A baby goes missing. The mother is depressed. The husband is away. The grandmother is aloof and defensive. There is a previous bad relationship, domestic violence and abuse. First response from the police is that it is a custody battle gone wrong. It’s the first case assigned to Detective Sergeant Kate Miles, just back from maternity leave and struggling with the aftereffects of a traumatic incident that has left her with a shoulder injury. The more she investigates, the more she is convinced that the story is not as simple as it might appear.
Kate is under a lot of pressure. She wants to prove that she is up to the job, despite the obvious lack of confidence from her superior, competition from colleagues, the ongoing demands from her husband and young family, and on top of that, it seems that her father is going to be implicated in a political scandal. She is aware of the news media all to ready to pounce. It is this pressure that builds a lot of the tension, and then on top of everything, there are the vicious threats from the criminal Veliu.
Into the mix, McKenzie adds occasional chapters from another anonymous voice or voices, the inner thoughts of someone drawn to the baby in her bassinet. We don't know who it is - the thoughts of one of the characters we have met, or someone else. These pages add to the intrigue, the sense that there is another perspective to the mystery.
In Kate Miles, McKenzie has created a detective hero that many can empathise with – with her moments of stress, uncertainty and vulnerability. But Kate has learnt to trust her instincts, to take things slowly and calmly, and to work things out carefully. That is what wins her case in the end, the ability to empathise, reason and persist. This is the second book in the Detective Kate Miles crime fiction series by debut author Dinuka McKenzie, and it has the potential to be one of many more to come, a series that will be enjoyed by many followers of Australian rural crime drama.
Allen & Unwin, 2023. ISBN: 9781761180026. (Age:3+) Highly recommended.
I love picking up a new book and reading the publication page and the blurb learning about its background before I begin to read. I always feel excited reading about a book and being alerted to some of the things in the author and illustrator’s minds as they worked. To find a poem by Emily Dickinson quoted on the acknowledgement page and referenced as a main influence in this story piqued my interest and had me seeking out more of her poems.
The poem quoted, ‘Hope is the thing with feathers’, underlines that ever-present impetus deep in the soul, a hope that keeps us all going. A fitting introduction to a book which grew out of the 2019 bushfires when hope seemed lost. A young girl wanders through the book, as each line begins, ‘Hope is..’ then relates that hope to a bird or animal affected by the fires. So hope is a kookaburra singing to the sun, or an emu on the run, a song on a mound, a cockie with a mischievous beak, an albatross taking off, a curlew migrating south. Each page has one or two lines to read aloud and ponder, and children may like to make up their own ‘hope is …’ line to add to the book.
The illustrations are marvellously executed, drawing the eyes to the multitude of media used in the collages. Again a blurb on the publication page points out the way the illustrations were created, and I found it hard to resist taking another look to track each down. The birds pictured fly against a sweep of watercolour across each page, the images made up of old artwork, scripts of paper, pieces torn from books, images of leaves, along with gouache, acrylic and ink.
I had to find examples in the illustrations and like re-reading Emily Dickinson’s poems, this added another layer of interest to this positively glowing book.
To find hope where it seems all is lost is an underlying theme throughout the book, as the birds resume their natural routines after the fire has passed, watching the regeneration of the landscape, offering help to the child who watches them.
Urban Promise Prep is a school based on the vision of its founder and principal, Kenneth Moore, to create a place that lifts youth out of the ghettos and gangs, and instils discipline and hard work. It sounds great, and is the reason that many poor black families struggle to send their child there, but the reality turns out to be an authoritarian regimental approach that seems more likely to break the spirit and instil fear. So when Moore is shot in his office one day, suspicion turns to three young ‘troublemakers’ who were supposed to be in detention: J.B., Ramon, and Trey.
The themes of racism, profiling, police intimidation, ghettos and violence will be familiar to readers of Angie Thomas (The hate u give, On the come up) or Tiffany D Jackson (Grown), but the thing that makes Brooks’ novel so compelling is the unique structure which begins with short chapters by minor characters telling what they know or have heard, and the rumours and conjectures that are going the rounds, before we even get to meet the main characters. Then we have the three boys’ versions of the day, interspersed with other snippets including text messages, news articles and police reports. It all combines to cleverly bring to life the warped environment of social media, where speculation, gossip and prejudgment run rife.
