Book 2 of the
Hetty Feather series
Young Adult
Victorian
London
“Rose Rivers lives in a beautiful house with
her artist father, her difficult, fragile mother and her many siblings. She has
everything money can buy - but she’s not satisfied. Why can’t she be sent away
to a good school like her twin brother?
Why can’t she learn to become a famous artist like her father or his
friend Paris Walker? Why is life so unfair for people who were not born rich?
When a young girl, Clover Moon, joins the household as a nursemaid to Rose’s
troubled sister Beth, Rose finds a true friend for the first time and she
starts to learn more about the world outside. Will Rose finally achieve her
dreams? And will she be able to help Clover find her own dream? ”
I so enjoy
Jacqueline Wilson’s historical flavoured novels – I wish we had been able to
discover history in this style while I was at school back in the 1960s!
Thirteen-year-old
Rose Rivers has everything that money can buy and lives in a beautiful house
with her artist father, six siblings and self-centred mother. Unfortunately
there are lots of things that money cannot buy. When her beloved twin brother
returns from boarding school he has changed into a young gentleman but Rose is
still thin, unattractive and poorly educated. She loves her satirical drawings
– but who else will do so? And then the artist, Paris Walker, comes into her
life… as does nursery-maid Clover Moon who also has a talent as an artist.
Rose is growing
up, and she has so many questions to ask: why are girls treated differently to
boys, why can she not be friends with the servants, why…why…why?
I was delighted
to meet Clover Moon again (see our review Clover Moon) and
Jacqueline Wilson is so skilled at not only conveying the social structure of
Victorian life, but takes us into the minds of her characters so that the
readers – young adults of 10+ years – may also start questioning today’s social
inequalities.
My only (very
big) gripe is the price. The Kindle edition at £8.99 is more expensive than the hardcopy (£8.74) with the paperback
at £6.99. I’m sorry Ms Wilson, but this sort of pricing annoys me – especially
for children’s books. We are trying to encourage our youngsters to read, unlike
most adults, many prefer e-books to the real thing but very few youngsters
could afford £8.99.
Once a book is
formatted and placed on Amazon (or wherever)… a one-off task for the publisher,
there is little more to do (except collect the royalties) There is no paper
involved to run up costs in an e-book, there are no delivery costs, no
overheads for a bookstore to absorb – just how does mainstream justify an e-book
being priced at £8.99? When are mainstream publishers going to realise that it
is an absolute rip-off to charge MORE for an e-book than the hardback
copy? So for the price: 4 stars
My strong advice to readers … get the book from
your local or school library!
© Helen Hollick
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