The Desert Prince (Secrets of the Sands, Book 2)

Written by Alisha Sevigny

Dundurn

978-1-45974-432-5

364 pp.

Ages 8-13

September 2020 

"I know what it is like, how acting on your conscience can bring you into conflict with higher powers." (pg. 52)

 

When middle-grade readers first met Sesha in The Lost Scroll of the Physician, she was studying with other scribes and searching for the lost scroll of the Great Imhotep. Though those in power viewed the scroll as a tool of influence, whether for military surgery or more, Sesha needed it to help save the life of her younger brother Ky. So, even though Pharaoh's queen Anat stole the scroll and tried to kill Sesha and fellow scribes Paser and Reb, the Pharaoh's physician Ahmes was able to help Ky. Now the trio of teens are on the run and searching for Pharaoh's daughter, Merat, who'd been given to the Hyskos chieftain in betrothal.

 

To improve their chances of escape and survival, Sesha helps free a Hyskos spy who'd been in the pits alongside them. Under Pepi's guidance, Sesha, Paser and Reb are able to cross the dangerous desert of scorching heat, deadly quicksand, negligible water and terrifying sandstorms to reach the Chieftain's oasis community. Under the ruse of Sesha being betrothed to Pepi who is the Chieftain's cousin, and Reb and Paser being her brothers, they ingratiate themselves into the community and look for ways to free Merat and save themselves. 

But freeing Merat is not as easy as it sounds, especially at a secluded oasis where they all become integrated: Merat working with children, Sesha helping as a physician, and Paser and Reb training as Hyskos soldiers. When the Chieftain's right-hand man Akin is badly injured, Sesha devises a plan to retrieve the scroll from Thebes, ostensibly to help in his recovery, and to get them all to the city of Avaris from which they might escape. But will her scheme to return to Thebes and see her brother, recover the scroll, warn the Thebans about the Chieftain's plans for war, and return safely to her friends be as easy as she plots, especially with Pepi by her side? And will the skills he has taught her as a spy be enough to ensure their success?

If The Lost Scroll of the Physician was a thriller, then The Desert Prince is action adventure. By taking the action out of Thebes and into the desert, where survival requires skills beyond understanding how and why people act as they do, Alisha Sevigny has added a new dimension to her story. There is still the myriad of characters, some of whom we don't trust and learn to trust, and others whose motives are questionable all along, and they are key to the plot of the story and how it progresses but place and time become even more prominent. Being set in Ancient Egypt, the Secrets of the Sands series is already historical fiction with a different landscape, and Alisha Sevigny adds richness to her story by infusing it with the Ancient Egyptians' belief system, cultures, medical and funereal practices and more. But now she also brings us into the desert and to an oasis and introduces a new culture, that of the Hyksos, and an imminent new conflict. Alisha Sevigny has taken us to Ancient Egypt, making everything so real that young readers will be tempted to check how much is authentic (Thebes, Hyskos, Imhotep, Avaris, and Ahmes all are) and even if Sesha might be found in Wikipedia (she is not). 

That's the context of Alisha Sevigny's The Desert Prince but the story, of a prophetic scroll, of allegiances and spies, betrothals and family, and war and accord, provides us with the action and the mystery that will keep readers reading, especially as even more secrets are revealed. She may have left us satisfied with her story's resolution but, just as she did at the conclusion of The Lost Scroll of the Physician, Alisa Sevigny knows how to keep us wanting more and, with a secret prophecy and a looming war along with some budding romances, she's hooked us into anticipating Book 3.

Family of Spies: Blog Tour

Today I'm reviewing Jodi Carmichael's newest middle grade novel Family of Spies as part of the book's blog tour.  Please check out the others stops on the tour as listed at Chapter by Chapter Blog Tours and Promotions and enter to win a free copy of Family of Spies here.

Written by Jodi Carmichael

Yellow Dog (an imprint of Great Plains Publications)

978-1-927855-94-2

288 pp.