Gradually the three boys begin to realise that there could be other possible suspects, and if they want to prove their innocence, they each have to follow their own leads and share what they know. So we are given more possible murderers and motives to untangle – which makes for an intriguing puzzle right until the end.
Promise boys is a murder mystery, detective type novel, with a thread of romance thrown in. The chapters are short and attention grabbing and keep you flying through the pages. The underlying themes are serious, revealing the barriers that Black and Latino youth face, and how difficult it is to overcome racism. But the messages are positive, with honesty, friendship and strong family ties being the qualities that get people through.
An interesting question we are left with afterwards is to consider what would truly make an empowering school, one that would build confidence as well as achievement. A foreword to the book is a quote from John Talyor Gatto’s Why schools don’t educate: ‘The truth is that schools don’t really teach anything except how to obey orders’. Clearly Moore’s Urban Promise school becomes more like a prison, based on the continual threat of further punishment. The model that is suggested at the end has student government, mental health advisors, full ESL staff, and a sensory or chill-out room. It also advocates for continual research on what works better. The school motto becomes one that has more emphasis on self-empowerment and collaboration:
We ask from the world what we give to the world: respect, wisdom and grace. We are each other’s hope.
Themes Murder, Racism, Black Americans, Profiling, Schools, Surveillance, Social media, Gangs, Poverty.
Helen Eddy
Emily Wilde's encyclopaedia of faeries by Heather Fawcett
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Fairies is a delightfully cosy fantasy novel by Canadian author Heather Fawcett. The story is set in an alternate early twentieth century where the fae live alongside the human population. Emily Wilde is an ambitious and hardworking adjunct professor of dryadology – the study of faeries – at Cambridge University. Emily is also prickly, awkward and hard to get along with, traits that sometimes make it difficult for a scholar who travels to far flung places all over the world for her research. We meet Emily as she arrives in Hrafnsvik, a remote village in the extreme north, where she is hoping to complete the research needed to finish the final chapter in her proposed faerie encyclopedia. Emily is determined that the publication of this lifetime of work will finally lead to the success and fame she needs to secure a tenured professorship.
Before long however, Emily has managed to accidentally insult the village chieftain and turn most of the population against her. She is not quite sure how to proceed until the unexpected – and unwelcome – arrival of Wendell Bambleby, her infuriatingly lazy, successful and charming rival from Cambridge. To Emily’s surprise, Wendell proposes that the two work together for mutual gain. She reluctantly agrees and braces herself to be hampered and outwitted at every turn as Wendell sets himself to charm the villagers and root out their faerie knowledge. What Emily does not realise however, is that Wendell has a secret and he has a reason for being in Hrafnsvik. But how much of that reason has to do with her? And can she admit that she is enjoying his company more than she expected?
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Fairies is the first in a planned series following Emily’s adventures among the fae. Although fairly predictable, this first instalment is a heart-warming and cosy read with a sprinkling of danger and romance to liven up the plot. A perfect cold weather read, it will make you want to snuggle up next to a fire, while rain and wind howl outside your window.
Fire Reads, 2022. ISBN: 9781728215198. (Age:15-18)
Lia Setiawan has just entered Draycott Academy on a scholarship and is desperate to live up to her family’s expectations to be successful on the running track and in class. However, corrupt teachers and toxic social media make life in the prestigious boarding school extremely difficult; bullying and racism are rife and a culture of drugs and cheating is firmly entrenched.
Billed as a mystery/thriller, The New Girl involves a series of over-the-top escapades narrated by the self-absorbed Lia as she makes a series of poor choices that propel her from one disaster to another including clashing with the reigning track queen, confiscating a dealer’s drugs, breaking into a teacher’s room, hiding in his car, exposing a cheating scandal, attempting to frame a rival classmate and accidentally killing a teacher. Entertaining rather than believable.
The plot does involve a number of serious social issues but they are allowed to go unchecked, rather than being addressed by students or staff. I found it farfetched that a school administration would allow social media to get so out of hand, and turn a blind eye to corrupt staff and cheating students, all problems that are central to the plot.
Lia and several of her peers are of Indonesian/Chinese descent and cultural references and snippets of conversations in Bahasa Indonesia and Mandarin add a layer of interest to the story, but the characters were somewhat typecast; mean girl, computer nerd, scholarship student, gorgeous boyfriend, incompetent police. As the narrator and a poor judge of character, Lia is unable to take the reader past these initial stereotypes and it is hard to feel for the privileged characters and difficult to believe the lavish situations that they get themselves into.
