Gr 7 Up-This rich and involving novel of Mary Queen of Scots and her court will have readers clamoring to know more about this dramatic period in French and Scottish history. Readers are treated to a fascinating look at royal politics through the eyes of Nicola Ambruzzi, an orphaned performer to whom the queen takes a fancy. Queen Mary appreciates Nicola's wise wit and decides to keep her in the court as a "fool," believing that the girl will always tell her the truth rather than flatter her. After King Francis dies, his mother seizes the throne, and Mary is stripped of her French royalty. She returns to Scotland where she is queen by birth. Two thirds of this novel takes place in Scotland between the years 1560-68 when Queen Mary faced almost constant troubles from the Protestants, her own lords, and her womanizing husband. Yolen and Harris do an excellent job of weaving historical information into the story. The use of Le Jardini re, the queen's nickname for Nicola and an actual figure, personalizes the narrative even more and the girl's spiritual and emotional growth make her a flesh-and-blood character. Readers will laugh at Nicola's way with words and forthright manner, and delight in her skill of almost always being able to say the right thing to comfort the Queen or squelch the pompous advisors who surround her. The play of language is another major highlight in the novel. Read this along with E. L. Konigsburg's A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver (Atheneum, 1973) for a compelling look at two doomed queens.-Cheri Estes, Detroit Country Day School Middle School, Beverly Hills, MI Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

When their baby sister dies and their mother slips into a depression, 12-year-old Willa Jo and Little Sister are taken to live with their mother's older sister. Aunt Patty is a take-charge kind of person--good-hearted but bossy. It doesn't take long for Willa Jo, herself an older sister, to get fed up her with her aunt's ideas of what's good for her nieces. That's not why the girls wind up out on the roof, but it may be why they refuse to come back into the house. Don't ask Little Sister for the answer, though; she stopped talking when Baby died. No amount of cajoling will force her to speak, but Willa Jo is eloquent enough for both. Set in North Carolina, the story is told in Willa Jo's distinctly Southern voice, a treat to hear but sometimes too adult to believe. The characters are credible, though, engaging and multidimensional. So is their grief and the ways they deal with it so they can, once again, get near to Baby. Couloumbis' first novel wears its heart on one sleeve and its humor on the other. Together, they make a splendid fit. (Reviewed November 1, 1999)

In her first novel for children, Couloumbis deftly constructs an intricate montage of thoughts and memories from the perspective of 12-year-old Willa Jo Dean who, with Little Sister, mourns the death of their baby sister. As the story opens, Willa Jo and Little Sister are sitting on the roof, ignoring their Aunt Patty's orders to come down. Over the course of a single day, Willa Jo, from her high perch, mulls over the events of the past few weeks: her mother's depression, Little Sister's refusal to talk and Aunt Patty's efforts to make things right by taking the girls into her home. But Aunt Patty and her nieces don't see things the same way. Willa Jo and Little Sister would rather play with the children across the street (dirty """"mole rats,"""" in Aunt Patty's opinion) than attend Bible School or associate with the socially acceptable daughters of Aunt Patty's friends. The tension rises until Uncle Hob, in his soft-spoken way, forms a bridge of understanding that unites them all. Willa Jo's narrative, with its subtle cadences of a Southern drawl, achieves a child's sense of the timelessness of long summer days stretching before her. Coloumbis infuses the heroine's voice with an elegiac quality, even as the child's humor and determination to keep up Little Sister's spirits shine through. The tale of this one day on the roof chronicles the changes in the other three characters as much as the changes in Willa Jo, and the combined strength of this unforgettable cast of characters leaves a lasting and uplifting impression. Ages 10-up. (Sept.)

Couloumbis's debut carries a family through early stages of grief with grace, sensitivity, and a healthy dose of laughter. In the wake of Baby's sudden death, the three Deans remaining put up no resistance when Aunt Patty swoops in to take away 12-year-old Willa Jo and suddenly, stubbornly mute JoAnn, called "Little Sister," in the misguided belief that their mother needs time alone. Well-meaning but far too accustomed to getting her way, Aunt Patty buys the children unwanted new clothes, enrolls them in a Bible day camp for one disastrous day, and even tries to line up friends for them. While politely tolerating her hovering, the two inseparable sisters find their own path, hooking up with a fearless, wonderfully plainspoken teenaged neighbor and her dirt-loving brothers, then, acting on an obscure but ultimately healing impulse, climbing out onto the roof to get a bit closer to Heaven, and Baby. Willa Jo tells the tale in a nonlinear, back-and-forth fashion that not only prepares readers emotionally for her heartrending account of Baby's death, but also artfully illuminates each character's depths and foibles; the loving relationship between Patty and her wiser husband Hob is just as complex and clearly drawn as that of Willa Jo and Little Sister. Lightening the tone by poking gentle fun at Patty and some of her small-town neighbors, the author creates a cast founded on likable, real-seeming people who grow and change in response to tragedy. (Fiction. 11-13)

Ever since well-meaning but bossy Aunt Patty swooped in and declared Mama unable to care for the girls, headstrong Willa Jo has struggled with her, followed everywhere by Little Sister, who "hasn't said word one since Baby died." Plainly worded but evocative descriptions give life to the characters and tender poignancy to even simple observations in a story that honors the importance of finding one's own way through grief.

"Couloumbis deftly constructs an intricate montage of thoughts and memories from the perspective of 12-year-old Willa Jo Dean who, with Little Sister, mourns the death of their baby sister," said <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">PW in a starred review. Ages 10-14. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Aug.)