From Publishers Weekly
In her first novel, consummate picture-book biographer Stanley (Joan of Arc) proves she is virtually as adept at creating fictional characters as she is at chronicling the lives of real people. Her premise here sounds complicated and even contrived; to her credit, it unfolds with ease. When Ginny's mother is diagnosed with breast cancer and faced with treatment, the 13-year-old is hastily shipped out from her home in Houston to England to join her professor fatherAlong divorced, he has had little contact with Ginny. Her father is helping head up an experimental archeology project: he and various colleagues and volunteers have re-created an Iron Age village. Ginny is handed homespun clothes, advised to brush her teeth with a hazel twig and thrown into community life. Intelligent and compassionate, Ginny finds ways to cope with the deprivations, both material and emotional. Stanley makes the Iron Age-related challenges (such as finding the right clay to make cooking pots) as compelling as Ginny's emotions, and the protagonist always seems lifelike. The only missteps come when Ginny runs away from the projectAit's hard to suspend disbelief when she, shoeless, penniless and clad in her bizarre clothing, finds her way safely to her dad's vacated London apartment. This sequence aside, the novel gives readers a chance to savor exotic experiences along with the challenges of coming of age. Ages 10-up. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8-Best known for her picture-book biographies, Stanley shoehorns more story ideas into her first novel than it comfortably holds. When her divorced mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, 13-year-old Ginny suddenly finds herself en route to England, where her uncommunicative, seldom-seen father is helping to run a reconstructed Iron Age settlement. Though she adapts readily to the homespun clothing, hard labor, and near total lack of modern amenities, her mother's rare and uninformative letters leave her in anguished suspense. Finally, she sneaks off to London, makes her own way back to Houston, and, after her father catches up, gets an ugly eyeful of her once-robust mother in the midst of heavy chemo. Then, it's off to England for several more months, until her mother is well enough to take her back. Competent, sensible, and wiser than either of her parents, Ginny makes an admirable protagonist, capable both of raising the primitive community's culinary standards and of convincing her mother and father that she doesn't need to be sheltered from the family ordeal. The unusual setting, and several sharp emotional climaxes, will engage readers, but all the comings and goings leave too little room to flesh out the supporting cast, and the author only fitfully succeeds in making the dangers and discomforts of Iron Age life palpable.
John Peters, New York Public Library Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