As a prequel to Sutanto’s The Obsession, this is an easy read with a farfetched but entertaining plot and characters you will love to hate.
Themes Racism, Bullying, Boarding school, Social media, Drugs.
Margaret Crohn
Two can play that game by Leanne Yong
Allen & Unwin, 2023. ISBN: 9781761063374. (Age:12-17) Highly recommended.
A novel for gamers, this story centres around a competition between two young gaming enthusiasts to win a ticket to an exclusive Art of Game Design workshop held in a major pop culture convention. For Sam Khoo it is the chance to learn from the experts and showcase her own game design, and maybe win a sponsorship. For Jay, it would be a present for his talented art and gaming enthusiast brother Ansen. The ticket is actually part of a special buy from GamesMasters, but Sam and Jay grabbed the kit at the same time, and so after some dispute, they decide to undertake a 5 game challenge, with the winner keeping the workshop ticket.
Leanne Yong is an escape room creator who has designed internationally recognised games, so has inside knowledge of the gaming world. Readers who are into computer games will enjoy the descriptions of the different gaming challenges that Sam and Jay take on. And readers who like some romance will enjoy the familiar enemies to friends trope.
The extra layer to Yong’s story is the portrayal of the whole Asian-Australian family dynamic, and the parental expectations of excellence and success. Sam and Jay are both from Chinese Malaysian families, where their every move is monitored and commented on, often leading to humorous scenarios. Similarly, the sibling rivalry in each family, between the good older child and the rebellious or more demanding younger one, is given a very realistic rendition.
But the thing that really carries the novel along, is the sparring dialogue between the two antagonistic teenagers, each master of the perfect come-back line. Their conversation and their text messages become another kind of combat, each trying to outsmart the other - which only makes it more poignant when moments of true friendship and kindness break through.
A thoroughly enjoyable novel about competition, individual passion, and family expectations, Yong’s novel about gamers shares some themes with Comer’s Grace notes about teenagers trying to follow their passions in the face of conflicting parental expectations. Both novels emphasize open and honest communication, because in the end families and friends do care about each other.
This story is brilliant! It is endearing and disquieting, and absolutely worth reading. In many ways it feels like a fantasy Dickensian drama (Oliver Twist-esque), in which a young girl named Duck, has been watched over by the Gargoyle in the unfinished and crumbling cathedral in the riverside town of Odierne. In fact, even when as an infant Duck fell from the cathedral walls into the river, the gargoyle watched powerlessly. Rescued and ‘adopted’ by the local gang of thieves (the Crowns) she lives in poverty and uncertainty, stealing and struggling to survive. When the Crowns’ leader, Gnat, plots to have her apprenticed to the local Baker, her life and concept of ‘family’ changes, but her thieving continues for the benefit of the Crowns. Trying to juggle her allegiance to her thieving family and her new employer creates many challenges for the young girl. Can she resolve where her loyalty should lie, or is it only about where the next meal comes from?
This book won me over immediately as it began with the unusual voice of the stone Gargoyle – the stolid and grumpy carved statue who can only watch and never act. His grumpiness is quaint and his view of the world before him gives unique setting detail and adds an intriguing voice to the tale of Duck (her name has been lost, so she keeps the nickname gifted to her by her thieving troupe). Most of the story is told in the voice of Duck (although the Gargoyle contributes occasionally), and we see inside the sadness of the homeless youngster, but we also see loyalty and friendship. Her time as an apprentice to the local baker, an almost blind and generous widow, gives her new opportunities for connection and practical skills, and the chance to keep her friends from starvation. This young girl changes from a fearful 6-year-old to a feisty and intelligent youngster and the transformation is not just about size and age. Letting down her ‘original family’ is not in her vocabulary, and hurting her new loving employer is also unappealing, but it is inevitable that she will not be able to keep all of them happy. I loved the journey back in time to a fictional place, but also into the heart of the homeless orphan. I will be recommending this book to confident readers aged 10 - 14. It is not hard to read, but neither is the story light-hearted – light-fingered, but not light-hearted. There is sadness and struggle, danger and gang-related crime, but it is infused with heart!
