monday, November 26, 2012

Author Interview with Susanna Fraser & Giveaway!!

I am excited to welcome historical romance author, Susanna Fraser, here to The Maiden's Court today - please help me to welcome her! Although I don't typically read a lot of historical romance but her newest novel, An Infamous Marriage, sounds very interesting. Stay tuned after the interview for a giveaway.

Northumberland, 1815

At long last, Britain is at peace, and General Jack Armstrong is coming home to the wife he barely knows. Wed for mutual convenience, their union unconsummated, the couple has exchanged only cold, dutiful letters. With no more wars to fight, Jack is ready to attempt a peace treaty of his own.

Elizabeth Armstrong is on the warpath. She never expected fidelity from the husband she knew for only a week, but his scandalous exploits have made her the object of pity for years. Now that he's back, she has no intention of sharing her bed with him—or providing him with an heir—unless he can earn her forgiveness. No matter what feelings he ignites within her…

Jack is not expecting a spirited, confident woman in place of the meek girl he left behind. As his desire intensifies, he wants much more than a marriage in name only. But winning his wife's love may be the greatest battle he's faced yet.

I noticed from your website that you like to write about the period revolving around the Napoleonic Wars. What is it about this period that captures your attention?

Much of it is the incredible amount of upheaval that took place between 1789 and 1815. I imagine what it would’ve been like to be born in France or Britain in the 1760’s or 70’s, into a relatively stable world. Then, just as you’re coming of age or establishing yourself as an adult, what you’d always thought of as the natural order of the world explodes in a chaotic reinvention, and stays unstable and almost constantly at war for a good quarter century. I’m drawn to writing characters negotiating their lives and loves in the midst of that shifting world.

Was writing something that you always aspired to do or was it something that snuck up on you? Why did you choose to write historical romance as opposed to another genre?

I dreamed of being an author from the time I wrote a long story for a fourth grade class assignment. But all through middle school and high school I fell into a pattern of starting stories but never finishing them, and by my early 20’s I’d concluded I wasn’t really meant to be a writer, or I wouldn’t keep stopping 50 pages in.

Then, right around my 30th birthday, I had an idea for a story that I couldn’t get out of my head. Eventually I started writing it just to get the characters to shut up, thinking I’d get three chapters in and stop just like every other time. A little over a year later I had my first completed manuscript, and I haven’t looked back.

As for why historical romance, it’s one of the main genres I read--the others being mystery, fantasy, science fiction, and adventurous historical fiction (think Sharpe and Aubrey/Maturin). I write the kind of books I like to read. So far that’s meant historical romance, but I could definitely see myself branching out into fantasy or historical fiction in the future. (Mystery NSM--I rarely figure out whodunnit before all is revealed, so I’m not sure I could produce a sufficiently twisty plot.)

When you set out to write a novel where do you start - with a historical storyline or event that intrigued you or with a romantic storyline that you want to pursue and the historical part just will fall into place?

Somewhere in between. I’ve done enough general research on the era to have a rich mental stock of interesting facts and events, and I’m always thinking about character types and story tropes I’d like to explore. So my initial brainstorming process is putting my character/trope file next to my history file and figuring out which combinations would work well together. For example, An Infamous Marriage was marriage-of-convenience/infidelity-and-forgiveness/Waterloo.

How has the experience of writing your newest novel, An Infamous Marriage, differed from your previous novels? Anything that has become easier to do or something that you encountered with this subject that was difficult?

An Infamous Marriage was the first time I’ve sold a book on proposal rather than as a complete manuscript. That made it the first time I had to commit to and deliver by a deadline, all without deviating too much from the synopsis my publisher had accepted. The feeling of triumph I got from delivering it to my editor on schedule was almost as great as the first time I finished a manuscript.

Are you working on anything currently and if so, can you tell us anything about it?

My first novella will be coming out in 2013. Its title and release date remain TBD, but it’s an interracial romance set in the aftermath of the Battle of Vittoria in 1813, with a black British soldier for a hero. I’m working on a proposal for a full-length sequel to the novella, and I’m planning to try my hand at a Christmas novella as well.

When you are not writing, what do you enjoy doing with your free time?

I like to cook, read, and go to Mariners games. I never miss a new episode of Castle or Chopped, and lately I’ve been catching up on Doctor Who. When I had more spare time I used to sing alto in a choir, and I’d like to get back to that someday. For now I just try to find a sing-along Messiah or two every December.

