This was a breakthrough book for Mabel Esther Allan, who abandoned her former cautious writing style and wrote this story with energy, courage and black humor. Its heroine, Mary Angus, has been blind for two years and is stifled by her father's sentimental overprotection. Craving new experiences, intellectual stimulation, and a chance to take action, she rages inwardly and provides the reader with ruthless, hilarious portraits of her family and middle-class suburban society. Hope for Mary comes in the form of a new neighbor, an intellectual boy whom she greets with hormonal teenage enthusiasm, and--a miracle only vaguely described--an operation that restores her sight. Armed with restored vision, she gradually challenges the barriers women and children face in timid 1930's suburbia. Allan wrote this semi-autographical book in the first person, and Mary's strong, clever, honest voice makes the story ring. Readers who enjoyed Jean Little's "From Anna", Robin McKinley's "Beauty" and L.M. Montgomery's "The Blue Castle" will enjoy this book.

"Deborah and Doria Darke are twins, but they are not really at all alike. The only thing they have in common, from when they are eight-years-old, is a passionate desire to be ballet dancers." So reads the inside flap of this wonderful book by Allan (aka Jean Estoril) that I searched for over ten years. I read this book as a pre-teen and have loved it ever since (even though I couldn't remember the title). I was thrilled to have found it again. Dark-haired Doria is plagued by a feeling of inferiority towards her talented, blonde twin Debbie, especially when it comes to ballet. Debbie seems to dance through life with a breezy self-confidence, but Doria always has to try harder. The twins have a falling out after competing for the coveted spot at the ballet academy, but after enduring an emotional divide through their first year at school, they finally reconnect. And Doria realizes she is not quite the ugly duckling she thought she was, after all. Any girl who likes ballet will adore this book and its sympathetic heroine.

This book showed the hardships during world war two. Primrose Harvey adds a year onto her age and joins the land army. The book is in first person and shows the unsanitary conditions of farm life, the long hours with little or no overtime pay, and the loneliness through the long winters. This book strongly shows how many people's attitudes change and how they find that enemy's can become friends.

I read A Strange Enchantment and thought it was excellent. I loved how the book completely kept my interest. Primrose Harvey is a very true to life character. She makes her reader feel as if they are actually back in time living during world war two. The book really portraits what happened during world war two better than any history book could. PrimRose is very explicit when she tells the reader what is going on in the story. The characters Hilary Denbuck and Eileen Parry also help to make the book amusing and light when it could have gotten very disheartening. I really enjoyed this book, it gave me a much better understanding of some of the things that happened during world war two.

Summary: While vacationing in Cornwall with her family, a sixteen-year-old adopted girl finds herself strangely and frighteningly involved with the past.

I really liked this book. I am not a huge science fiction fan, but I read this for a Children's Lit. class and really enjoyed it. It contained a mixture of factual history and time travel. I became really interested in whether or not Sarah would change the history of her life or not, and I liked the fact that it was set in WWII and was told from England. It gave a different perspective of the war than those that deal with it from the American perspective.

Flavia, an American teenager, is employed by the famous author Emily Agnew to accompany her to Rome. When they get there things start to go wrong right away. The villa they were expecting to stay at (owned by a friend of Mrs. Agnew's) was a very unwelcome home, except for the head of the household. Old Signora Giannini welcomed them warmly, unlike anyone else. Then Flavia starts to hear things that no one wants her to. At first she thinks that the Signora's son and wife are just going to get some more responsibility from her, and they don't want anyone there when they "tackle" her. After having big rocks thrown at her and being shot at, Flavia begins to think they want to kill Signora Giannini! And that isn't the only plan that's being made under the roof of the villa. I thought the book was pretty good. It wasn't very exciting at the beginning, but it gets a lot more interesting in the end. The reading was really easy and it went pretty fast, but it didn't keep my attention for most parts in the beginning and middle. I also don't think the title is very catchy; it doesn't seem interesting by just reading the title. The book could have been a lot better, and the only thing that wasn't expected was the very end of the book.

Mystery in Rome's title leads you to believe that it would be a mystery but, by Chapter two the main character, Flavia, had basically solved the mystery. The rest of the book was spent droning on about who she should trust, if she should leave the gorgeous villa, should she tells the police about the man who shot at her and her employer. (Yes, excuse me but bullets are real Flavia speaks Italian and the police will understand) The last problem was who she likes Carlo or Ashley (a guy). In the last three to four chapters the book really starts to pick up pace and a ton of interesting things happen. Some are: Flavia spots Carlo with some guys that look evil and have criminal records, Carlo takes her to dinner which ticks off Ashley so he leaves Rome (will he come back? ), Mrs. Emily Agnew was almost killed and is in a coma. Emily Agnew is about the most interesting character to me. She is very strong willed and she doesn't really care if she isn't welcomed to Rome by her old friend, Ethel Giannino, and her husband, Lugi, she is staying in their villa no matter what. The head of the household is the Grandmother, Signora Giannino, she holds on to the monetary funds quite tightly and basically has the family in a matriarchal structure. This fact coupled with her overbearing, queenly, and determined personality leads to great difficulties. All in all, it was a pretty good book it was pretty slow during the middle but the beginning and ending made up for most of it. I have a huge problem with Flavia she is quite weak, silly, and is more concerned with boys and their opinion of her than anything else. She does have a huge change in the story but it didn't help her too much in my view. If you are looking for a book that reads quickly and is interesting enough to keep your attention or an avid mystery reader this is a good choice.