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Summary
Summary
Cult graphic novelist Dylan Meconis offers a rich reimagining of history in this beautifully detailed hybrid novel loosely based on the exile of Queen Elizabeth I by her sister, Queen Mary.
When her sister seizes the throne, Queen Eleanor of Albion is banished to a tiny island off the coast of her kingdom, where the nuns of the convent spend their days peacefully praying, sewing, and gardening. But the island is also home to Margaret, a mysterious young orphan girl whose life is upturned when the cold, regal stranger arrives. As Margaret grows closer to Eleanor, she grapples with the revelation of the island's sinister true purpose as well as the truth of her own past. When Eleanor's life is threatened, Margaret is faced with a perilous choice between helping Eleanor and protecting herself. In a hybrid novel of fictionalized history, Dylan Meconis paints Margaret's world in soft greens, grays, and reds, transporting readers to a quiet, windswept island at the heart of a treasonous royal plot.
Author Notes
Dylan Meconis is a cartoonist, writer, and illustrator who created the graphic novels Family Man, Bite Me!, and Outfoxed, which was nominated for a Will Eisner Comic Industry Award. She lives with her wife in Portland, Oregon.
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Meconis offers an atmospheric alternate history inspired by the childhood and succession of Queen Elizabeth I in this quietly ambitious graphic novel. Margaret is the only child in a remote island convent, lonely until Lady Cameron and her son, William, exiles from the island of Albion, arrive and William and Margaret become constant companions. William's departure years later leads Margaret to discover difficult truths about her island home and the sisters who inhabit it, just as another exile-Eleanor, the deposed Queen of Albion-arrives and embroils Margaret in intrigue that could impact the whole kingdom. Meconis constructs the plot with carefully paced revelations and story elements that echo, build, and amplify each other. Art in soft, earthy colors brings this singular story to life in styles ranging from simple line drawings to elaborately styled text illuminations. The island world is richly developed, both in its physical particulars and its close-knit community (fascinating digressions into topics such as convent time, hand gestures used at table, and chess and embroidery flesh out daily life), and Margaret proves herself an endearing heroine with a strong voice full of humor and wonder. Her perspective transforms a storm-wracked rock into a vibrant world of hidden treasures. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 10-14. Agent: Barry Goldblatt, Barry Goldblatt Literary. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
In a graphic novel loosely inspired by sixteenth-century British history during the reigns of King Henry VIII and his daughters, Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I, young Margaret has lived on the Island in a convent of nuns since she was a baby. At almost twelve (and nearly one hundred pages into the story), Margaret discovers an unhappy secret about her beloved Island and her own status there: she is in fact a prisoner. Soon after, the Island receives Lady Eleanor, the queen of Albion (modeled after Elizabeth I), who has been deposed by her older half-sister Catherine. Distrustful of everyone else on the Island, Eleanor enlists Margaret as a companion, but this relationship eventually leads to another startling revelation, this time about Margarets parentage. When a mysterious ship washes ashore, its sole survivor alters the course of Margarets and Eleanors futures as they escape the Island together, in an open-ended conclusion. Sympathetic protagonist Margarets first-person narration occasionally pauses to enlighten modern young readers about religious practices, politics, and conventions of the period, such as convent holy hours, saints, and the rules of chess. These sections are often accompanied by spot art resembling images in illuminated manuscripts, whereas the rest of Meconiss angular, detailed drawings depict characters realistically. Throughout, the mixed-media illustrations in an earthy palette are a dynamic mix of panel sizes and shapes thatalong with the speech-bubble dialoguereflect the emotions, intrigue, and actions of the complex characters, to great cinematic effect. cynthia k. ritter September/October 2019 p.94(c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Off the coast of Albion is a tiny island, home to the Elysian sisters, a convent of nuns devoted to caring for shipwrecked sailors and their families. Margaret has lived there for as long as she can remember, but where she came from is a mystery. Though she's eager for answers from the sisters, it doesn't seem like an urgent question until a mysterious guest, Eleanor, arrives in the company of stern, haughty Mother Mary Clarence. Soon, Margaret has questions about not only her parents but Eleanor, the island, and the state of Albion at large. Inspired by sixteenth-century English history, this graphic novel luxuriates in the details of daily life on the island. Margaret explains keeping time at the convent, the layout of the island, recipes, types of nuns, embroidery methods, and more, all while narrating the changes arising as the fraught political climate in Albion trickles over to the island. Meconis fills her panels with naturalistic figures colored with expressive watercolor washes, which add rich emotional depth to the story. When Margaret shares folktales or stories, Meconis uses brasher colors and inky brushstrokes in a style resembling marginalia in illuminated manuscripts, and occasionally embroidery embellishes the background of pages. It's a stunning visual package, and the slow-burning story of Margaret's gradually opening world is made all the more captivating by the well-researched historical setting, immersive world building, and engrossing characters.--Sarah Hunter Copyright 2019 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