I look forward to replying to your comments, but it’ll be late in the evening in most North American time zones before I get a chance. I have a full-time 8-5 day job and don’t get much time online till the evening.

Susanna Fraser wrote her first novel in fourth grade. It starred a family of talking horses who ruled a magical land. In high school she started, but never finished, a succession of tales of girls who were just like her, only with long, naturally curly and often unusually colored hair, who, perhaps because of the hair, had much greater success with boys than she ever did.

Along the way she read her hometown library’s entire collection of Regency romance, fell in love with the works of Jane Austen, and discovered in Patrick O’Brian’s and Bernard Cornwell’s novels another side of the opening decades of the 19th century. When she started to write again as an adult, she knew exactly where she wanted to set her books. Her writing has come a long way from her youthful efforts, but she still tends to give her heroines great hair.

Susanna lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and daughter. When not writing or reading, she goes to baseball games, watches Chopped, Castle, and The Legend of Korra, and cooks her way through an ever-growing cookbook collection.

You can find Susanna on her: Website, Facebook, Blog, and Twitter
______________________________________________________________

Now for the giveaway - there are 2 parts to this.

Hosted here, on The Maiden's Court, there is a giveaway for 1 E-book copy of An Infamous Marriage by Susanna Fraser (you can indicate the file type you want). Open Internationally. The giveaway ends December 16th. You can enter to win by filling out the Rafflecopter below - please be advised, there is one mandatory entry - leave a comment on this blog post!

Also - there is a *grand prize* giveaway following the completion of Susanna Fraser's blog tour. One commenter selected from all commenters throughout the tour will be selected for the grand prize - a $50 gift certificate to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Powell's Books (see why the note about commenting above is so important). You get one entry per blog tour stop that you comment on. You can follow along with the blog tour at Susanna Fraser's blog.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Upcoming HF Blog Hop!!

This is just a quick post to say keep your eyes open for the 1st Annual Historical Holiday Blog Swap - which yours truly is participating in!

It will run from December 10th to December 17th and is being hosted by Passages to the Past. You will be able to enter to win historical related prizes at the various participating blogs as well as be entered for grand prize giveaways (right now consisting of a $25 gift card to Amazon or Barnes & Noble as well as some book prize packages). My giveaway will be open to the USA and Canada - not sure what the prize will be yet - working on that! You can check out the other blogs participating (or sign up your blog yourself) here.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Movie Review: The Conspirator

The Conspirator
The American Film Company
122 mins.
April 15, 2011
Rated: PG-13

The Conspirator tells the story of the trials of those believed to be involved in the conspiracy to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln, focusing particularly on the trial of Mary Surratt. I found her story to be very interesting as the case presented against her was almost entirely circumstantial while the cases of the others involved were sounder. Her trial actually made me quite angry from the perspective of a student of criminal justice because so many rules were violated in her case. We also follow Frederick Aiken, who turned out to be a member of Surratt’s defense team. One of the things that I found interesting after reviewing The American Film Company’s website is that there is not a lot of information known about Aiken. One thing I would have wished for more of would be the actual plot and carrying out of the assassination and capture of John Wilkes Booth. It only occupied about the first 10 minutes of the film and left me wanting for more. Otherwise, the plot and pacing of the story were fairly well done.

For the most part, I thought that this film was very well cast. There were several marquee names and others B list names that I recognized, among them: James McAvoy (as Frederick Aiken), Robin Wright (as Mary Surratt), Evan Rachel Wood (as Anna Surratt), Justin Long (as Nicholas Baker), Alexis Bledel (as Sarah Weston), Norman Reedus (as Lewis Payne) and Jonathan Groff (as Louis Weichmann). I thought that Robin Wright was very impressive as Mary Surratt – the right amount of strength and fear. On the other hand, I thought that Justin Long looked very out of place in the time period. He has a very distinctive look and he looked like a modern day man dressed in the costume of the 1860’s. It immediately didn’t work for me.

The setting and costumes were beautifully rendered. You got a very sound feel for the period and the upheaval caused by Lincoln’s assassination.

I am quite impressed with this early outing by The American Film Company and look forward to the other films they have in the pipeline. You can read more about this film at the AFC website.

