Prisoners in the Palace

 by Michaela MacColl

Genre: Historical fiction - set in London in 1836
Age group: 12+

Liza Hastings was looking forward to attending balls, meeting charming young men, and being introduced to society—but then her parents died. Now, not only is she alone in the world, with no connections and no work, but she has also been left deeply in debt. She has little choice but to accept the job of a lowly lady's maid at Kensington Palace, serving the Baroness Lehzen and Princess Victoria. It doesn't take long for Liza and Princess Victoria to take a shine to each other, and they soon become friends, even though they are employer and employee. However, Victoria isn't on such good terms with her mother, especially because Victoria is likely to become the Queen when the King dies. Victoria's mother, the Duchess, wants the crown to herself! Liza soon discovers a plot between the Duchess and Sir John Conroy, her "personal secretary and comptroller," to take over the crown and stop Victoria from ever becoming Queen. Can Liza help the true heir become ruler? Or will the Duchess and Sir John succeed in their dastardly plot?

I loved the language used in this book. It feels somewhat old-fashioned, which suits the book perfectly. It's just nice to read the language: It's so much more beautiful and artful than many books I've read. This book also succeeded in getting me interested in Victorian history. There's a reading list included in the back, and the book made this time period seem so interesting that I may actually take a couple of those books out. The plot is great. It takes place in what seems like a domestic place—Kensington Palace—but there's actually quite a lot of intrigue and suspense. Liza makes periodical forays into the more grungy, lowlife parts of London as well, which adds a nice contrast. The characters of this book are interesting, and the plot is exciting, and the book is quite well-written. I definitely recommend it for anyone.

Bitter Melon

by Cara Chow

Genre: Realistic/historical fiction, but it does take place in the 1980s. It could potentially still happen today, though, I suppose. Or maybe not.

Age group: 12/13+

Frances' mother has her whole life planned out for her: She's going to ace school, go to a prestigious university, and become a successful doctor. Then Frances will be able to support her mother, and her mother's work will finally have paid off. But then Frances is accidentally registered in Speech class instead of Calculus, which is a non-negotiable class in her mother's eyes. Frances knows her mother will be upset if she doesn't switch out of Speech, but the thing is, she's actually enjoying it. She's good at speech.
Frances decides to stay in Speech class, secretly defying her mother's strict regime, and this is only the first step towards becoming her own person and doing the things that she wants to do: not the things that her mother convinced her she wanted to do.

I read this book as part of a book group. We all vote on what book we're going to read next, and we came dangerously close to not reading this book. I'm really, really glad that we did.
This book is one of the saddest ones I've ever read. I know, I'm probably being melodramatic, but it just felt so real: I could relate to Frances, even though I've never been in her situation. The characters really came alive for me, so I couldn't just think of them as little paper people in the book. They had feelings too. This thought was very present in my mind whenever anyone made a decision that affected other people in the book.
The choice Frances had to eventually make... It's not sad, exactly, but I was thinking about what I might do if I were in her shoes, and no matter which way I decided to go, I still felt really bad, either for Frances or for her mother. At the end, I felt especially bad for Frances' mother. She did some very bad things, and she should be punished, but her punishment was harsh. She's still a human being, and I think she still needs to be shown at least a little compassion.
I really, really enjoyed reading this book. It made me think a lot about issues that I don't always think about.

Some questions from the book group about this book:
1) What would you have done in Frances' situation: Done your own thing or try to please your mother?
2) Do you agree with Frances' mother about how eating lots of bitter melon will make you like, or at least tolerate, it? Do you agree that the strong endure suffering and eat the bitterness? Why/why not?
3) Do you think Frances' mom was really a bad person? Why/why not?
4) Was Derek a good thing for Frances or a bad thing?
5) Do you think that because of this bitterness, Frances will be a stronger person later on? Why/why not?
6) Do you think it was right of Frances to do everything behind her mom's back? Do you think things would have turned out differently if she had told?