A welcome reissue of the wonderful series of stories about kids in the playground at ’little lunch’, recess time, will enthral a new generation of early readers. Each story in the easily held books concerns a group of kids in the same class: Manny, Attica, Rory, Melanie, Max and Elsa, Batty, Amba, Debra-Jo Woo and Tamara Noodle. Sometimes several of their parents appear as well, as in the first story, when Mrs Gonsha turns up with an inedible pavlova for her children’s birthday. The whole class is invited to attend under the tree near the oval, and when she goes off and they sample the pavlova, the problem then is how to get rid of it. But her children are the twins, Max and Elsa, so another Pav appears.
The second story involves the lost and found box, a receptacle for all things missing from the classrooms., while the third, 'The bubblers', has the children making up and telling jokes ranging from riddles to knock knock and word substitution jokes. Each will delight and amused and encourage readers to think about appropriateness of jokes and who to tell them to, as poor of Mrs Gomsha again becomes the recipient of a less than savoury joke. Disgusting jokes, head turns that end with losing your glasses and getting rid of an abominable pavlova, all happens in the fifteen minutes morning break.
Each story is about twelve pages long, liberally sprinkled with very funny illustrations, and the whole is ended off with a little lunch bag of puzzles and spot the difference pages, jokes and word finds.
Sure to please, especially as there are three more in the set, the Little lunch series was made into a TV series as well and is available on Youtube and Netflix.
Themes Recess, School, Humour, Jokes, Family.
Fran Knight
Nesting by Henry Cole
Katherine Tegen Books, 2022. ISBN: 9780063021709. (Age:3+) Highly recommended.
This beautiful book will stay with children long after they have finished reading, The simple story of robins pairing up, building a nest then raising four chicks will enthral. Each moment of their courtship, nest building then raising their chicks is a step along the way for the survival of their species, with glimpses of obstacles which may hinder their progress.
Henry Cole’s illustrations showcase the tree in which the nest is built, its forked branches providing a safe anchor for their efforts. They bring twigs and dry grass to make a nest suitable for the four eggs she will lay. Here is their home, made personal by Cole’s wonderful black and white pencil drawings. We see how the twigs and grass intertwine, we watch as four eggs appear in the bottom of the nest, kept warm by the female while the male flies off to get food for the chicks that later hatch,.
Children will be in awe of the near miss by an opportunistic snake and be relieved when the pair of robins scare it away. When the feathers grow our readers will have their hearts in their mouths as the chicks take their first flight out of the nest and onto the ground below.
Now it is autumn and the robins must feed up for the coming winter. They put on a layer of fat to keep them alive during the cold months and seek out other birds to spend their winter months with.
An incredible story of the survival of a species through the spring in which mating and reproduction takes place then the nurturing of the chicks in summer to be ready to take flight in autumn and feed up for winter will inform and delight younger readers. The American robin makes a small nest with twigs and grass which the female covers in mud to make it more secure. It is a haven for the family and lasts just for that season, the pairs building a new nest in the spring.
I love the illustrations, Cole seems to just sketch with his pencil, but it builds into something fantastic, each page showing a different aspect of the year, from trees newly flush with leaves, then with blossom, later the wind blows away the blossom and leaves, the apples appear, and the robins fly off to eat the autumn berries before finding the group to stay with in winter.
A former science teacher, Cole presents the world of nature with an eye to teaching, and I can see this book being well used in the classroom and at home where the family loves to watch what is going on outside their window.
See here for more information about Henry Cole and his work.
Readers will be thrilled to follow the adventures of Koffi and Ekon after the cliff-hanger ending of Beasts of prey. Koffi has been taken by Fedu, the god of death, to Thornkeep where he intends to try and use all her powers as a daraja. Here she learns about her inheritance and meets the other darajas, some of whom become her friends. Meanwhile Ekon is determined to rescue Koffi and joins a caravan of traders travelling towards the realm of death. Both will have their powers and loyalties tested and learn much about themselves.
The story is narrated in separate chapters, in three distinct voices, that of Koffi, Ekon and Binti, Koffi’s mother. Koffi gradually learns about her gifts and what she can do with them, while gathering a group of darajas around her, all determined to escape from Thornkeep, even though it means forcing their way through the dangerous Mistwood. (A fabulous map of Thornkeep is provides at the front of the book.) The reader is kept in suspense, holding their breath, as the allies face action and danger. Ekon has to face that he is no longer a member of the elite fighting group from the Temple, and his loyalty is torn when he has to face his brother. He finds friends in the caravan, but again his loyalty is tested and he must decide which path he will take. Binti’s story is perhaps the most harrowing and memorable as the reader learns about the discrimination that she and her mother faced, and the trials that led to her and her family working as indentured servants in the Zoo.