Ages 8-13

April 24, 2018

Most people who delve into their family histories are hoping for the unusual like connections to royalty, a hint of scandal or extraordinary accomplishment.  But for most, the exercise of discovering family history details is more likely to be a slog and end in disappointment, since  most people in the past lived lives of work and family with few opportunities for the exotic or the mysterious.  Not so for the great-grandfather of thirteen-year-old cousins Ford MacKenzie and Ellie Whitaker and Ford’s older brother Gavin.  Great-Granddad’s story would be the stuff of legends, if it didn’t have to be sealed.

The MacKenzie and Whitaker families, from Canada and the US respectively, are meeting in Paris for a European vacation. Soon after their arrival, Ford begins to experience moments of déjà vu that seem to time-slip him into Nazi-occupied Paris during World War II.  These episodes are especially emphatic when he touches any of the personal effects–letters, photos, postcards, bookmarks, etc.– in his great-grandfather’s briefcase. A visit to a psychic confirms Ford to be a clairvoyant who is able to connect to the past. 

Using a letter his mother received denying them access to Edward Crawford’s service records,  Ford connects to that military office and sees his great-grandfather’s file identifying him as part of  Special Operations Executive, a top-secret spy agency in operation during the war. But the three teens’ search at the military library alerts other forces to their interest in E. H. Crawford and soon Ford’s “visions” are not the only worries they have.

Assessing the various materials in his great-grandfather’s briefcase, Ford determines that he can connect with Great-Granddad and would be able to envision what he was doing during the war by (re)visiting a café/restaurant, the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower and several more stops.  With each visit, Ford reveals more about his great-grandfather’s covert activities, as well as his fears and guilt for a mission gone awry.

The story is very loosely based on Jodi Carmichael’s own grandfather whose military records remain sealed.  By weaving family history with Ford’s supernatural ability to divine the past, Jodi Carmichael has created a multi-layered mystery that honours her family and entertains readers with intrigue, adventure, a bit of the fantastic and a history lesson like no other. Family of Spies also reveals much about family dynamics and reminds us that, like Great-Granddad’s records of spy activity, nothing is ever final, even in relationships modified by guilt or jealousy because forgiveness can unravel much.

For young readers who enjoy an action-adventure story with a bit of history and the supernatural, Family of Spies will completely captivate and satisfy, and leave them anticipating Ford, Gavin and Ellie’s next adventures (fingers crossed) as the family continues their travels to London and Cairo.

🌆🌆🌆🌆🌆🌆

Jodi Carmichael’s dreams of becoming an author began to come true when she attended her first SCBWI conference in Los Angeles in 2007 and was nominated for the Sue Alexander Most Promising New Work Award. A champion for the underdog and kids who think differently, she wrote Spaghetti is NOT a Finger Food (and Other Life Lessons) (2013) which won numerous awards including a Gold Mom’s Choice and a Silver Moonbeam in 2013. In 2016 her novel about relationship abuse, Forever Julia (2016), won the Manitoba Book Award, the McNally Robinson Books for Young People Award - Older Category and received a Bronze Moonbeam Award for Young Adult Fiction - Mature Issues.

When not channeling characters from her books, she can be found strolling Manitoba beaches with her husband, two daughters, and exceedingly scruffy Border Terrier named Zoe. 

Family of Spies: Book launch (Winnipeg, MB)

Join author

Jodi Carmichael

for the launch of

her new middle-grade novel

Family of Spies

Written by Jodi Carmichael

Yellow Dog

978-1-927855-94-2

288 pp.

Ages 8-13

April 2018

on 

Sunday, April 29, 2018

2 p.m.

at

 McNally Robinson Booksellers

Grant Park Shopping Centre

1120 Grant Avenue

Winnipeg, MB

I'm pleased to share that I'll be participating in the blog tour for Family of Spies on May 10, 2018 with my review of this action-adventure with a touch of the fantastic inspired by the author's own grandfather's rumoured espionage activities during World War 2.  But, until then, here is the blurb from publisher Great Plains.

