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S'està carregant… At the Sign of the Sugared Plum (2003)de Mary Hooper
S'està carregant…
Apunta't a LibraryThing per saber si aquest llibre et pot agradar. No hi ha cap discussió a Converses sobre aquesta obra. At the Sign of the Sugared Plum is a YA historical novel about two sisters living in London in 1665, the year that the Great Plague wiped out more than a third of the city’s population. Hannah is a recent arrival, come to help her sister Sarah in her sweet-shop. Even as the sisters start to hear rumors of a spreading sickness, she is excited to be in the city and enjoys her outings to discover the city as well as her blossoming friendship with Tom, the local apothecary's assistant. As the heat mounts so too do the deaths, but by this time it is impossible to leave London unless one is rich. Hannah and Sarah stay healthy but all around them friends and neighbours fall victim to the disease. Being a YA story, the author manages to give these two likeable characters a hopeful ending as they become involved with trying to rescue a small baby from a house of death. It was obvious that the author did a lot of research as she included a lot of details about food and clothing and was able to convey the atmosphere of fear, suspicion and horror that Londoners felt. No one knew that the disease is carried by the fleas on rats so many different preventatives were used, the sisters even developed a line of sweets to sell as medicinal aides. My only quibble with this story is the very abrupt ending. I felt there was still a lot of story yet to be told. This was an interesting story which takes the reader back to London in 1665 where the plague is rampant. We watch Hannah change from a carefree, frivolous girl excited to be in the big city to that of a young woman troubled by nightmares of the real horror around her. At times the plot is a little thin, but it is still definitely worth the read. Eager to get to London, where her older sister Sarah runs a small sweetmeats shop called "The Sugared Plum," and where she hopes to see all the wonders of the great metropolis - the grand buildings, and warren-like labyrinth of streets; the lords and ladies in their fashionable attire - young country-girl Hannah is oblivious to all the warnings signs along the way, from the cryptic remarks of Farmer Price, to the graveyard funeral "games" of the children she passes. She is dismayed to learn, upon arriving, that Sarah - having written to ask her not to come - is less than overjoyed to see her. For the year is 1665, and the Great Plague has come to London, hanging over the city like a grim cloud, and bringing with it the specters of mass suffering and death... A vividly realized work of historical fiction for younger readers, At the Sign of the Sugared Plum drew me immediately into its world, and never let go! Mary Hooper does an excellent job capturing the "feeling" of London in 1665, and what it must have seemed like, to a young country girl seeing it for the first time. I appreciated the fact that Hannah isn't presented as some kind of paragon - she's interested in fashion, and frets about her red hair and freckles (reminding me of Anne of Green Gables a bit) - but rather, as an ordinary young girl, interested in ordinary things (like getting her first kiss!), and that this is neither the point of the story, nor a problematic aspect of it. This adds to the sense of realism, the feeling that this is a real young girl, caught up in a terrible time. And what a terrible time it was! The horror of the Plague - its inexorable spread through the city, from one parish to the next; and the unimaginable suffering it caused, with the ill being walled up inside their houses, before being dumped in mass graves - is captured here, in a narrative that is both poignant and disquieting. Highly recommended to all young readers who enjoy works of historical fiction! I've already requested the sequel, Petals in the Ashes, from my library. Short but gripping story about a young girl who goes to London to help her sister in her sweetshop and gets caught up in the Great Plague of 1665. Though this is aimed at younger readers (it was a Kindle daily deal that caught my eye some time last year), it pulls no punches in its descriptions of the horrors and heartbreak that families and communities suffered at that time. Very good. 5/5 Sense ressenyes | afegeix-hi una ressenya
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In June 1665, excited at the prospect of coming to London to work at her sister Sarah's candy shop, teenaged Hannah is unconcerned about rumors of Plague until, as the hot summer advances and increasing numbers of people succumb to the disease, she and Sarah find themselves trapped in the city with no means of escape. No s'han trobat descripcions de biblioteca. |
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