Image: Penguin Random House
Teen Tuesday features Luck of the Titanic by Stacey Lee. Ms. Lee is author of The Downstairs Girl, which I LOVED and featured in a Teen Tuesday post last year. Here, she uses the fact that there were eight Chinese passengers aboard the Titanic as inspiration for this layered, deeply moving narrative.
Seventeen-year-old Valora Luck has a first class ticket on board the maiden voyage of the Titanic, only she cannot board without her employer, as Valora works as a lady's maid. The problem? Her employer died after purchasing the ticket. Val wants to use her ticket to board, reconnect with her twin brother, Jamie and find a way to audition for Ringling Brothers' circus.
Val and Jamie's Chinese father taught them juggling and acrobatics, skills the twins used when money was tight and their dad was drinking too much. Val has a couple of other problems as well. She doesn't have a passport and even if she had one, the racist Chinese Exclusion Act would make it all but impossible for Val and Jamie to enter in the U.S. Still, Val is determined to board. She spies an opportunity to put her acrobatic skills to good use and stows away. One eagle-eyed passenger witnesses this.
April Hart is intrigued. She's an American designer of haute couture clothing and doesn't fit society's expectations for women of the time. She has a plan and wants Val's help. Can Val trust April? How will Val find Jamie in Third Class? Will Jamie agree with Val's pie-in-the-sky plans? And, what will happen to Jamie's good friends if he does decide to join Val?
Ms. Lee's tale unfolds from Val's POV and it's engaging from the start. Val is plucky and blunt. She's a survivor and totally devoted to her brother. The setting is vivid and suspense is high as Val shuttles between the cabins in First and Third class. She dons disguises and switches accents as she searches for a way to make her plan work. Characters are richly developed and some are endearing, which makes the author's warning at the beginning of the book, eight Chinese passengers boarded, six survived, all the more ominous.
I read this one with my ears and loved how the narrator effortlessly switched accents and languages! For me, listening to a book read by a narrator fluent in both languages heightens my appreciation. I tend to skim over foreign words and phrases, but listening draws my attention. There were times when plot conveniences threatened to take me out of the story, but Val's voice brought me right back in.
April Hart is intrigued. She's an American designer of haute couture clothing and doesn't fit society's expectations for women of the time. She has a plan and wants Val's help. Can Val trust April? How will Val find Jamie in Third Class? Will Jamie agree with Val's pie-in-the-sky plans? And, what will happen to Jamie's good friends if he does decide to join Val?
Ms. Lee's tale unfolds from Val's POV and it's engaging from the start. Val is plucky and blunt. She's a survivor and totally devoted to her brother. The setting is vivid and suspense is high as Val shuttles between the cabins in First and Third class. She dons disguises and switches accents as she searches for a way to make her plan work. Characters are richly developed and some are endearing, which makes the author's warning at the beginning of the book, eight Chinese passengers boarded, six survived, all the more ominous.
I read this one with my ears and loved how the narrator effortlessly switched accents and languages! For me, listening to a book read by a narrator fluent in both languages heightens my appreciation. I tend to skim over foreign words and phrases, but listening draws my attention. There were times when plot conveniences threatened to take me out of the story, but Val's voice brought me right back in.
Fans of Ms. Lee's earlier books as well as fans of historical fiction will love Luck of the Titanic. Warning: there will be tears.
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