Age 09-12. 1 Star. In this modern-to-medievel time-travel fantasy, a family of three children and their father go to live in Wales for the winter, grieving the loss of their wife and mother. Twelve-year-old Peter finds a key which opens a portal into ancient Wales — and he and his sisters must resist a rising threat when knowledge of the key spreads to those who wish to misuse it. The book is recommended by several good sources and is entertainingly well written, with good character development and a sustained sense of magic lurking at the edges of the children’s dreary lives. Unfortunately, the dreariness of their lives seems to originate in their relationship with their father…. Although skilfully written, the bitter, secretive protagonist in this story is anything but admirable, and his father is worse. The biblical ideal of a family in which parents love, lead and train their children, is entirely absent. The magic in the story is enticing, and the interweaving of modern and historical Wales is masterful, but the detached, egalitarian family dynamic is quite poisonous.

Age 00-06. 5 Stars. This is a beautiful and unusual story about a mother’s unconditional love for her child throughout his life. It begins with her holding her new baby and singing a lullaby…. It is a beautiful tribute to the security that loving parents provide for their children…. The story also portrays an example of maturity, gratitude, and growth into responsibility: the boy becomes the one to nurture his mother at the end of her life, and he passes on the gift of love to his daughter, by singing the same song. This picture of healthy, intergenerational security is to be prized, and it is unusual to find a picture book that casts a vision for maturity and parenting for readers of this age…. The appeal of this story extends across generations and cultural boundaries.

Age 09-12. 3 Stars. In this sequel to At the Sign of the Sugared Plum… Hannah returns with her younger sister Anne to re-open their confectionary shop in London…. Hooper builds upon the excellent historical foundation she laid in the original book, giving a sense of the period’s flavor… the detailed description of Hannah’s journey through the burning city, with all the landmarks that succumb to the fire, is nothing short of breathtaking. The character development is again rather shallow and the love story leaves much to be desired…. sentimental indulgence in the context of an undefined pseudo-courtship makes the book feel more like a modern teenage novel than a story from this time period.

Age 08-12. 4 Stars. Hannah and Sarah are teenaged entrepreneurs, sisters running a shop in 1665 London…. Hannah, who has recently joined her sister, is excited at the prospect of a big-city life and complacently dismisses rumors that the Bubonic Plague is reawakening in London…. Overall, the characters and relationships portrayed in this story aren’t very remarkable, but the historical description — the smell of the city, the neat pile of hand-ground sugar in the girls’ kitchen, the inside view of the theatre, the streetside view of nobility leaving town in carriages, curtains drawn, as quarantine falls — all these kinds of details combine to form a vivid depiction of the period in which this terrible Plague wreaked such destruction.

Age 08-12. 5 Stars. A beautiful story of a “girl Robinson Crusoe”…. This is a quiet, memorable story of survival and persistence in the face of difficult conditions and profound grief. Karana’s practical means of surviving against the elements and predators are interesting in themselves, but her courage in facing hunger and danger, and living alone year after year, make her a heroine worth emulating.