Thrills and suspense pervade the story as Koffi faces the undead in Mistwood and tries to hide her powers from Fedu. Ekon must evade the soldiers from the Temple and fight his way out of the city, while Binti’s gradual fall into the hellhole that is the Zoo is heartrending. In the author’s note Gray details the African origin of some of the mythical and fascinating beasts that feature in the story and which add so much to the interest of the narrative.
Beasts of ruin ends on a cliff-hanger that will have the reader waiting for the next in the series.
Themes Magic, Monsters, Travel, Hunting, Good and evil, Fantasy.
Pat Pledger
Berani by Michelle Kadarusman
Allen & Unwin, 2022. ISBN: 9781761068027. (Age:10 -14) Highly recommended.
This is a wonderful story of hope lost and found. Malia has grown up in Indonesia. Her father has died and her mother, a Canadian academic, is planning on taking 13-year-old Malia back to Toronto. The pain of leaving her home, friends and her grandmother is the sad back story to the decision she makes to stand up for the plight of Orangutans in her loved home of Indonesia. She begins the process to become an ‘activist’ to raise awareness of how Palm oil production is impacting rainforests and the homes of the orangutans. Unfortunately, the presentation that she gives at school creates unintended negative consequences for others. Ari, is a young teen from a rural area in Java, and has been given the opportunity for high school education in a bigger community in Malang where he stays with an uncle and his captive orangutan. Ari’s chance encounter with Malia while attending a chess competition at her much larger private school in Surabaya opens his eyes to the need to return the large primate to his natural world, and also to the dilemma of being given education while his female cousin, Suni, must remain in the rural village working on the rice paddies. Berani is the orangutan who needs rescuing before it is too late. Will the stories of Malia, Ari, Suni and Berani reveal that there is hope for them all, or will their lives end in a stalemate?
Written in the voices of Malia, Ari and even Berani, we discover the inner turmoils of each as they individually reflect on their life and the changes that they have to deal with. There is real beauty in this tale - a gentle insight into cross-cultural life in Indonesia, the value of education, and the plight of the vulnerable orangutans. Like the animal narrator in Katherine Applegate’s The one and only Ivan, the voice of Berani is naive and his language is simple and there is an appealing innocence to the young orangutan’s understanding of his past and present life. I absolutely loved this story and can highly recommend it for young readers with a passion for Indonesia or the environment, or even for those who want their eyes opened to the world. This book is charming and the setting has all the joy of a culture that is warm and endearing. Indonesian speakers will understand the title has another layer of meaning that is only revealed to English speakers at the end of the novel. Teacher's notes are available.
Themes Orangutans, Indonesia, Environmental activism, Grief, Bravery, Chess, Hope.
Carolyn Hull
Little lunch: The slide by Danny Katz and Mitch Vane
Another trio of short stories in this eminently collectable series of tales set in a school at recess time will delight early chapter readers. Katz’s perceptive look a the goings on in the playground during that most important fifteen minutes of escape from the classroom will have students laughing with glee as they recognise situations and people they have come across. And the funny take Katz puts on events will see a lot of sharing as kids want to read bits aloud, particularly words not normally come across in print. Vane’s accompanying equally hilarious illustrations give faces to the events, and in one case a very big bottom, that will make sure everyone is focused on what happens to that bottom.
The first story, The Slide, tells us that Mrs Gonsha has the most gigantic bum: one so large it looks like a bean bag filled with porridge. The description was enough to have me scream with laughter and the illustrations will further entreat readers. So what happens to this mammoth behind? Stuck in the playground slide. So a solution is needed, one that involves a banana skin. The very next story, not to be outdone in humour, has the children finding something absolutely gross in their sandpit. Finding it was horrid enough but having to dispose of it after some of them used it as a soccer ball, will ignite readers’ imaginations and invoke the problem solving skills of the glorious Mrs Gonsha.
And the third story, The principal’s office will sit well with many students for whom that place is a place not often frequented. But Rory is one of those students who has a place in the corner of this office with his name on it. Not only does he pick his nose and squirt water at the others, but he incurs the wrath of Mrs Gonsha which sees him spend the morning in the corner. Here he receives messages of support from the class when they are out at little lunch and he is not.
First published in 2003, this series is a very welcome reissue. The humour in the telling and the zaniness of the stories, captured by the wonderfully apt illustrations will engage a new audience, willing to see the very funny side of their time in the playground at little lunch.
