From Publishers Weekly
Ellis (Swimming with the Whales) explains in an afterword that her novel, about a 16-year-old sent to a sanatorium for tuberculosis in 1945, is closely based on her own experiences. Just as April's beloved father returns from the war and perfects April's rosy life as a star swimmer, aspiring writer and girlfriend of the hunky Mike, labored breathing and high fevers land her in quarantine in a dreary hospital. "The war was over and my father was home, as I'd dreamed, but we only had this one lunch that was normal, because I was a freak, a contagious sick freak." The narrative proves strongest when relating the boredom of life on bed rest, the stigma attached to TB and the relationships between April and her two successive roommates. The focal point, however, is the flirtation between April and Ravi, a fellow patient and son of a maharajah, and it is rarely convincing. Ravi, sender of luxurious gifts and writer of lengthy epistles, seems like a stock romantic hero. April, for example, comments that Ravi's photo shows "full face, brown eyes looking straight into my heart," and his conversation includes lines like, "My beautiful April, our days together here enthrall me so I do not choose to remember my past." Their "romantic friendship" lacks staying power for them, as it turns out, and probably for readers as well. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Gr 7-10-April Thorp, 16, has contracted tuberculosis and is being treated in a San Francisco hospital just after World War II. She is devastated when her boyfriend will not visit because she is contagious, but her sadness dissipates when another patient, the handsome son of an Indian maharaja, begins to court her. He writes to her father with the goal, "if we should prove capable of existing together in harmony, of matrimony at some future time when our mutual health should improve." April doesn't take this seriously at first but she is intrigued by Ravi, and the idea of becoming a princess helps her through her illness. When her roommate, Nancie, dies, April gains the courage to shed her paralyzing fear and undergo surgery, and she realizes that her dreams of becoming a princess are not to be. Ravi is destined to marry someone else in an arranged marriage, and to lead his people. April will go on, though, and looks forward to beginning college and making new friends. Ellis's writing is stiff and doesn't bring depth to the interesting cast of characters. It seems as though she is simply telling the events, and readers will feel distanced from the characters. While the story is a wonderful fairy tale of love and personal growth, and the scene in which Nancie dies is exceptionally moving, the story does not build adequately to a satisfying conclusion.
Susan Riley, Greenburgh Public Library, Elmsford, NY
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
