Bibliographical information:

Wilce, Ysabeau S. Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (OneBlue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog. New York: Harcourt, 2007.

Brief summary:

Flora Nemain Fyrdraaca ov Fyrdraaca is an intrepid young woman, "a Girl of Spirit." As her fourteenth birthday, she faces several challenges. Her father is a drunken wreck, her mother is off being the Warlord's Commanding General, and moreover has banished the magical Butler who would keep Crackpot Hall running smoothly. Moreover, she's got to write her Catorcena speech and finish her dress for the celebration, and she's got to find a way to tell her parents that she doesn't want to enter the baracks as a soldier. But she's distracted by a number of adventures, including encounters with the banished Butler, an attempt to rescue a pirate who has been condemned to death, and ultimately the need to save herself from fading away altogether.

Comments:

Flora is an interesting character, and her adventures are engaging and amusing. The gender roles in this novel are interesting, with teenage girls serving as soldiers but still needing to make fancy dresses for their fourteenth birthdays. Wilce is clearly setting up a sequel, so the ending doesn't offer full closure.

Grade/Age level:

 The book jacket says 12 and up. I think it would be okay for ten- and eleven-year-olds.

Cautions:

Some violence and bathroom humor.

If you like this book, you might also like . . .

--Lisa Gordis

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