Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer (published 1926) introduces the Duke of Avon as a cold-hearted and ruthless man, so why does he purchase the young urchin that runs into him in the road one day? Although he is known as “Satanas” to those around him, the young urchin quickly become the duke’s devoted page,
A cotillion is a formal dance in which couples change partners, like a quadrille. It can also mean a general ball, specifically one for a debutant as she enters society for the first time. So, a cotillion can also be a kind of a training dance as well, one in which young children practice together
In the Regency romance novel Arabella by Georgette Heyer (published 1949), our titular heroine, the young daughter of a humble reverend, gets a chance to bloom in city society, especially after a rumor spread that she is a wealthy heiress. Robert Beaumaris, a wealthy dandy that sets the city standard of chic, is amused when
The titular young lady in The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer (published 1950; reissued 2009, 2023 by Sourcebooks Casablanca) is a spunky female main character who effortlessly brings life to the dreary Rivenhall home. This is an ideal historical fiction Rom Com put into a book! Note: I read a lightly edited version reissued two
Candace Fleming’s The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets and Helped Win World War II (Scholastic Focus, 2024) is well worth the buzz that has been spreading about it. Although labeled a young adult nonfiction book, The Enigma Girls will interest anyone interested in the intellectual challenges to defeating Germany during World
What was Anne Frank like before she started her famous diary? How did she get along with her sister, her mother, and the changing world around her? When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary by Alice Hoffman (Scholastic, 2024) is intended to give us a glimpse into this real girl
The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly (published 1928) is an historical fiction novel featuring tradition, treasure, and alchemy in medieval Krakow. The Charnetski family has fled Ukraine after bandits robbed and burned their estate, and they arrive in Poland with nothing but a pumpkin in their cart. Joeseph, the young teenage son, is
The Apartment: A Century of Russian History by Alexandra Litvina (illustrated by Anna Desnitskaya; Harry Abrams, 2017) illustrates 100 years of Russian history through the lives of the changing residents in a Moscow apartment and the lives they lead. With the Muromstev family as a connecting link, the reader learns of the dozens of children
In Tod of the Fens (published 1928), author Elinor Whitney creates a story connecting a group of men living in the low-lying fens of Lancashire, England with the happenings in the neighboring medieval town of Boston (see information on Wikipedia about Boston, England). With a distinct Robin Hood feel, the novel’s men in the fens
The Boy Who Was by Grace Hallock (published 1928) is a uniquely organized story about the history of the Bay of Naples through the ages, each chapter using the same young goat boy (who has eternal life as a young man) as a key character. The prologue introduces the boy, named Nino, in the present
I’m a sucker for a good time travel story, so the third middle grade novel in the Mystwick School of Musicraft series, The Dark Refrain by Jessica Khoury (audiobook by Audible Originals, 2024), was definitely one I enjoyed. In this volume, Amelia Jones finds out that her grade is taking a one-month field trip to
In Newbery Honor book The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani (Kokila, 2018), the partition of India has a profound effect on the life of twelve-year-old Nisha, who is half-Muslim and half-Hindu and now must figure out where she is welcome. Along with her twin brother and her widower father, now Nisha finds she must leave their
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