Isabel: Taking Wing (Girls of Many Lands - England) [Paperback]

Annie Dalton (Author), Mark Elliott (Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8-Isabel, 12, lives under the rule of her strict Aunt Elinor. Dreaming of freedom and adventure, she sneaks across the Thames to see a play at the Rose Theatre, but is discovered and sent to live with her Aunt de Vere. On the journey to her aunt's country estate, Isabel is robbed and left alone in the forest. Disguised as a boy, she not only finds protection in a traveling actors' troupe, but she performs a few roles as well. Safely delivered to Aunt de Vere's door, she is impressed by the educated woman who teaches her the power of healing herbs and the innate strength of her gender. When she receives a letter from her sister imploring her to return home to care for their younger sibling, who may have the plague, Isabel takes charge, heals Hope, and proves that girls can think for themselves and make their own choices. Isabel is an intelligent, thoughtful child who feels indignation, fear, resolve, sadness, love, and joy. The short chapters told in first person move along at a fast pace. A final note comparing English life then and now is included. Share this book with readers who enjoyed Karen Cushman's The Midwife's Apprentice (Clarion, 1995) and Susan Cooper's King of Shadows (McElderry, 1999).
Shawn Brommer, South Central Library System, Madison, WI
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gr. 3-7. Twelve-year-old Isabel Campion chafes at the restrictions placed on girls living in her late-sixteenth-century London neighborhood. After she sneaks away to see a play at the Rose Theater and is caught coming home late, her father decides to send her to live with a widowed aunt. Aunt de Vere, a knowledgeable herbalist, proves an unexpected ally, and the skills and maturity that Isabel learns during her stay prove to be both useful and appreciated by the Campion family. Dalton's strength is her attention to setting details; she vividly describes clothing, family life for the wealthy merchant class, the burgeoning theater industry, and the squalor of lower-class life in inner-city London that contributed to the spread of diseases like the plague. Appended notes about life in England then and now add depth to this offering from the Girls of Many Lands series, which makes a good choice for readers curious about everyday life long ago. Kay Weisman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Paperback: 178 pages
• Publisher: Pleasant Company Publications; First Printing edition (September 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584855177
• ISBN-13: 978-1584855170
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #478,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Summary of Isabel Taking Wing, January 6, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Isabel: Taking Wing (Girls of Many Lands - England) (Paperback)

This book provides for the reader a very accurate and correct description of England in the year 1592 while still providing and interesting read for a variety of age groups. Let's look at this book from the point in which you might want to read it and the different points of view of different people.

If you wanted to read this book for information on the culture of England during the year 1592 there are several specific details which may be of special interest to you. First of all, the whole book, especially in the Then and Now part, have accurate descriptions of the clothing that was worn by women and girls in this time period. You learn about the different layers of their clothing and how clothes were used as a symbol of wealth and priveleage. You also learn of the accesorie called a pomander, which was important as it was supposed to ward off dieases such as plague. You also learn a bit about the hierarchy of birds and plays in that time. There are also hints about a women's place in society at the time.

If your purpose in reading this book was to learn about plauge, you also have several important details. In the book, especially at the end, you can find the symptoms of plauge. These may not be written out and palced in a list so to speak, but if you look for them and are good at inferencing, you will easily find them. Also, in the Then and now Section, you find about the attempts made my doctors in those times to ward of plauge. You also find out about how plauge spread, when it happened, and what families did if plauge hit them.

Of course, for many people, the reason they read this book was just to find an interesting book to read, and this book had details for them too. There are good descriptions in the book. Also, there are some parts in the story that are not necesseraly important to the overall plot, but form interesting, small sub-plots of their own, that make the book interesting and fun to read all around, although people who were reading this for specific information might have found those parts annoying. Many girls can connect to Isabel and her feelings, which are ones that we most likely have all experianced during our lives. Most of us can also probably imagine how it would be in this situation and if not you'd still might feel a bit saddened at first for Isabel.

This book is also very well written. The desciptions are very colorful and entertaing but they still give us insight on life in 1592 England. The parts that are funny, entertaining, and don't completely relate to the overall plot do not take over the book as in some other novels that I can metion but would prefer not to. The grammer is also very correct and the sentence starters vary, thus keeping the book from being dull.

In conclusion, this book is very informative, while still being interesting and entertaining. We can probably relate to it and it is extremely well written. I reccommend this to anyone of any age no matter what your reason for reading is.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you love adventure, take wing to this book!, March 2, 2003

By 

Caitlin Gregorczyk, age 15 (Abingdon,VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Isabel: Taking Wing (Girls of Many Lands - England) (Paperback)

This book, Isabel: Taking Wing, was written by Annie Dalton. It was set in the Elizabethan age in London, in the year 1592. It is the first of the five books in the series Girls of Many Lands, which tells about girls in history, how they are alike and different from girls today.

Isabel: Taking Wing has about 180 pages and 12 chapters. Though the book was hard to get into at first, it became very exciting after the first few chapters. In addition to the story, the author put a section in the back of the book that tells what the women wore, as well as historical facts and pictures about Queen Elizabeth I and Shakespeare's theater. This book comes with a colorful Isabel bookmark where you can keep your place in the book.

This book has a very colorful picture of Isabel on the front, but no pictures while you are reading the story. I don't like that about the book. But I do like how the author wrote the book in first person, where you can feel what Isabel felt. She really described Isabel's thoughts and dreams in an exciting, fun to read way. I love the way the author filled this book with happy, sad and exciting times that Isabel experienced in her life.

Isabel is a 12-year-old girl growing up in a wealthy house in London. The author tells how Isabel grows tired of endless chores to prepare her for being a lady. So she sneaks out to see a Shakespeare play, but she is found out and banished to live at her aunt's house in the countryside. On the way there she is attacked by thieves. They leave her unharmed, but lost and alone. She then joins a band of actors, disguised as a boy, and finally gets a taste of the freedom she longs for. But it is not the freedom she imagined it to be. By the end of the book, though, she is reunited with her family, and discovers what freedom really means.

This book has many historical details, as well as good humor. It tells how women were expected to run the household and men to earn the money, like trading overseas that was Isabel's father's job. As Isabel bluntly put it, "Women must stay indoors, sewing stitches so fine that no one will ever see them. Our work is only visible if we do it badly. But men's work is very visible if you do it wisely." Isabel also says, "Girls must always be good and stay at home. But when you are a boy the world can be your home."

Isabel longs for adventure, and finds it in this book, and you will too!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Isabel: Taking Wing......, January 18, 2003

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Isabel: Taking Wing (Girls of Many Lands - England) (Paperback)

is an excellent book! Isabel Campion has always dreamed of avventure. When her sister gets engaged, Isabel has to learn all about the house-hold responsibilities. She finds it a bore, so she asks one of her servants to take her to the playhouse. They steal Meg's(her servants)uncle's boat. Isabel is enchanted and instantly falls in love.On her way back, the boat get a hole, and Megs uncle saves them. Isabel is in big trouble. The punishment is to live with her aunt. Isabel packs her things and finally her aunts servant arrives to bring Isabel to her aunts home. On the way, Isabel is robbed and her aunts servant is killed. Isabel finds Megs brother and the rest of the people from the play. She disguises herself as a boy and even acts in some of the plays. When she arrives at her aunts house, everyone was glad to see her alive. She learn which plants heal certain sicknesses. One day, a letter arrives from her married sister telling Isabel that therir little sister has fallen ill with the plague. Isabel comes home and saves the day. I recommend it to all girls 9 and up.