Customer Reviews

Primavera

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

 

 

The Italian Renaissance brings to mind beautiful images, paintings and sculptures, glorious and expensive brocades, string quartets in the garden; a rich texture of life indeed. But it was also a time of great strife and cruelty the likes of which we could never imagine in this day and age. Sprinkled throughout with Italian words and phrases, PRIMAVERA dips the reader into the Renaissance period.

Flora, the youngest daughter of the Pazzi, strives to find beauty and normalcy in a life that is anything but. Scorned by her own mother, she lives as little more than a servant while her older sister, Domenicia, is primped, plucked, painted by the famed Botticelli, and otherwise prepared for the wedding that will join the Pazzi to the Medici.

As Flora contemplates her mother's plan for her future, life in a convent, a member of her father's guard arrives with a missive from the Pope himself. The guard, Emilio, hangs around and becomes the friend and companion that Flora has never had. When Emilio and Nonna, the grandmother who's raised and protected her, convince her to train with the guard, Flora finds strength that carries her through the difficult months to come.

PRIMAVERA is a captivating read. I found myself rooting for Flora and Emilio. Ms. Beaufrand painted her characters so realistically that I felt their pain, their fear, their guilt, and yes, even their joy. True to great historical fiction, the author did not flinch when she described some of the tragedies that befell her characters. Be warned that some of the scenes are quite graphic and not for the faint of heart. Yet I hesitate to limit this book to those only in 9th-grade and up.

If you know nothing about this time period, yet enjoy historical fiction, you will love this well-written novel. If you are a fan of the Renaissance you will revel in all of the historical details Ms. Beaufrand has so expertly shown.

Reviewed by: Cana Rensberger

Primavera is a thrilling book that is written with such detail and emotion it is amazing that it is fictional. One is immediately transferred to the time of the Renaissance at the beginning of chapter 1, and is put into the place of the main character, Flora. The conflict surrounds the Medici family and how they mistreat others, even families of their own similar ranking. Primavera deals with love, hope, loss, fear, friendship, joy, and guilt. This book is a captivating read, and I would recommend it to anyone in 6th grade and up. I am a voracious reader in 7th grade, and I loved this book, and even though it has some quite detailed violent scenes, it is still appropriate. Primavera is fast paced and there aren't any slow parts. This book is also available on Kindle; however I would buy the real book due to the fact that the cover is so beautifully drawn with hidden depth.

This book really wavers between 3.5 and 4 stars. Although the historical background is well-researched and presented, the writing is not 5 star. The plot seems rather contrived and the verbage reflects many of today's social mores. It cannot go down in the annals of classic children's fiction due to these limitations. There are passages that are inappropriate for younger children, so as a previous reviewer said, it should be recommended for readers of 8th or 9th grade and up.
I obtained this book from the library in a search for good children's Renaissance fiction, preferably based in Florence. So far, I have found only The Apprentice by Pilar Llorente, which is for a younger age group. I have rejected a few already and now add this one to that list. It is a shame that so many of them are really romance novels, which will hardly illuminate the time period for young male readers. This one is a mild romance novel. Romance is definitely a part of the story, but not the only thing that carries it forward.

Anyone who has ever felt left out or unliked will relate to the story of Flora Pazzi, the youngest daughter of the powerful, noble family of the Italian Renaissance. This historical novel is well-researched and inspired by actual events. Details of the time period are clear and compelling. This book should be on every middle school and high school required reading list.

This was a lovely story for young adults and well written. It's obvious the writer has done considerable research. I hope she has many more books of this quality coming.

This was certainly a 5 star book for young adults. As a former ESL tutor I would recommend this book highly.

Obviously, the subject matter is different, but my expectations were similar. When one thinks of Florence and the Renaissance one hopes for greatness. I gave this to my daughter to read as an extension of her study of the time period. She sat with it on the couch, voraciously reading through until she suddenly stopped and told me she wouldn't be finishing it because of the violence.

One expects some violence when talking about the time period, but once I read the novel, I understood her point. She'd studied Anne Boleyn. What could be so bad? There are multiple examples of violence or rough treatment in the book which are just crude, gratuitous or lacking in sensitivity. I admit, I have a high standard of literature for kids. Just because you've written a book that catches my attention and deals with a time period I desperately want kids to have more access to, I can't give you stars for that. Although I think that's why I'm giving this book 2 of the 3 stars that I am.

A reader is usually given some depth of understanding, some emotional payoff for experiencing pain or discomfort in a book. I didn't feel this was the case with Primavera. It seemed as if it was constructed from a historical outline and the author went through putting check marks by each one as she put them into the story. It's a shame, because there were real glimmers of a wonderful story here. The concept that beauty isn't necessarily what you see is a great message for young people. Too bad it wasn't developed.

**Please note that this book describes being drawn and quartered, beheading and an innocent woman's nose being cut off. It also has a brief description in the beginning of the book of revelers from Carnivale offering to toss Flora glass beads if she exposes her breasts to them. Completely and totally unnecessary and distracting. What was the point of that? Don't our kids deserve better than what they'd see at the movies? Of all the ways to represent Carnevale in this novel?

For me, Beaufrand summed it up well in her acknowlegements when referencing what Signor Andrea said when comparing Florence of today to Florence of the Renaissance. Can you imagine what this novel might have been? I can and am so disappointed.

I am a former public school teacher, mother, secular homeschooler and former resident of Florence. I was disappointed on all fronts.

this book was different from the history books i normaly read but i liked it oh, and the most important and bestest<<<(i know that not a real word)part about the whole book is that ive been studing italian and it has italian words in it and i understood the italian words even though the english meaning is next to it i didnt need it that made me feel really good because now i feel like im really learning italian, im so happy now!