When cousins Ford, Ellie and Gavin, discover their great-grandfather was a rogue World War 2 spymaster, they must outrun MI6 and the CIA through the streets of Paris, relying on their wits and Ford’s newfound clairvoyant skills to unlock Great-Granddad’s spy secrets buried in the past. Great-Granddad hid something important to the war effort and these agencies want it back! 

Retrieved from 

https://www.greatplains.mb.ca/product/family-of-spies/ 

on April 25, 2018.

Rivals in the City (The Agency, Book #4)

by Y. S. Lee

Candlewick Press

978-0-7636-5914-1

293 pp.

Ages 12+

March, 2015

Since wowwing readers with her first book, A Spy in the House (Candlewick, 2010), in the Mary Quinn Victorian mystery series, Y. S. Lee has gripped readers with the authenticity of her social and cultural landscapes, the complexity of her plotting, and the intricacies of relationships between her characters.  The stories provide a glimpse into life in Victorian England, though not always a pleasant one, while tantalizing readers with convoluted mysteries that have former homeless thief turned spy Mary Quinn and her love interest and fellow investigator, engineer James Easton, looking over their shoulders constantly.

In Rivals in the City, Mary Quinn and James Easton have set up their own enterprise, Quinn and Easton, though Mary's former Agency employers, Miss Anne Treleaven and Mrs. Felicity Frame, now estranged, connect with the young couple separately to enlist their help with regards to the first investigation Mary ever pursued (The Spy in the House, Candlewick, 2010).  Seems the shipping magnate Mr. Henry Thorold, accused of insurance fraud and piracy, is now dying in Newgate prison, and everyone is anticipating the return of his wife, Mrs. Maria Thorold, who had attempted to murder James while fleeing accusations of being the true perpetrator of the piracy and countless deaths of Lasgars.  Thorold's daughter, Angelica, too is scheduled to return to her father's bedside from her studies in Austria.

While everyone is watching for the appearance of the devious and dangerous Mrs. Thorold, Mary and James are distracted somewhat from their discussions of marriage–a wholly beneficial state for Victorian men but not so for women of the day–by matters demanding their personal attention.  James and the family firm of Easton Engineering have been contracted to build a series of new underground vaults for the Bank of England's storehouses of gold, and Mary is becoming acquainted with a young Chinese boxer who holds the secrets to her father's past.  Can the two continue on their path to matrimony without being steered off course by the interests of The Agency's former matrons or by those who purport to have their interests at heart?  Can the truth of Thorold's crimes be revealed without further danger from the elusive and deadly Mrs. Thorold?

Y. S. Lee plunges the reader into the grimy underworld of criminal activity of 1860s London while tempering it with the loveliness of a first and true romance, all of it revolving around the unique Mary Quinn.  Y. S. Lee’s protagonist has grown into a strong young woman, still hampered by her past of shame and loneliness, but enjoying the benefits of her accomplishments, including independence.  Perhaps she has such a bountiful future because she does not deny her past.

This was her London: brutal, coarse, dangerous.  It was part of her history.  It had molded her character.  But she would not allow it to shape her destiny. (pg. 67)

And that future includes the gracious James Easton whose wits and engineering prowess are only shadowed by his thoughtfulness and insight.

She’d changed him more than he’d ever dreamed possible.  He was no longer entirely at home with his peers, thanks to her.  If he lost her now, what on earth would become of him? (pg. 80)

You can see how these two incredible characters create a story on their own, irrespective of a grand mystery wrapped up in the criminal activity involving the British Museum and the Bank of England.  There’s much to delve into in Rivals in the City: the history, the mystery, the atmosphere, and the romance.

And while Y. S. Lee is 4 for 4 in The Agency series, sadly there will be no Book #5.  Y. S. Lee has written that, “The publication of Rivals also marks the end of the Agency quartet – the last Mary Quinn adventure, the last time I write dialogue between Mary and James, and probably my last romp through London, 1858-1860.” (Retrieved today from a post dated March 10th, 2015 at http://yslee.com/tag/the-agency/) So, enjoy this finale for Mary Quinn, as I did, but look forward to other novels by her true birth mother, Y. S. Lee.