Check out this trailer:

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Mailbox Monday #126

Welcome to Monday…on Tuesday! Hope you all have a short week this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Anyone going Black Friday shopping? For the first time in a few years I am not – having second Thanksgiving with my parents (going to my boyfriend’s parents on Thursday). We are in charge of Thanksgiving dinner this year – somehow I think we will do ok.

Anyway – received two books this week.

For review from the author (review at some point in January) – The Journey by David Heldt. This is the second book in the series that begins with The Mine (also to be reviewed in January). These are both in Ebook version.

I also received a copy of At Drake’s Command by David Wesley Hill (also on Ebook) from the publisher. This one sounds like it might be more to my boyfriend’s liking so I passed the book on to him (since he got the Kindle Fire for an early Christmas gift) and will likely guest review the book her on the blog.

That’s all for me! How did you fare this week? Any big Thanksgiving plans?

Mailbox Monday is on a monthly blog tour and for the month of November it is being hosted by Bermuda Onion’s Weblog.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Book Review: The Gilded Lily by Deborah Swift & GIVEAWAY

The Gilded Lily by Deborah Swift

Paperback, 480 pages

St. Martin’s Griffin

November 27, 2012

★★★★ ½☆

Genre: Historical fiction

Source: Received from publisher for review as part of Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tour

“A spellbinding historical novel of beauty and greed and surprising redemption.

England, 1660. Ella Appleby believes she is destined for better things than slaving as a housemaid and dodging the blows of her drunken father. When her employer dies suddenly, she seizes her chance--taking his valuables and fleeing the countryside with her sister for the golden prospects of London. But London may not be the promised land she expects. Work is hard to find, until Ella takes up with a dashing and dubious gentleman with ties to the London underworld. Meanwhile, her old employer's twin brother is in hot pursuit of the sisters.

Set in a London of atmospheric coffee houses, gilded mansions, and shady pawnshops hidden from rich men's view, Deborah Swift's The Gilded Lily is a dazzling novel of historical adventure.”

Knowing that the author had previously released The Lady’s Slipper, and knowing that it was a companion piece to The Gilded Lily, I tried to find the opportunity to read it first, however due to time constraints that just did not happen. I had concerns that I would feel like I was missing something. I am happy to say that is not the case at all – however at times I made note that I would probably have had a more well-rounded reading experience had I read The Lady’s Slipper first.

Swift’s strongest skill is her ability to create a living, breathing world in which to place her characters. The pages just oozed 17th century London and the reader is instantly transported into the same dark alleys and hard-times that the characters are enduring. I especially enjoyed the fairs on the frozen Thames River. My previous reading experience with this time period has always been within and around the royal court and its entourage and the world Swift creates is almost as far as you can get in the other extreme. We experience poverty, sickness, hunger, freezing temperatures, etc among other travails the characters need to endure. We get the opportunity to peek into several professions of commoners – perruquiers (wig makers), shop attendants, maids, and pawn brokers – not necessarily common places for novel heroines to frequent.

Regarding one of the biggest did-she-or-didn’t-she moments in this novel, we are kept in the dark from about page 4 up until almost the end of the novel. While this would usually be something that frustrates me, the pace of this novel was so rapid that you didn’t even notice that you were suddenly 300 pages in and at that point almost done with the book. The book was narrated intermittently by three different characters and this was executed very well. You were never confused as to who was telling the story or what their unique perspective was.

A quick word about the cover (the US version) – for once I think that the cover artist may have actually read something of the novel because as I read the description of an outfit Ella was wearing I immediately turned over the cover – and there it was! Great job!

I can say that The Gilded Lily has been among my favorite reads this year and will likely end up within my top 10 reads. I anxiously await the time to be able to read The Lady’s Slipper.

You can read a sample of the novel here.

You can also watch a book trailer below:

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | RJ Julia

Also by Deborah Swift:

The Lady’s Slipper

A Divided Inheritance
[My Review]

Pleasing Mr. Pepys
[My Review]

Shadow on the Highway (Highway Trilogy #1)
[My Review]

Spirit of the Highway (Highway Trilogy #2)
[My Review]

Lady of the Highway (Highway Trilogy #3)

Find Deborah Swift: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Blog

Follow the Tour!

Today was the kick-off day for the Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tour for The Gilded Lily. You can follow the rest of the tour either at the HFVBT site or on Twitter with the following hashtag: #GildedLilyVirtualTour.

Giveaway!

