Content: G (mild danger)
BUYING ADVISORY: EL, MS - OPTIONAL
APPEALS TO: FEW
When 12yo Blanca finds out that her grandmother, dowager Queen Eleanor, is on her way to her home of Castile to choose her older sister Urraca as the bride for Louis the IX, the heir of the French throne, Blanca is devastated. She is even more devastated when Eleanor instead chooses Blanca to be that bride. Together the two, with an entourage, embark on a perilous journey from Castile to Paris. While Blanca is also accompanied by her maid and friend Suna, a Castilian Jew, danger, in the form of Eleanor’s enemies.
As much as I usually like historical fiction, I was not interested in Blanca’s story. Historical fiction can already be hard to interest students, but this story lacks a heart and drama that will normally draw them in. I found Zahler’s Wild Bird to be more interesting, but still hard to sell.
Cindy, Middle School Librarian, MLS
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