Reviewed April 24, 2006.
A Deborah Brodie Book, Roaring Brook Press, New Milford Connecticut,
2006. 117 pages.
Available at Sembach Library (J MCN F SAC).
This
book is on the young end of young adult fiction. It
opens when 15-year-old straight-A student Alice
gets a C+ on her paper on Pride and Prejudice. She feels that the book is a tragedy, since
Mary, the middle child (just like Alice) finds no love in her life like
her
sisters do.
Alice is also the third of five sisters, so she
sympathizes
with Mary, who’s simply a target of humor in Jane Austen’s book. Alice
gets a chance to rewrite her paper over Christmas break, and a nice boy
named
Kevin offers to help her with it. (Are
there really fifteen-year-old boys out there who would like Pride and
Prejudice so much that they’d go to the library to check out
another Jane
Austen book? I don’t really believe
that.)
Alice takes another look at the book and tries to
give Mary
a happier ending. Meanwhile, she goes on
her first date and seems to be getting her first boyfriend. Pride and
Prejudice makes her look at all
this differently, and she ends up as a fan.
I
didn’t really believe the set-up. In the
first place, I think Alice’s
taking Mary’s perspective was very creative, and a teacher shouldn’t
grade her
down simply because she didn’t agree with the conclusion.
She should be graded on how well she
supported her own point of view. Next, I
don’t really believe how much Kevin likes Pride and Prejudice, and he’s not
portrayed as showing enthusiasm simply to impress Alice. Finally,
I don’t see why Alice
would like the book so much the second time if she hadn’t liked it the
first
time.
However,
I’m a sucker for these Jane Austen take-offs. I
have three more of them checked out and ready to read!
They seem to be all the rage, ever since The
Jane Austen Book Club was a bestseller.
It was fun to read one for a younger age group. I would have liked Alice’s own romance to have some of
the
mistaken impressions as in the romance in Pride and Prejudice.
But it was still a fun and quick read.
Austenalia
Copyright © 2006 Sondra Eklund. All
rights reserved.
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Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund
