Starred Review ALA Booklist (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Starred Review Lisbon, Portugal, 1967. Fifteen-year-old Sónia Dias, the first-person narrator of this compelling story in verse, is a poet who specializes in free verse ("I don't have time / to rhyme," she asserts). It's the time of Salazar's dictatorship, and Sónia's Communist boyfriend, Zé Miguel, is apprehended by the PIDE (the secret police) and imprisoned. This is bad enough, but then the family loses their restaurant when somebody reports that they have hired a banned musician to entertain. Sónia's parents then force her to leave school and take a job as a laundress for the hotel where her mother works. "We're the black-ant army of women / prostrate before the machines," she writes bitterly of her new job and coworkers. When Zé Miguel escapes from prison, they have a blissful reunion until he betrays her; Sónia has begun a flirtation with the son of the hotel owner, but will he betray her, too? Strong-willed Sónia becomes a rebel, joining her coworkers in a dangerous strike and reading one of her stirring poems before the crowd. Beautifully and fluidly written, Miller-Lachmann's memorable verse novel captures the setting splendidly, dramatizing the abysmal condition of women under the dictatorship. A fine novel for classroom use and independent reading.

Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Sónia Dias faces many challenges under António de Oliveira Salazar's dictatorial rule in mid-1960s Portugal.Though Pai prayed he'd have sons, Sónia is one of five sisters. She's smart and has the heart of a poet but is lackadaisical about school. She covers shifts at her family's fado restaurant and sneaks time with 16-year-old José Miguel Machado, a newly promoted journeyman printer. Zé Miguel is a Communist and artist, and he helps create contraband books to "make a better world." After he's arrested and the family restaurant is shut down for hiring a banned fado musician to perform, Sónia wonders who to blame for informing the secret police. The Dias family squeezes into smaller quarters, and Sónia's pai sends her to work at a hotel laundry alongside her mother. Sónia's no stranger to beatings, which she both metes out and receives at home, but she's unprepared for the exhausting work and dangerous conditions. Fellow worker Zuleika, who's 16, like Sónia, warns her about the owner's flirtatious son, but Sónia ignores her. The verse format allows Sónia's poetic voice to shine, drawing readers into the stark reality she's dealing with. Although her head can be clouded by wine and soft kisses, she knows her own mind and speaks up: "I am a daughter of Eve / who / thinks / questions / dreams."Conveys harshness, beauty-and lingering hope. (author's note, discussion questions, glossary, further reading) (Verse historical fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews

Sónia Dias faces many challenges under António de Oliveira Salazar's dictatorial rule in mid-1960s Portugal.Though Pai prayed he'd have sons, Sónia is one of five sisters. She's smart and has the heart of a poet but is lackadaisical about school. She covers shifts at her family's fado restaurant and sneaks time with 16-year-old José Miguel Machado, a newly promoted journeyman printer. Zé Miguel is a Communist and artist, and he helps create contraband books to "make a better world." After he's arrested and the family restaurant is shut down for hiring a banned fado musician to perform, Sónia wonders who to blame for informing the secret police. The Dias family squeezes into smaller quarters, and Sónia's pai sends her to work at a hotel laundry alongside her mother. Sónia's no stranger to beatings, which she both metes out and receives at home, but she's unprepared for the exhausting work and dangerous conditions. Fellow worker Zuleika, who's 16, like Sónia, warns her about the owner's flirtatious son, but Sónia ignores her. The verse format allows Sónia's poetic voice to shine, drawing readers into the stark reality she's dealing with. Although her head can be clouded by wine and soft kisses, she knows her own mind and speaks up: "I am a daughter of Eve / who / thinks / questions / dreams."Conveys harshness, beauty-and lingering hope. (author's note, discussion questions, glossary, further reading) (Verse historical fiction. 14-18)

School Library Journal (Sat Jun 01 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Gr 10 Up —Verse is a necessary route for Miller-Lachmann's latest book because main character S&3;nia is a poet. S&3;nia's life in Portugal in the 1960s turns bleak after her boyfriend is arrested and the family business is forced to close; their comfortable living becomes that much harder when S&3;nia is forced to work a dangerous and backbreaking job for little pay. Coupled with a government crackdown from dictator Ant&3;nio de Oliveira Salazar, S&3;nia has little joy in freedoms she is now denied. As historical fiction goes, a fair amount of background will help readers dive into the story, which may be a stretch for American teens who know little about international politics and dictatorships in foreign countries. Though Miller-Lachmann is presenting just that, a path to understanding the atrocities of regimes on the livelihood of average people in ways that other authors—Jennifer A. Nielsen, Kip Wilson, and Ruta Sepetys, for example—do. However, the pacing dampens the momentum from shocking revelations and harsh treatment of women like S&3;nia and her sisters. It might have been more compelling as narrative nonfiction than historical fiction told through verse. VERDICT Portugal's history being told in verse for an American teen audience will be a niche read for history enthusiasts, yet doesn't minimize the need for bringing to light the effects of repressive governments.—Alicia Abdul