Mutiny's Daughter [Library Binding]

Ann Rinaldi (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up

What if?

In the most famous mutiny in the world, Fletcher Christian risked imprisonment by leading a rebellion aboard the HMS Bounty in 1789. But what happened to Fletcher Christian after that? There were stories that he survived a vicious massacre in the South Pacific and boarded a ship back to England. We know that he had several children by his Polynesian wife, including a daughter named Mary. Could he and Mary have reunited in England?

 Respected writer of historical fiction Ann Rinaldi brings her magic touch to the fascinating prospect “What if?” and weaves an enthralling tale told through the words of Fletcher Christian's fourteen-year-old daughter, Mary. Behind the privileged walls of her new boarding school, Mary struggles to fit in, trying not to reveal the identity of her father, who dishonored his family name.

Rollicking adventures await Mary as she ventures out into London's crowded streets, desperately searching to see her father's loving face one more time.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8--Once again, Rinaldi has unearthed a historical nugget and polished it into a gem of a story. This intriguing novel is based on the premise of what could have happened if the notorious Bounty mutineer Fletcher Christian returned to England with his five-year-old daughter, who was born on Pitcairn Island, and left her on the Isle of Man to be raised by his mother, before he went into hiding. Now 14, Mary is forced to live a lie, as she must pretend that her uncle is her father in order to save the family's good name. Still, she wonders about the whereabouts of her real father, and hopes that she will someday see him again. When her grandmother sends her off to a fashionable girls' school in London, this secret becomes a great burden for her to bear, and she must stand up to a fellow student who is threatening to expose her. In the end, through a selfless act, she is finally reunited with the father for whom she has been longing. The author sets the scene with an introduction that provides a bit of background and sifts through what is fact and what is fiction in a note at the end. The characters are well drawn and believable and the 19th-century English setting is vividly presented. This clever, well-written historical novel may just inspire curious readers to investigate the personalities and events on which the story is based.--Kimberly Monaghan, formerly at Vernon Area Public Library, IL
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gr. 5-7. Having mined American history for controversial figures (Benedict Arnold in Finishing Becca, 1994; John Brown in Mine Eyes Have Seen, 1998), Rinaldi shifts her gaze to a similarly notorious Englishman: Fletcher Christian, the lead mutineer of the HMS Bounty. The evocative premise is outlined in the foreword: What if Christian secretly returned to England with his 5-year-old, half-Tahitian daughter, Mary? The story opens nine years later, as Mary, forced by paranoid guardians to hide her origins, heads for a posh London boarding school. Tension arises from a manipulative classmate bent upon outing her secret, along with news that her father, whom she can't remember, may be nearby. The consequences of exposing her connection are never articulated clearly enough to justify Mary's spiraling anxieties, and the many secondary characters (including a cameo by Samuel Coleridge), along with the sundry historical references, can be distracting. Still, Mary's yearning for her father is affecting, and Rinaldi's writing, at its best, evokes London of the early nineteenth century with precision. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Library Binding: 224 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1 edition (February 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060296399
• ISBN-13: 978-0060296391
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,267,048 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

ANN RINALDI is an award-winning author best known for bringing history vividly to life. A self-made writer and newspaper columnist for twenty-one years, Ms. Rinaldi attributes her interest in history to her son, who enlisted her to take part in historical reenactments up and down the East Coast. She lives with her husband in central New Jersey.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great historical novel by Ann Rinaldi., August 29, 2004

By 

Rebecca Herman (USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mutiny's Daughter (Hardcover)

In her latest historical novel, Ann Rinaldi tells a "what-if" story. She imagines what might have happened had Fletcher Christian, who led the famous mutiny on the HMS Bounty, returned to England with Mary, his daughter by his Polynesian wife. Mary Christian is fourteen when this novel opens, and ever since she was brought to England at five years old, she has been forced to live a lie. Raised by her grandmother, she must tell anyone who asks that her uncle is her true father, for her grandmother cannot bear that the good name of the family be tarnished. When she is sent off to London to be educated in a school for girls from wealthy families, the secret of her true parentage becomes even harder to keep. At the same time, she longs to see her father again, but she knows she may never, for her went into hiding after leaving Mary with her grandmother, and she has not heard from him in all those nine long years.