MARGARET MEANS PEARL, which IS a good name for me. In the opening pages of Dylan Meconis's graphic novel QUEEN OF THE SEA (Walker Books, 400 pp., $24.99; ages 12 and up), the young heroine tells us her name and more besides - that she is a small thing, secret and hidden, her true value unknown. It's one of several metaphors, worked as beautifully and intricately as the embroidery on a Tudor queen's gown, that signal that all is not as it seems in this captivating coming-of-age story. Set in a world that is, and is not, 16thcentury England, "Queen of the Sea" takes inspiration from the real-life rivalry between Mary Tudor and her sister Elizabeth, showing the devastating consequences such Game-of-Thrones maneuvering has not only on the powerful, but on the powerless. Baby Margaret arrives one rainy day at a convent on an island in the Silver Sea, part of the kingdom of Albion. The nuns take her in and lovingly raise her. Margaret's days are happy ones, filled with exploration. The ever-present sea whispers its stories of selkies and saints to her, and she grows into a feisty child, honest and good-hearted - but there is a deep sadness inside her, too. She longs to know who her own parents are and why they sent her away. But no one can give her an answer. Meconis's drawings, full of heart and humor, beautifully evoke Margaret's many moods, and the rhythms and routines of life in an island convent. Types of holy orders, the breviary, the differences between saints and martyrs - these topics are an unusual addition to the canon of graphic novels for young readers, but Margaret's wry descriptions of everything from hand signs used during the nuns' silent meals, to types of needles and stitches used in their embroidery, to holy relics and even a recipe for really terrible gruel, fascinate. They enrich the reader's understanding of Margaret's bygone world, and of Margaret herself. Childhood, like the island in the Silver Sea, is a realm unto itself, safe in its remoteness, but the things that protect can also confine, and eventually Margaret learns that her paradise is actually a prison for those who have offended the king. Every nun in the convent was once a lady in his court. Each was accused of a treasonous act and banished. Margaret discovers that she herself is a prisoner, forbidden from ever leaving the island. "Everyone that I loved, every place on the Island I cared for, every answer I had ever gotten to every question I had ever asked - was a part of one huge and terrible lie," she tells the reader. Unmoored by this knowledge, Margaret hears something new in the lapping waves - the urgent whispers of the wider world. Things rich and strange wash up on the shore for her to find - a sailor's shoe, a jewelry box, the huge wooden hand from a ship's figurehead. And then the sea brings a darker gift - a mysterious young woman and her cruel warder. The woman is locked away in the convent, and Margaret again wants answers. This time she gets them. The new prisoner teaches Margaret how suddenly, and ruthlessly, fortune can turn a queen into a pawn, and that sometimes the only difference between loyalty and treason is where you stand on the game board. But the most important discovery Margaret makes is about herself, and the place that awaits her in the wider world - if she's brave enough to take it. The best graphic novels suggest rather than decree. They allow readers to search for truth in what is shown and said, but to find it in the silence between the words, the space between the images. The beguiling "Queen of the Sea" stands solidly among them. JENNIFER DONNELLY'S latest Y.A. novel, "Stepsister," has just been published.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-9-A young orphan named Margaret lives on an island convent, cared for by adoring nuns. The arrival of two strangers changes her life forever. The first is a young boy, who eventually is compelled to return to the land of Albion. Years later, Margaret finds herself in the company of the dethroned and exiled Queen Eleanor of Albion. And when one of Eleanor's former subjects arrives with news from Albion, Margaret finds herself at the center of a conflict that may change the fate of the kingdom. In this tale loosely based on the early years of Elizabeth I, Meconis skillfully balances imaginative twists with factual evidence. At several points, Margaret interrupts the narrative to offer historical context about Albion or information on the nuns' rituals, immersing readers in the drama in spite of the occasionally heavy backstory. The art, reminiscent of Raina Telgemeier's style, creates levity during perilous situations. The book is dense with dialogue, often feeling more like a work of prose than a graphic novel. As a result, this complex work will be more accessible to those familiar with graphic novels; some younger fans may struggle to follow along. VERDICT Certain to charm sophisticated graphic novel devotees.-Matisse Mozer, Los Angeles Public Library © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A young orphan's and an exiled queen's fates intertwine on a remote island.Loosely based on the childhood of Elizabeth I, Meconis' rich historical fantasy centers on young Margaret, an orphan taken while a baby to live on a nearly forgotten island in the kingdom of Albion. Its only inhabitants are a small order of nuns dedicated to helping anyone "whose life or love is at the mercy of the sea," a hapless priest, a couple servants, some farm animals, and a cat. Margaret, who's been on the island for six years, thrives in the simplicity of her idyllic existence. Nevertheless, she eagerly anticipates the semiannual visits of the lone ship that docks on the island's shores and finds her prayers for companionship answered when a young boy and his mother are sent to the island for opposing the king. Margaret then slowly learns the true nature of the convent's existence and begins to question her own lineage when a mysterious visitor named Eleanor is banished to the island by her sister, the queen, and kept under constant watch. Meconis' humor and storytelling gifts here wed seamlessly with her evocative pen-and-ink and gouache illustrations, which are rendered in warm earth and sea tones and brim with movement, expressively capturing even Margaret's interior monologues.With its compelling, complex characters and intrigue-laden plot, this will have readers hoping it's only the first of many adventures for Meconis' savvy heroine. (Graphic fantasy. 10-adult) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
