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Searching... Park Grove Library (Cottage Grove) | J FICTION STO | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
When Flissy Bathburn's parents first dropped her off in Bottlebay, Maine, she hated everything about it. She hated the big gloomy house she was to live in. She hated meeting her long-lost and highly eccentric relatives. And most of all, she hated knowing that she was safe in America while her parents faced the guns of WWII in Europe.
But a year has passed now, and Flissy has grown to love her life in Bottlebay -- and especially Derek, the boy the Bathburns have adopted. Then a man claiming to be Derek's true father arrives, and soon he's asking all sorts of strange questions. Flissy has a nose for trouble. Has Derek's new father come to take him away . . . or is there something even more sinister happening in Bottlebay, Maine?
Author Notes
Phoebe Stone is the beloved and acclaimed author of several novels for middle grade, including The Romeo and Juliet Code , which was hailed by the Boston Globe as "quite simply the best novel for young readers . . . since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone ." She received four starred reviews for The Boy on Cinnamon Street , and another star for her novel Deep Down Popular . Booklist awarded a starred review to Romeo Blue , the follow-up to The Romeo and Juliet Code , calling it "compelling, and with plenty of heart and soul." Phoebe and her husband live in Middlebury, Vermont.
Reviews (4)
Horn Book Review
Romeo Blue is the best sort of sequel: one you didn't know you wanted but are ever so grateful to have. Its predecessor, The Romeo and Juliet Code (rev. 3/11), ended with British ex-pat Flissy content in sleepy Bottlebay, Maine, with the Bathburns -- matriarch The Gram; flighty and sweet Aunt Miami; hunky young Derek; and Uncle Gideon, whom she learned is her father. It's now 1942, the Coast Guard is patrolling for U-boats, and there's still no word from Winnie (her mother) or Danny (the man she thought was her dad), who are Allied spies stationed in France. Life goes on for Flissy and co., even in the midst of such uncertainty. Her love for Derek unabated, Flissy is stung when he takes someone else to a dance. A welcome visitor is her young friend Dimples, an evacuee from England whose guilelessness is a breath of fresh air for the secret-harboring Bathburns. Another surprise arrival (no spoilers here, but it's a good one!) upends Flissy's expectations in ways that are breathtakingly complex. Stone manages the cunning feat of writing in a style both lyrical and propulsive, with short chapters impelling readers ever onward as the multifaceted story unfolds. The end of the book brings some closure, although, just as with The Romeo and Juliet Code, not everything wraps up tidily. Some characters remain absent, and some are irrevocably changed, a reminder of the devastation wrought by war. elissa gershowitz (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* This absorbing follow-up to The Romeo and Juliet Code (2011) picks up with the Bathburns in Bottlebay, Maine, one year later and with WWII in full swing. Flissy hasn't heard a word from her parents, who are spies missing in Europe, but keeps herself occupied with her love interest, Derek, the boy the Bathburns unofficially adopted. When a man shows up claiming to be Derek's long-lost father, Flissy struggles to keep her suspicions about him to herself. Soon, Mr. Henley, the local postman and poet, is called for duty in North Africa; Aunt Miami joins a USO traveling production of Romeo and Juliet; and Gideon, Flissy's biological father, undertakes a secret mission. Intrigue and mysteries abound: Who is the Moth Man ? What is Gideon doing in France? Will everyone come home alive? Our 13-year-old narrator captures the effect of the upheaval on her life and her family as she transitions, perhaps prematurely owing to her circumstances, from child to adult. Stone evokes time and place beautifully, with descriptions of blackout curtains and the war effort not to mention the stormy coast of Maine and her passages about war feel relevant today ( Here in such a lush and green world, why do people hurt and kill one another and why is there such a thing as war? ) Compelling, and with plenty of heart and soul.--Kelley, Ann Copyright 2010 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-7-This sequel to The Romeo and Juliet Code (Scholastic, 2011) can stand alone as a great World War II story. Felicity B. Bathburn longs for the safety and security of her own home. It's been almost two years since she left London to stay with her grandmother in the rambling house on the coast of Maine. She holds onto memories of her mother and creates conversations and letters in her mind that she would send if only she knew an address. Her American family has secrets of its own and Flissy has learned not to offer explanations or talk about her parents' or uncle's work. The family welcomed her just as they welcomed the orphaned Derek, now 13, who was just a baby when The Gram's son brought him into their home. Flissy is the first one to be suspicious when a man claiming to be Derek's father comes to town and attempts to gain access to the family's secrets and come between the two young teens who are struggling to make sense of the world around them. A Nazi uniform hangs in her uncle's closet and conversations in German become a late-night ritual. Through a series of hidden messages and shortwave-radio broadcasts, Flissy unwittingly learns the true meaning of perseverance and just how much some people will sacrifice when faced with an unbearable truth. Readers will get caught up in this story of young love, espionage, and war-torn families while still far away from the frontlines of the battlefield.-Cheryl Ashton, Amherst Public Library, OH (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
In the sequel to The Romeo and Juliet Code (2011), 12-year-old Flissy's World War II adventures continue. Flissy is living with her grandmother, aunt and father, Gideon, as her mother and stepfather (who is--complicatedly--also her father's brother) have disappeared while spying in Europe. In a voice that is somehow both charmingly lyrical and also notably authentic, Flissy relates the events on the homefront, as foster cousin Derek, just a year older and--she believes--the love of her life, attempts to track down his father. Unfortunately, a man claiming to be him shows up, but it's perfectly clear to Flissy, who's sworn to secrecy, that the man is a fraud. Finally, in despair over the wreckage of her family, Flissy runs screaming into the nighttime sea, only to be saved from certain death by Gideon--an epiphanic moment. Even after the fraudulent-father plotline is resolved in a suspenseful climax that comes only midway through, the tale goes on. When her mother finally returns after being rescued by Gideon, who's then lost in the fog of war, Flissy has much to work out with the woman who has become a stranger to her. In an attractively depicted Maine coastal setting, her relationship with Derek evolves, she mends fences with her mother, and she waits for a resolution of her father's and stepfather's situations. While realistic and employing lovely language, the slow, deliberate pacing sometimes diminishes the overall effect. Patient readers will nevertheless enjoy this combination spy novel/coming-of-age story. (Historical fiction. 11-16)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
As soon as I was in Derek's room I dropped forward, facedown on the floor again. My tears fell on the wooden surface, my mouth pressed against the polished pine. "Why is Uncle Gideon going to a prison?" I whispered. Derek closed the closet door. I could feel more tears and sobs threatening to come up out of me in a howling sort of way. Derek put his hand on the back of my head as I lay there. "Oh Fliss, don't think about it," he said. "Don't worry, Gideon will get them out." "Get who out?" I said, sitting up and shaking my head back and forth. "Who do you mean? Who?" I put my hands over my ears again. "Flissy," said Derek, "listen to me." "No, no. Leave me alone. You don't mean Winnie and Danny! You don't mean that Winnie and Danny have been caught? Do the Nazis have them, Derek? Don't say that. Don't say one more word!" Excerpted from Romeo Blue by Phoebe Stone All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