Ann Rinaldi has a knack for taking lesser known stories from history and shaping them into fascinating historical novels, and she has done so again in Mutiny's Daughter. I highly recommend this book to all of her fans, and to new readers who enjoy historical fiction. I had never before heard of Mary Christian, but I found her story fascinating, and after reading this book, wished I could find out what really happened to her.

5.0 out of 5 stars Personally, I LOVED IT!!!!, June 30, 2010

By 

Team-of-8 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mutiny's Daughter (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed this book!! I didn't really like Gwen, but over all the story was amazing!! The way she tied the father in through disguises was interesting. One question I had when I finished the book that was never answered, was- what happened to Langston? After he brings Mary her letter from her brother Thursday October,(which was funny in itself!) he goes back to Cambridge. But they never say what happens to him, and if he ever got his question from the beginning anwered. One thing I did like was that the author didn't make Mary and Langstons' relationship go too far. :) *****

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book, March 16, 2007

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Mutiny's Daughter (Paperback)

S. Moore March 15, 2007
Historical Fiction Book Review


"Before he was finished, his voice was coming as if from very far away, way above me, getting fainter, while my legs got weaker and weaker, and a cold sweat broke out on my forehead. It was then that my knees buckled and I fell to the floor," thought Mary Christian when she finally found her father. Mutiny's Daughter, by Ann Rinaldi, is about a girl named Mary Christian who longed to see her father again. Fletcher Christian, Mary's father, risked being hanged in 1789 by leading a mutiny against the captain of the Bounty. He survived a massacre in the South Pacific, and he brought Mary back to England when she was five years old. At Misses Hartsdale's School for Young Ladies, Mary faced problems once she discovered that a local doctor was really her father; she was blackmailed by her evil roommate, Lizzy. I enjoyed reading Mutiny's Daughter because it had a great story line.

I liked this historical fiction novel because it had a happy ending. Once Mary found her father, she continued to see him. Dr. Katterfelt, Fletcher Christian's alias, never admitted to being Mary's father, but he didn't have to. He gave her a package of ribbons and money for a voyage to America, where he would soon flee, for Christmas. The money came with instructions that she had to finish her schooling first, respect her family (who had been informed of his plans), and she could only go when her Uncle Charles thought she was ready. After all that Mary went through in trying to find her father, the end of the story was heartwarming.

I also liked Mutiny's Daughter because I could relate to the characters. In a novel, is important to have characters that you can identify with, even if it is set to a different time period. While reading Mutiny's Daughter, I felt like I was a close friend of Mary Christian, who could feel the same things she did in the story. When Mary was sent to Misses Hartsdale's School for Young Ladies, I felt her pain. Also when Mary found her father, it felt as if I shared her excitement with her.

Another reason that I liked this novel is because it kept me interested. Mutiny's Daughter was so interesting because I was always trying to predict what would happen later in the novel. The thing that I guessed about most was whether her father had come back to England. In the book, Doctor Katterfelt was always giving Mary special treatment when he came to her school to teach. Another thing that interested me about this novel is how Lizzy tried to blackmail Mary. She listened into Dr. Katterfelt and Mary's conversation, and she found out that they were father and daughter. If this secret was discovered Mary would be expelled for lying about who her father was, and Fletcher Christian would be KILLED.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes a good story. This novel had all the elements of an interesting book. It had well -developed characters, a great story line, and it was heart warming. The best thing about Mutiny's Daughter was that it wasn't predictable. For example, It was very unpredictable when Lizzy attacked Mary for playing with her cat, Dick Turpin. This book was wonderful because it was a perfect balance of humor and drama.