Monday, January 26, 2009

Review: Brooklyn Rose

Rinaldi, Ann. Brooklyn Rose. Orlando: Harcourt, 2005.

Rose is a fifteen-year-old Southern Belle at the turn of the 20th century. Given a diary, she records her thoughts on her family, life in the South, and her growing attraction to an older man. She marries Rene Dumarest. Rose must adjust from being a Southern Belle living in diminished circumstances since the War between the States to being a rich man's wife in Brooklyn, New York. Still a child and not yet a woman, Rose must find her feet as a married woman.

Author Ann Rinaldi describes her story: "It is my grandmother and grandfather, as I imagined them to be" (Author's note).

What I thought: I particularly like the format Rinaldi chose for this tribute to her grandparents, that of a diary. Rose's voice comes across just as it should: childish yet womanly, uncertain, and at times humorous.

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