I also have the opportunity to offer 1 copy of The Gilded Lily to a lucky entrant. Giveaway is open internationally. The last day to enter the giveaway is December 1st. Complete the Rafflecopter below to be entered to win. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Winner of The Lincoln Conspiracy

Happy Sunday everyone. As is typical for a Sunday – I have a giveaway winner to announce.

The winner of The Lincoln Conspiracy by Timothy L. O’Brien is….Maureen C!!!

Congratulations!!! The winner has already received an email requesting mailing information and will then be passed on to the publisher. If the winner does not respond within 5 days a new winner will be selected.

If you did not win this giveaway – why not check out the other stops on the blog tour and enter giveaways there. Here is the rest of the tour schedule.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Weekend Cooking: War Cake

So some of you will have noticed that I have been re-reading/reading for the first time some of the Dear America diaries. Since I have been listening to them on audio book I didn’t remember that there were all kinds of extra historical content at the back of the books. Usually I peruse the Scholastic website to find the historical recipes that they have for certain books, but they didn’t cover the book I was looking for, My Secret War by Mary Pope Osborne (they primarily are only featuring the books that have been re-released since 2011). So I went over to Amazon and with their Look Inside feature I was able to access all the back pages with the historical content and found a recipe for War Cake.

As My Secret War is set on the home-front of the United States during World War II one of the aspects that is featured in the book is rationing. War Cake is a recipe that took into account the rations that were in place at the time. War Cakes came in many varieties. This version uses less sugar (because apparently sugarcane could be converted into gunpowder somehow) and also doesn’t use eggs or milk. I have heard from a co-worker whose wife makes a War Cake for her history class that her recipe uses bacon grease because that was something that was save due to rations on butter and oil.

War Cake
Makes 1 Cake

Ingredients:
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup water
1 cup raisins
2 Tbsp. butter/margarine
1Tbsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ground cloves
1 ½ cups flour
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour an 8”x4” (loaf pan).
2) Place brown sugar, water, raisins, margarine, cinnamon, and cloves in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and cook gently for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool until mixture is lukewarm.
3) Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
4) Add flour mixture to the cooled sugar mixture, beating until the batter is smooth. Stir in the walnuts.
5) Spread evenly in the baking pan and bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto the rack to cool completely.

Recipe from My Secret War by Mary Pope Osborn, pg 178.

I have to say that my boyfriend was NOT interested in me making this cake. He certainly didn’t want to eat anything that had less or none of the ingredients that make a cake the “way it should be”. So initially I gave in to make boxed Halloween Fun-Fetti cake, except guess what, we had no eggs! So War Cake it was (which because of the rationing didn’t require eggs!)

Also, apparently I read the recipe wrong and used an 8”x8” baking pan, so they came out more like bars than bread but came out good none the less. Use a little less time (about 15-20 minutes) if you use the square baking pan.

I was pleasantly surprised by this cake. I don’t typically like raisins or walnuts in deserts but it really make the cake. It had a spice cake flavor which was nice. I topped the cake with a thin layer of cream cheese frosting which enhanced the flavor. My boyfriend even liked it. He said that he wouldn’t ask for it for his birthday but would eat it if it was made. So I guess that is a decent endorsement considering how against the cake he was. An interesting experiment in wartime rationing (I would never have eaten the bacon grease one I described earlier, and I sent this War Cake recipe home with my co-worker for his wife!).

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and any post remotely related to cooking can partake!

Thursday, November 15, 2012

The WPA and a Little Local History

In the novel Cascade by Maryanne O’Hara there is a lot of discussion about the WPA – Works Project (or Progress) Administration. Several characters in the book variously discuss trying to find jobs as artists in this relief program set up during the Great Depression. Artists were hired to create murals, depict local histories, or simply to beautify local areas. They also employed many laborers to construct various building projects. According to Wikipedia “almost every community in the United States had a new park, bridge or school constructed by the agency, which especially benefited rural and western areas”. These little tidbits brought to mind something I remember my librarian at my middle school telling me – there is a beautiful set of murals in the old middle school library (where I used to attend) that depict the life and time of the American spy during the revolution, Nathan Hale. He was a local hero in our town because he had lived in East Haddam and taught school there prior to the Revolution. I remember her mentioning that these murals were created as a part of the WPA. So now about ten years after that early discussion off I went to find out more about these murals.