This sequel to This is not the Jess show updates us on Jess’s escape from a ‘Truman’-style (1998 film) reality TV program in which she had grown up from childhood, deceived into believing it was her real life. Now she and her boyfriend Kipps are in hiding. As an 18 year-old, the show no longer has a legal hold on her, but Kipps is only 17 and his parents had signed a contract for him to stay.
The first chapters bring us up to speed on past events and characters, so the book could be read on its own, but it is no doubt really intended for the fans of the last book, hungry to know what happens next.
As events unfold and Jess becomes aware of the ruthlessness of the deception perpetrated by Like-Life Productions, and the unknown fate of other uncooperative participants, she makes the decision to step back into the show, determined to reveal the extent of producer Chrysalis’ unscrupulous control.
The book becomes a fast-paced thriller, with the kind of tense moments seen in this film genre: avoiding the surveillance of hidden cameras and microphones, uncertainty about who can be trusted, the pressure of downloading computer data as seconds tick away in a race against time.
This is not the real world is also a clever expose of the manipulation of viewers by reality TV productions where the goal is to create drama and hook in the viewers – in a similar vein to Sophie Gonzales recent book Never ever getting back together. Carey’s story, however, is much darker: the lives of Jess and Kipps are in danger. Like-Life Productions will stop at nothing to maintain their deception – even murder.
While the novel comes to a satisfying conclusion, some threads offer themselves to the possibility of another sequel. I’m sure readers would grab the chance to read more.
Pan Macmillan, 2023. ISBN: 9781529070514. (Age:Adult - Senior secondary) Recommended.
A stand-alone first published in 2001 and now republished with an attractive cover, The sleeping and the dead has stood the test of time. Detective Peter Porteous is called to Cranwell Lake where the body of a young man has been uncovered due to sinking waters in a drought. Porteous is a meticulous police officer who enjoys examining files and when sorting through records of missing persons, discovers that the murdered teenager is Michael Grey, a secretive boy who disappeared twenty years previously. Meanwhile Hannah Morton is shocked to hear of the discovery of his body. Michael had been her boyfriend and she had seen him on the night he disappeared and long suppressed memories come to the surface.
Cleeves brings together connections from the past and the present, to give the reader a suspenseful psychological thriller. There are numerous red herrings and suspects and the finale was surprising. As with her Vera and Shetland books, the characters are well drawn and The sleeping and the dead could well have been the first in a series. Porteous is quiet and methodical, making sure that the correct procedures are in place. Hannah Morton is a librarian in a prison and this setting adds colour to the story. Her home life coping with her divorce and rebellious teenage daughter Rosie are easy to relate to while Rosie’s experiences are vividly described.
Ann Cleeves is a CWA Gold Dagger award-winning writer, and her early work is very readable.
Themes Murder, Detectives.
Pat Pledger
Elizabeth of York: The last white rose by Alison Weir
Alison Weir has created a fascinating and riveting story of the English Royal families, beginning in 1470 and taking us through to 1503.p Weir begins her narrative in a time of rivalry and anger, a time when unwanted upstarts, according to certain other royal families, should be taken prisoner, even simply killed to prevent their taking over the throne of England. Outstandingly vivid, thoughtful, and richly developed as a narrative, this gripping novel plunges us into what life would have been like in these unsettled times.
Elizabeth was expecting to be Queen of England, but the death of her father does not lead into her claim of Queen, and rather she flees the capital, seeking sanctuary for a time, hiding in an unexpected place, and planning how to ensure that her reinstatement as Queen is done in a proper and royal manner. In fact, it is her uncle who plans to marry this claimant, but Elizabeth decides instead to marry Henry Tudor. Life does not settle down to any sense of normality, but Elizabeth acts wisely, seeking to rule as the rightful heir, but ensuring that her country returns to something like normal, run by a person of intelligence. Indeed, her marriage keeps her as the Queen in an unexpected way, with both her husband as King and she as Queen, ruling calmly and thoughtfully to make England a safe and good country.
This narrative is brilliantly constructed to enable readers to consider how the ‘royals’ could be fair and decent people, running the country in a considerate and thoughtful way, seeing themselves as people who are royals, thus exploring how such a political situation could be decent and considerate of all who lived in these times.
Themes Great Britain - Kings, queens and rulers, Great Britain - History -1485-1603, Tudor period, Queen Elizabeth.
