3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Always a pleasure, August 16, 2008
Ms Forsyth never fails to produce an amazing piece of work. I've been an avid reader of her books for years now, and have had the pleasure of conversing with her via email a number of times.
The Gypsy Crown is an easy, spellbinding read, which carries the reader on a journey along with Emilia and Luka, two gypsy children and their various pets on their quest to recover five magical charms in order to rescue their imprisoned family in Cromwell's England.
My only problem with this book is that it would have made a fantastic series with a book dedicated to finding each of the charms instead of all in one book. As with all Ms Forsyth's work, this read was over all too quickly and has left me waiting impatiently for her next novel :)
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fantastic tale from the past, November 13, 2008
Published as 6 books in Australia this is the fantastic story of Emilia and Luka - cousins in a gypsy tribe. When all bar the two children are arrested and sentenced to death in jail, Emilia becomes determined to bring the gypsies good luck by collecting the gypsy charms passed down by a common grandmother years before. Along with a bear, a dog and a monkey the children race against time to collect the charms, at great cost to themselves and get back to their family to save them.
I like the pace of this book because Kate keeps the story moving instead of becoming too bogged down in details. She writes enough to give the reader a clear picture of the characters and the story and I love the way that she subtly weaved in historical figures such as Cromwell and his rule. In the Australian books historical facts about the characters were included which made the books all the better to read.
A worthwhile read for young and old - once you start reading, you have to read to the end.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Delighted to discover this book and this author, November 6, 2008
Why haven't more people been talking about this book? I loved it.
Set in 1658 England, The Gypsy Crown is a fast-paced and poignant adventure story of two young Rom (gypsy) cousins trying desperately to figure out how to get their family out of jail, where they've been tossed for the crime of singing in public, and are awaiting execution. This is during the reign of Oliver Cromwell, a name that buzzed up from some deep well of my forgotten education -- perhaps your English history isn't buried as deeply as mine, but in case it is: Cromwell was a soldier who rose through the ranks and ended up becoming a regicidal dictator during a short period called the Commonwealth, when King Charles I was executed and his heir exiled.
In the book, it's portrayed as a time of staunch Protestant values -- enforced joylessness and rigidity fraught with the fear of spies and snitches, land confiscations, finger-pointing and betrayals. The gypsies are persecuted terribly, and here I think Forsyth has struck a good balance in depicting the brutality of history in a way middle-graders can digest. Violent and at times heart-breaking, the persecution is toned down but not made light of. Young Emilia and her cousin Luka are already victims when the story starts, and throughout they are hunted by a hard, cruel "crow" of a pastor and a heartless "thief-taker," and shown no mercy, though they are only children.
When their family is imprisoned, only Emilia and Luka escape -- with their dog, monkey, Arabian mare, and 600-lb. dancing bear -- and go on a journey to find their farflung kin to a) enlist their help, and b) retrieve the five gypsy charms that once hung from the same bracelet and were split apart, bringing an end to gypsy luck. As the charms are united, Emilia finds her nascent gifts as a drabardi (fortune-teller) are sharpening -- or is it, as Luka insists, merely luck? The children are forced to make heart-wrenching choices again and again, parting with the things dearest to them in the desperate effort to save everyone they love. And you really can feel, throughout, that the consequences if they fail would be dire. The book is filled with people who have lost their families and way of life, who live in fear. And yet there is levity and humor to relieve the sadness -- the animal characters are delightful, and will have kids begging for a monkey. The Rom way of life, their free spirit, their proverbs, are fascinating. Throw in a mysterious spy for the exiled prince, some colorful gypsy families, a glimpse of 17th Century London as well as the surrounding countryside, and you've got a great story.
My favorite kind of story: fast-paced, makes the page disappear as you fall right into the flow of events, and all the while, painlessly (not just painlessly, but enjoyably), you're learning stuff. Neat. Truly, there are many parallels to be made to the Cromwell era with its rigid, enforced morality and repression and intolerance, to things happening around the world today, summed up neatly by these words: ". . . we have our own way of doing things, but these pastors. . . they can't abide anyone not thinking or believing the same way they do." Yeah.
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