Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Book Review: Alchemy and Meggy Swann


TITLE: Alchemy and Meggy Swann
AUTHOR: Karen Cushman
PUBLISHED: 2010
CATEGORY: Childrens
GENRE: historical fiction, drama
PREMISE: Meggy is sent to London by her mother in order to get rid of her. But when she arrives in London, she finds out her father doesn't want her either. Now what?
MY REVIEW: I remember reading Catherine, Called Birdy when I was a kid and I'm pretty sure that was the first historical fiction book (aside from American Girl) that really clicked for me and is probably responsible for my interest in the genre today. So I picked this up, especially since I believe it's yet another book where Cushman is getting award buzz.
As usual, Cushman does a splendid job of taking into the era that the book is set in. I was able to picure all of this, and had no trouble understanding it, despite not knowing much about the Elizabethan era. Meggy is also a fun heroine. She's no nonsense, and scrappy and loved the in-denial puppy love between her and Roger (so cute).
But I can really only rec this for younger readers. Adults probably won't get much out of it unless you really enjoy Cushman's writing which is really good. So for younger to middle-grade readers looking to get into the historical fiction genre, I can't recomend this book and Cushman's other books enough. For everyone else...only pick it up if you're interested, otherwise you're probably not missing much.
WHO SHOULD READ: Cushman fans, historical fiction fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five gooses

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1 comment:

  1. I have this on my Kindle, not sure when I'll read it as I have hundreds of books to get through. Thanks for the review, it was really helpful! =^.^=

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