As a digital subscriber, you’ll receive unlimited access to Horn Book web exclusives and extensive archives, as well as access to our highly searchable Guide/Reviews Database.
To access other site content, visit The Horn Book homepage.
To continue you need an active subscription to hbook.com.
Subscribe now to gain immediate access to everything hbook.com has to offer, as well as our highly searchable Guide/Reviews Database, which contains tens of thousands of short, critical reviews of books published in the United States for young people.
Thank you for registering. To have the latest stories delivered to your inbox, select as many free newsletters as you like below.
No thanks. Return to article
(2)
4-6
This quickly paced gothic tale takes us to England's Lake District, 1899. Twelve-year-old Lady Agatha Asquith's elderly father has just died, and the new Earl of Gosswater, her sleazy cousin Clarence, summarily boots Aggie from her home. Even more outrageously, Aggie is told that the old earl wasn't really her father; in his will he decreed that she now live with her birth father, Thomas, a farmer she has never met. And even as she struggles to adjust to her new status, and learns to respect and trust Thomas, she's pursued and tormented by Clarence. He's certain Aggie knows the whereabouts of the legendary Gosswater opals and will perform any cruelty to get them. The story is stuffed with wintry adventures in small boats, icy treks over mountain passes, rose-fragrant visitations from a ghostly maiden, and ill-advised schemes. Characters are sharp, extreme, and sometimes colorfully eccentric, and the action moves toward an explosive and unpredictable finish. At heart, though, this is the tale of Aggie finding a loving family and friends, at last.
Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
March, 2022