![]() Good has won every fairy-tale contest with Evil for centuries, but a dark sorcerer’s scheme to turn the tables comes to fruition in this ponderous closer.īroadening conflict swirls around frenemies Agatha and Sophie as the latter joins rejuvenated School Master Rafal, who has dispatched an army of villains from Capt. At the heart of this story lies a tale of young love interrupted by the realities of war and life’s complications.Ī textured historical romance that is far more than the sum of its parts. The experiences of Margot’s older brother, Stephen, show the lasting impact of the war on someone who survived many months in the trenches. The novel’s strong pacing alternates between wartime and its aftermath, vividly capturing postwar life with its continuing food shortages and the devastating loss of life both in combat and to the influenza pandemic. Since learning he was alive, Margot hasn’t found a way to tell him about James and has avoided communicating with Harry altogether. Harry, who had been a prisoner of war, will also be returning for the holidays. She’ll get to see 2-year-old James, who is being raised as her brother. Now it’s 1919, and Margot is returning from her secretarial course in the big city of Durham to her North Yorkshire village to celebrate the first Christmas since the war ended. He was sent to the front and went missing one month later, just as then-16-year-old Margot Allen, the pretty blond, blue-eyed vicar’s daughter he was sweet on, learned she was pregnant and was packed off to a home for girls in her condition. In 1916, Harry Singer, a carefree, floppy-haired boy of 19, entered the war effort. Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.Ī complicated romance unfolds in the wake of World War I. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish). This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. Gradually-too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic-it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. The pitch-perfect voice and everyday bravery of this middle school survivor are not to be missed.Ĭhainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.Įvery four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. This is a strong work about finding your people, learning to apologize, and the rewards of self-respect. With the self-deprecation of a tormented tween, Hugo expresses what he learns about friendship, honesty, and the bitter pill of revenge, for which Hugo and his friends who work on the school newsletter must pay serious consequences. Sumner perfectly captures the fickle nature of middle school social status and the gnawing pain of betrayal. The story’s rich settings are vividly described: the sweaty smell of locker rooms, sparkling ski slopes, and chaotic cafeterias. But Hugo’s powers of perception have gained him notoriety for studying the contents of garbage cans, a fascinating subject called Garbology. Observant and smart, his watchful eye keeps him away from most trouble, except when class bully Chance Sullivan is involved. (The O’Connells are Irish Catholic Vij’s mom, Hugo’s Aunt Soniah, is cued as Indian.) Hugo has been called every diminutive name in the book. ![]() Luckily, his cousin Vijay O’Connell will show him around. Hugo is an only child who has been bullied his whole life because he is small will his passion for Garbology protect him at his new school?Įleven-year-old Hugo O’Connell has just moved to the mountains, closer to the Colorado ski resorts where his dad works long hours.
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