The first problem was that I didn’t know the artist’s name, so it made it difficult to Google anything. Secondly, the school was closed about 3-4 years ago when a new school was built, so no one is in there currently that I could contact to get me some information. However, with a little digging, I did find a photo online with the artist’s name, W. Langdon Kihn. He is known for his works about Native Americans and many of his paintings are on display in art galleries. He also lived in my hometown for many years. Below it was something a little more interesting, FERA Project 1935. Now, the next logical question was what is FERA, because I thought this was a WPA project.

Apparently FERA, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, was a precursor to the WPA. It existed from 1933-1935. Like the WPA, they too employed unskilled workers in local and state government jobs as well as employing artists. So my librarian either had the wrong program, or more likely I remembered it incorrectly, but my local school’s murals were created because of these programs.

Below are some of the images that I have found of the murals from various sources (please be advised that none of these pictures are my own). There is currently an effort to try to save these murals because as the building stands empty with no plans in the works for its usage, these important local artworks are being exposed to a non-climate controlled environment. Apparently they are reporting it will cost more than $20,000 to take down the canvasses properly, or $8,000 to do high resolution digital photos of the works to then print on canvas to keep in the historical society. I really hope that they can save these murals because they have always had a place in my heart and are an important piece of local history. If you are interested, you can read more about the local effort to save the murals and how to donate to the cause.

Isn’t it amazing what a book can make you learn about a related topic?

Birthplace of Nathan Hale, Coventry, CT
Photo Credits: Kevin Hotary for the Reminder News

General Scenes from the Life of Nathan Hale
Photo Credits: Kevin Hotary for the Reminder News

The Nathan Hale School House – a local landmark
Photo Credits: Kevin Hotary for the Reminder News

The Capture of Nathan Hale by British Troops
Photo Credits: Kevin Hotary for the Reminder News

Nathan Hale being Led to Execution for Spying
Photo Credits: Kevin Hotary for the Reminder News

Plaque with Artist’s Name: W. Landon Kihn, FERA Project, 1935
Photo Credits: David Winakor

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Audiobook Review: My Secret War (Dear America) by Mary Pope Osborne

My Secret War: The World War II Diary of Madeline Beck,
Long Island New York, 1941 by Mary Pope Osborne
Dear America series
Unabridged, 3 hr. 15 min.
Scholastic
Barbara Rosenblat (Narrator)
April 1, 2008
★★★★☆

Genre: Historical Fiction, Young Adult

Source: Downloaded audio from my local library

“In a diary that brings to life the dramatic happenings on the home front during World War II, Madeline Beck is living in a boardinghouse with her mother while her father is on an aircraft carrier guarding the Pacific Coast. After discovering that a German U-boat has landed near her home - a little-known, true incident on Long Island - she and her classmates form "Kids Fight for Freedom" and participate in the home front war effort.”

This is another diary in the Dear America series this time focusing on the home-front effort during World War II. I haven’t read very much set during WWII, but what I have has primarily been set abroad. Not only was it new and interesting to see how the home-front reacted to the war, but also to see it from a child/teenager perspective was novel. We see many of the typical things such as book, blood, scrap and can drives, but I really liked how Madeline founded the “Kids Fight for Freedom” club. I’m sure that there were many such clubs like this where even the kids were doing what they could to ensure that their fathers/brothers/relatives would come home.

The main character’s father is in the military so we see what it is like to have a family member serving overseas. The letters that they send and receive are so precious to them and are a lifeline throughout the war. Madeline and her crush get caught up in the secret German U-boat landing. While this is a real event, it almost felt fantastical the way it was portrayed. The events surrounding the landing felt like right out of a spy/action novel rather than what you would necessarily expect from a Dear America novel.

This was a different take on the typical war story. There is sadness and dark times, but also times where the characters pull together to help each other through and forge deep ties with other community members. Even as an adult, I learned a lot about the way of life in a small town during this time period.

★★★★★

The narrator of this book was FABULOUS! I always say that when listening to a diary, the narrator has to be very convincing and truly evoke the character that they are voicing. You need to be able to believe that you are hearing the inner musings of the diary’s author – be in their brain perhaps. The narrator had the right mix of emotion, excitement, and sadness as were appropriate.

If you are looking for activities to enhance your reading experience with your children, check out this discussion guide/lesson plan from Scholastic.

This book is currently out of print, but you can find it from used sellers or try your local library. Scholastic is currently working on re-releasing many of the books in the Dear America series as well as releasing new books in this series. More when it becomes available.

Reviews of this book by other bloggers: