• A Brief History of Montmaray

    Overall Rating: ★ Rating:90 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:4.5★ Rating:90 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:4.5★ Rating:90 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:4.5★ Rating:90 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:4.5½ Rating:90 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:4.590%
    A Brief History of Montmaray
    Michelle Cooper
    Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2009
    Historical Fiction
    ISBN: 0375858644
    304 pages

    Synopsis

    “There’s a fine line between gossip and history, when one is talking about kings.”

    Sophie Fitzosborne lives in a crumbling castle in the tiny island kingdom of Montmaray with her eccentric and impoverished royal family. When she receives a journal for her sixteenth birthday, Sophie decides to chronicle day-to-day life on the island. But this is 1936, and the news that trickles in from the mainland reveals a world on the brink of war. The politics of Europe seem far away from their remote island—until two German officers land a boat on Montmaray. And then suddenly politics become very personal indeed.

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    Posted in 2009, Best Of, Classroom, Geography/Culture, Historical Fiction, History/Period, Reviews | No Comments »

    Tiger Moon

    Overall Rating: ★ Rating:94 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:4.7★ Rating:94 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:4.7★ Rating:94 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:4.7★ Rating:94 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:4.7½ Rating:94 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:4.794%
    Tiger Moon
    Antonia Michaelis
    Amulet Books, 2008
    Fantasy
    ISBN:081099481X
    464 pages
    Awards

    Synopsis

    Safia, a beautiful woman from the deserts of India, is traded as property by her father to a wealthy but evil merchant. Seeking to free herself from this plight, she befriends one of the palace servants, a eunuch named Lagan. During the nights where the two engage in conversation, Safia weaves a story of a young thief named Farhad. This young man, the unlikeliest of heroes, is called to rescue a princess from the Demon King, and in order to do so, he must go on a quest to find the Bloodstone. Farhad finds strange help along the way, especially when he rescues a white tiger and rides him across the desert to the palace. Eventually, the two stories begin to intertwine, and Lagan realizes that he must make a choice that may jeopardize his own safety.

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    Posted in 2008, Best Of, Classroom, Geography/Culture, Historical Fiction, History/Period, Ignite Imagination, Religious/Mythology, Reviews | No Comments »