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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, March 18, 2008
This review is from: The Redheaded Princess: A Novel (Hardcover)
In Rinaldi's spectacular new book for young adults, she's moved beyond American history to British, and the tale of a young redheaded girl who yearned to be queen.
Despised by her father and sister, shoved aside by the nation's leaders, and motherless, young Elizabeth I grows up at her country estate where she learns from a young age the dangers of crossing paths with monarchs. She realizes that even though her sister and her brother stand between her and the Crown, she will one day be queen.
THE REDHEADED PRINCESS is her sharp, fast-paced, and beautifully wrought story of how that came to be.
Wonderfully detailed and breathtakingly accurate, this is perhaps the most engaging book that tells of Elizabeth's plights and triumphs.
Reviewed by: The Compulsive Reader
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fast-paced historical fiction, July 15, 2008
This review is from: The Redheaded Princess: A Novel (Hardcover)
This story begins in England in the year 1542, when Elizabeth is nine years old. Although she is the daughter of King Henry VIII, she is not officially recognized as a princess because she, along with her other half-siblings Edward and Mary have fallen out of their father's favor. Instead, she lives as Lady Elizabeth, head of the household at Hatfield with her nanny. Throughout her childhood she rarely visits her father at the palace.
Many people say that she is very much like her father; this pleases her, but also makes her uneasy. After all, King Henry beheaded her mother! Watching her father's relationships with so many women, Elizabeth learns that marriage while on the throne only seems to complicate things and vows to remain single when she eventually becomes queen.
However, this is easier said than done. From the age of eleven she begins receiving requests from men for her hand in marriage...and we must remember that Elizabeth is third--not first--in line for the crown behind her siblings. Not only must she cope with that, she must also stay in her family's favor as time goes on. She gets along fine with Edward when he is king, but she and Mary but heads over religion when Mary is queen. Mary gets so angry that she sends Elizabeth to the Tower because she won't bend to her will. How is Elizabeth able to survive until 1558, the year she is finally able to accept the crown as her own?
This is a good, fast-paced story told from Elizabeth's point of view. Ann Rinaldi does admit at the end that this is indeed her own interpretation of Elizabeth's story and that there are probably more accurate accounts out there, but that her goal was to make a fun book about an interesting historical figure based on historical events.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling historical fiction, July 31, 2008
This review is from: The Redheaded Princess: A Novel (Hardcover)
Historical fiction, especially concerning European royalty, is a popular genre but generally too bloody, racy or complicated for young readers. Ann Rinaldi's latest novel seeks to remedy that by telling a simplified yet dynamic version of England's Elizabeth I's life before her ascension to the throne.
THE REDHEADED PRINCESS starts when Elizabeth is just nine years old. Her mother, Anne Boleyn, was executed upon her father Henry VIII's order. She lived in her own household far from her father and half-siblings. Younger brother Edward was in line to be king and did ascend while still a child, after Henry's death. Edward was sickly and all of Europe knew he would die young, leaving Mary to be queen. Mary, daughter of the Spanish Catherine of Aragon, was staunchly Catholic, even though her father had broken England's ties with the Roman Church. After Edward's death (and a brief rule by the teenage Jane Gray) and Mary's coronation, Mary and Elizabeth's respective factions battled for the crown. It was a time of confusing religious change and violence.
As long as Mary was queen, Elizabeth was unsafe; she was even imprisoned by her older sister. Yet those around her always told her she would be queen one day. And they were right.
Ann Rinaldi's story captures, in first-person narrative, Elizabeth's and England's uncertainty. In this version Elizabeth is less calculating than history tends to remember her. She is sometimes certain and sometimes unsure of herself, torn between love for her family and the desire to be on the throne. She is at once the beautiful, headstrong daughter of her mother and the powerful and confident daughter of her father. Still, in THE REDHEADED PRINCESS, she is ever aware of her royal blood, her position and power in society, and her future role as queen of her people.
Although known as the "Virgin Queen" Elizabeth was a flirtatious young woman, and Rinaldi touches on that here, even including the infamous scene of Elizabeth found passionately kissing her stepfather while sitting on his lap. This theme, along with some more complicated history and a series of tortures and executions (beheadings and burnings), makes this book more appropriate for readers older than the 8-12 age range recommended by the publisher.
Elizabeth I is a compelling and complex historical figure, and Rinaldi's version is nuanced and interesting. THE REDHEADED PRINCESS is dramatic and exciting with plenty of history, and it is a good introduction to the historical fiction genre for middle school and even young high school readers.
--- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman
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