Children's Literature a Blast from the Past

Toronto-based author Lynne Kositsky creates the moods and settings of other times and places in her two most recent novels for young adults.

Rebecca's Flame (Roussan Publishers; 142 pp.; $7.95) takes readers back to the Irish potato famine in the mid-1800's. Rebecca is the daughter of a middle-class Jewish merchant, who, along with her sister, have escaped most of the hardships of the famine. However, her life changes when she meets Sean, a Catholic boy, and witnesses first hand the starvation and destitution from which she has been shielded.

Despite the objections of her father, Rebecca continues her friendship with Sean which has consequences that will forever alter her life. Her growing affection for Sean forces her to make decisions about her faith, family and future.

Jewish readers might be aghast at the ultimate decisions that Rebecca makes -- in fact, Jewish newspapers in Canada have refused to run reviews of the book. Even still, the dilemma in which Rebecca finds herself is a situation faced by many young Jewish people today.

More controversy abounds in A Question of Will (Roussan; 143 pp.; $7.95). Perin Willoughby finds herself stumbling out of a boring summer Shakespeare class, and into the Elizabethan world, having fallen through some sort of time warp.

She gets a job as an actor, and is given the name "Willow." However, she must keep her identity as a girl secret, because women could not act in the theatre. Instead, boys would don wigs and costumes and play female roles.

Through Kositsky's humorous and light-hearted use of exaggerated Elizabethan language, as well as the sights and sounds (and smells!) of the streets, Willow comes across some information about Shakespeare's plays that may come as a shock and surprise to readers.

A Question of Will is the only book I have ever read for this age group that deals with the question of the true authorship of Shakespeare's plays -- a subject that is subversive even to academics and university students.

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Next Week: An interview with author Lynne Kositsky.

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