Customer Reviews

Petals in the Ashes

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Teenaged Hannah and her older sister Sarah barely managed to escape London alive during the great plague of 1665. Now a year has passed, and the plague has finally died out. Hannah wants to return to London to reopen their sweets shop, but Sarah wishes to remain at the family home in the countryside. So when Hannah returns to the city, she is accompanied by her younger sister, Anne. However, her life is once again interrupted when fire begins to spread through London. Can Hannah find the strength to survive yet another terrible calamity?

I highly recommend this book to all readers who enjoyed the first book about Hannah, "At the Sign of the Sugared Plum." I also recommend it to new readers who enjoy historical fiction and are interested in this time period. Hannah is a wonderful character, and her struggle for survival is riveting. I hope Mary Hooper writes another book about Hannah's adventures, as I would love to read it.

The sequel to AT THE SIGN OF THE SUGARED PLUM is just as good and carries on the wonderful adventure of Hannah as she grows up to learn different things in different enviroments. Just as thrilling as the first this will keep you guessing what's going to happen. If you want your teenage daughter to read give her this book and the one before. She'll love it and feel the same feelings as Hannah. Seeing as i'm a teenager i know what i'm talking about.

This historical fiction about the great fire in London is a sequel to "At the Sign of the Sugared Plum." It is a good book for young readers 10-13 years old. I used these books for my 6th grade elective reading. It is a very quick and easy read, with questions at the end of the book to help the reader gain a better insight to the devastation that happened during that time period.

This was an AMAZING book!!!! I was surprised to hear about all of the things that happend during the plague, but it was fun to read about a girl close to my age that lived during it. You will DEFINETLY enjoy this book!!!

In this sequel to At the Sign of the Sugared Plum (http://www.eyelevelbooks.com/2009/05/24/book-review-at-the-sign-of-the-sugared-plum/), Hannah and her sister Sarah escape from quarantined London to Dorchester, bearing the orphaned child of a noble family who have died of the Bubonic Plague. They deliver the child to her relatives and,after a sojourn at a local house of pestilence, remain at the estate until the Plague begins abate in London. Eventually the quarantine lifts, and after visiting their country home in Chertsey, Hannah returns with her younger sister Anne to re-open their confectionary shop in London.

The city is a different place after the ravages of the Plague, and white crosses are visible on many empty homes and businesses. Hannah visits the shop of her sweetheart and learns from neighbors that he contracted the Plague and was taken to a burial pit. She grieves, and then is mystified when a local conjurer's assistant bears a strikingly resemblance to him. She follows him to Bartholomew Fair to discover that he has not in fact died. The budding romance are interrupted when fire breaks out, completely devastating the city.

The romantic story is a thin foil for the real action, which is the rebuilding of London and then the Great Fire. Hooper builds upon the excellent historical foundation she laid in the original book, giving a sense of the period's flavor by such scenes as the two sisters at confectionary-making and herb-gathering (recipes are included at the end of the book); the many sideshows at Bartholomew Fair (taken from historical accounts); and the detailed description of Hannah's journey through the burning city, with all the landmarks that succumb to the fire, is nothing short of breathtaking. As in the first book, excerpts from Pepys' diary (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Pepys) introduce each chapter.

The character development is again rather shallow and the love story leaves much to be desired. Hannah continues to be self-absorbed and shallow. Her beau never declares his intentions, but he gives her a keepsake locket and there are several romantic scenes that end in kissing. This sentimental indulgence in the context of an undefined pseudo-courtship makes the book feel more like a modern teenage novel than a story from this time period. Parents will have to judge for themselves whether the love story outweighs the historical benefit of this book. For our purposes, we will probably read it once as a supplement to our history education, but it won't make it to our recreational reading shelf.