DEAR AMERICA: Clotee

I swear, Clotee has more images for her one book than any other Dear America! I'm trying to fit them all in here and not just have a bunch of pictures and no words!

A Picture of Freedom is one of the most well-known Dear America books. It's the story of a young slave girl who learns to read and write while fanning the master's son.

Clotee is a captivating character and she's surrounded by an equally strong cast. I love Spicy and I always wanted her to go more in depth on her own story. I would have loved for Missy to get more of a comeuppance, too. And I always felt Hince got off a little too lightly, too, considering his betrayal in the end. Clotee's smart thinking got them out of it, but he never should have done it and there should have been more words about it.

Being such a staple for the series, Clotee was of course chosen to be part of the reboot. Her new artwork is very pretty, but I prefer the picture used for the original book.













Clotee's book was one of the few used by the UK version of Dear America, called My Story. I think they could have tried a little harder at finding a title though! "Slave Girl" is just plain bad on its own, but it's exceptionally poor compared with the poignancy of "A Picture of Freedom" and how that title ties in with the story. There is a photograph cover also shown for the My Story version, but I'm not going to place it here, as it takes up too much space. It's hard to say a lot about a book as good as this and I don't like to post entries that are all pictures with no words beside.

Clotee's story was one of the ones chosen to be filmed for HBO, although I can't remember if I've seen it or not. I want to say yes, but I'm not sure. 

Clotee was also in the sadly unproduced second wave of Madame Alexander Dear America dolls. Considering her book was fourth in the series, I feel she should have gotten a space in the initial lineup in place of Margaret Ann Brady (the Titanic girl) or even my fave Caty, as both of their books came afterwards. Mem's a Mayflower girl and Abigail is Revolutionary War, but Clotee should have been there, too, instead of one of the others. 

Her doll is really cute, too, although definitely not accurate to the story. She never had that elaborate an outfit and her doll in the story was a small wooden carving. 

Clotee's book is definitely a must read for the Dear America series. 

ROYAL DIARIES: Kazunomiya

In 2004, Kathryn Lasky wrote about Kazunomiya, taking us to Japan. Japanese culture has always fascinated me, so I enjoyed reading this a lot, even though it is rather short and I feel she could have expanded on much more.

Sadly, she crafts a story that leaves one rather large loose end. She fabricates a romance between Kazunomiya and her original betrothed, only to have her marry another. This part we all saw coming, but in the epilogue, it's stated that it's unknown if she ever saw the man she actually loved again. In history, she was widowed after only a handful of years of marriage and took vows as a Buddhist nun afterward. If she had some great love from before, why not see what he's up to? Maybe that's a no no in historical Japanese culture, I dunno, but they could have at least met up again. So the crafted love story doesn't really work with her history.

Also, I think a lot of little details could have been expanded upon, too. There's a lot of court intrigue, but you don't get a really clear sense of how the Japanese imperial court works, because Kazunomiya shuns much of it, due to the poor treatment of her mother. Little things, too. She spends a lot of time talking about clothing and how you can only wear certain colors during certain seasons, but she describes colors by saying the names of things from nature instead of using color words. I don't know what color a frickin' plum blossom is. I had to look it up.

Lasky has done some excellent work for Royal Diaries, but I think this one falls in the middle. I did still enjoy it, but mostly because I like the culture it's set during, which manages to balance out the writing failures.

There are only two remaining Royal Dairies to be reviewed: Kaiulani and Anastasia. I'm always sad when I get to this point, because I love the royal series a lot. And now I'm going to be mired in the Civil War for awhile. *groan*

6 CHELSEA WALK Series

This series doesn't have a set title. On Amazon, it appears to be called the Historical House series, but I prefer to call it 6 Chelsea Walk. The series is six books that are set in the same building during six different time periods. It was originally a trilogy, then expanded into six. Three authors contributed two books apiece.

It begins with Ann Turnbull's Mary Ann and Miss Mozart, set in 1764 when the five story house is a boarding school for girls. Lizzie's Wish by Adele Geras jumps forward to 1857, when the building is now a family home with a protagonist who wants to be a gardener. A bit odd for a female back then! Cecily's Portrait, also by Geras, is set in 1895 with a girl getting to know the female photographer that lives in another house. Cecily, the daughter of the baby born in Lizzie's Wish, is Lizzie's niece and she makes an appearance near the end. Cecily, like Lizzie, has unusual ambitions in wanting to become a photographer. Linda Newbery's Polly's March is set in 1914 and about suffragettes. Turnbull's Josie Under Fire takes place in 1941 and deals with WWII. Andie's Moon by Newbery ends the series. It's set in 1969 and the protagonist wants to be an artist.

Each author does a good job with her pair of books and it's interesting to see the house in different incarnations, from school to family home to eventually a set of three apartments. There are some connections between the characters, but I wish they'd touched on that a little bit more. Mary Ann disappears from history, though her lost ticket is found later on. Lizzie and Cecily have their link, and a character who first appears in Polly's March is a presence in every book after.  

My favorite of the series is Andie's Moon, because I've read so little historical fiction from this era.

ROTTEN APPLE Series

The Rotten Apple series is just like the Poison Apple one except the supernatural threats are specifically zombies.

I'm not a big fan of zombie stuff, so these left me a bit bored. How each different author makes the zombies work for tween books is probably the most interesting part. Mean Ghouls is the best of the four, mostly because I really like the character of Happy. I like Lily from Drop Dead Gorgeous, too. Zombie Dog is a bit sad, if you're a dog lover. Dawn of the Dead I couldn't get into at all and the ending...just no.

I'm going to stick this set into storage in the same box as my Candy Apple and Poison Apple books, but I wouldn't be surprised if I decided to sell it eventually.