A True and Faithful Narrative

As the year winds down, award season is gearing up in the children's literature world. There are several books that are as well-researched and well-written as this one, about a 16-year-old bookseller, who works in her father's 17th Century bookshop but longs to be an author herself. Few, however, are as accessible and appealing as this one. This is a coming-of-age story `tween and teen girls, and their mothers, will love, with a rich plot, an unforgettable heroine, pirates, romance, even a timely thread about wrong assumptions made about the Muslim world. If I had a vote, I would pick this for the Newbery Medal.

What I loved best about this splendid book is the way it wrestles with writing: how it feels to write something and then write it again and again; the need to make the words sing; the joy when it comes out right. I love how it wrestles with narrative, too, how to make a story well-formed. It's also a crackling good historical read, and romantic besides.

The sequel that can stand entirely on its own is a rare and beautiful beast. Recently I've read several sequels to children's books that demanded an in-depth knowledge of all the previous titles that came before. And to be frank, I feared the case would be no different with Ms. Katherine Sturtevant's title, "A True and Faithful Narrative". One glance at the setting (Restoration England) and I was ready to high-tail it to the hills. And in truth I was disadvantaged by not reading "At the Sign of the Star" (Ms. Sturtevant's earlier work) but not in the way I expected. Had I read her first book I would have known right from the start that "A True and Faithful Narrative" was bound to be a smart and intricate little work that could compete for attention entirely on its own. This is one of the slicker bits of historical fiction to come out this year, and may be more enticing to adults than children. Then again, Ms. Sturtevant has such an engaging narrative voice, it may prove difficult for older child readers to resist her. Daughter of a bookstore owner in 1681 London, Meg Moore has a problem. Everyone knows that she loves to read and she's in the unique position to see new plays, books, and essays the minute they come out. What Meg really wants to do, though, is write. Unfortunately, that's too much for her father and Meg has been forbidden to set pen to paper if that paper is to fall into anyone's hands but her own. And even that might have been all right if her best friend Anne's brother Edmund hadn't been captured by pirates. When Edmund tentatively displayed his affection for Meg before he left on a dangerous shipping voyage, she jokingly asked him to bring back a good story if he should become enslaved on his journey. You can imagine her guilt when that is exactly what happens to her unwanted beau. Out of guilt Meg helps raise the money to ransom Edmund, but when he returns he wants the world to know of the places he has been and the people he has seen. Furthermore, he wants Meg to write the narrative. Simultaneously finding herself attracted to her father's apprentice Will and this newly determined Edmund, Meg must determine whether writing the book is worth the risk and which man she would prefer to love. This is a bit embarrassing so I'll just come out and say it. If I was an adolescent again, I am certain that I would enjoy "A True and Faithful Narrative" just as much as I used to enjoy Sunfire romances back in the day. I will explain why this is a compliment. Do you even remember Sunfire romances? These were basically historical G-rated romance novels written for teens, each one sporting a title that was the heroine's name and each one taking place during a significant moment in the past. And in each book the heroine had to choose between two boys. Now I am NOT saying that "A True and Faithful Narrative" is equivalent to those books in any way shape or form. But the having to choose between two boys? Oh that is on

"C'mon people now Smile on your brother Everybody get together Try to love one another right now." -- Dino Valenti (1963) "The world listens carefully to the words of any pope. And it is tragic and dangerous when one sows pain, either deliberately or carelessly." --New York Times editorial "He has a dark mentality that comes from the darkness of the Middle Ages...It looks like an effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades." --Turkish Parliamentary leader Salih Kapusuz C'mon. Let's be honest. If the Pope's priorities centered around tolerance and world peace, would he be quoting some 14th century Byzantine emperor or would he be quoting and singing some Sixties peace and brotherhood songs? As evidenced by the endless stream of propaganda -- from that which led to the Crusades up through that which causes worldwide tension this weekend -- there has always been a wealth of misinformation and fear being spread about Islam. And it was similarly the case in the 1680s London world in which Meg Moore lives. Meg Moore was twelve when I first met her in Katherine Sturtevant's AT THE SIGN OF THE STAR, which was published back in 2000. Now, in A TRUE AND FAITHFUL NARRATIVE, Meg is sixteen. In the first book we come to know Meg as the only surviving child of a mother who repeatedly bred (as it was referred to at the time) before dying in childbirth. Meg is an unusual young woman for her time. Her father is a London bookseller and Meg, who regularly works with her father and who reads everything she can get her hands on, has high hopes of always having the bookstore. Unfortunately, her father takes another wife who begins successfully producing offspring -- including male heirs -- causing Meg's childhood dream to go flying out the window. AT THE SIGN OF THE STAR concludes with Meg's deciding that she wants to be the rarest of seventeenth century London creatures -- a female author. Four years later in 1681, in A TRUE AND FAITHFUL NARRATIVE, headstrong Meg is at the age where those of her gender are typically being bartered away by their fathers. might there be a way for Meg to end up both married and in a bookstore? Or might it be possible to become published despite the fact that any notion of his daughter being a female author is well beyond what Meg's relatively tolerant father is willing to abide? Shortly before Meg's best friend Anne Gosse (daughter of a wine merchant) is to be married, Anne's big brother Edward stops by to purchase some reading materials. It turns out he is leaving on an extended business trip to the Mediterranean. " 'You must bring Anne a splendid wedding present when you return,' I said as I opened the ledger. 'Only think of the treasures you can buy for her in the Mediterranean!' He pulled off his lace-trimmed gloves and laid them on the counter. 'It will likely be a year, perhaps two, before I come again to England,' he said as he brought out his purse. " 'To be sure. I had not thought. Well, you must send her so