Review Detail

London, 1677. Twelve-year-old Meg Moore is the only daughter of a well-to-do bookseller who has brought her up to run the family business. But when her widowed father decides to marry again, Meg's inheritance--and therefore her future--are suddenly not so certain, and it will take all her wits for her to come out on top again.

Katherine Sturtevant has created a wonderful protagonist in Meg: clever, observant, frank--everything a proper English girl of the late 17th century shouldn't be, and everything a modern-day reader wants a heroine to be. At the Sign of the Star is a rare character-driven novel where every scene, every carefully-chosen word contributes to the vivid and detailed portrait of an interesting historical period and the situation of the women who lived in it. Fans of Sally Gardner's I, Coriander or Ann Turnbull's No Shame, No Fear will love this empowering tale of a girl who learns to face her challenges head-on.