R is for rebel

Review by Booklist Review

Historical fiction master Coats (The Wicked and the Just, 2012) invents a country and a history all her own to create the fully realized, inspirational protagonist Malley. Though the cover art and description suggest something playful, the novel opens with Malley on the run from the same law enforcement that imprisoned and tortured her parents for their part in the Milean resistance movement. Equal parts uplifting and heartbreaking, Malley remains connected to her Milean roots as she endures her own maltreatment under a New Wealdean government-run reform school. Despite threats of a child workhouse, Malley quietly connects with other rebellious girls who help fuel her plan to overtake the school. To its credit, Malley's tale is not made more palatable for younger readers. Descriptions are at times graphic, but the realistic details only make Malley a more believable and empathetic character. Coats' atmospheric writing captures the mood precisely. An empowering and timely story about resistance.--Kling, Caitlin Copyright 2017 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by School Library Journal Review

Gr 5-8-Malley lands at a National School after her parents are imprisoned and exiled for their resistance work against the Wealdan empire. She is shocked to see the way the other Milean girls have succumbed to the prisonlike atmosphere and is determined not to suffer the same fate. None of the other girls are willing to risk rebelling in any way-at least not at first. As Malley finds herself wearing the ugly uniform and going by a Wealdan name, she can't help but look for ways to keep her Milean identity. Soon, the other girls start to come around to Malley's way of thinking, and they all have to decide what price they are willing to pay for a taste of freedom. Themes of the cost of freedom and the power of identity shine through in powerful ways. Malley is a rebel to her core and her spirit won't let her accept the idea of submitting, especially not after what happened to her parents. While the nations depicted are imaginary, the connections to colonialism and past/present efforts to rub out supposedly inferior cultures is unmistakable. VERDICT A strong purchase with powerful themes that will stick with readers.-Heidi Grange, Summit Elementary School, Smithfield, UT © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Horn Book Review

Malley, the daughter of convicted Milean rebels, is sent to a "national school" to become an obedient subject of the oppressive Wealdan government. There she discovers that resistance is more widespread than she'd realized. Malley is an engaging narrator whose gradual maturation adds an appealing layer to her character. Although the book's semi-industrialized world is fictional, readers will note parallels to history and current political discussion. (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A girl fights to rebel against state-sanctioned indoctrination in this dystopian novel with a historical feel. Malliane has been running from the law ever since her arsonist parents were sent to one of New Weald's penal colonies. Four generations ago the Wealds conquered Malley's country, Milea, colonizing it and oppressing native Mileans in ways reminiscent of white Europeans' colonization of North America and oppression of Native Americans. Captured, Malley is sent to one of the national schools set up to convert Milean children into compliant, subservient citizens of New Weald. There, Malley is renamed Kem, forced to change her hairstyle and dress, and punished severely for speaking her mind. When she tries to encourage others to resist she succeeds only in getting her classmates in trouble. Malley is a sympathetic character, and her actions in the first half of the book are realistic and engaging. As the plot continues, however, it starts to crumble under the pressure of its own complexity. Representation of a deaf girl, Jey, is troubling: Jey's lip-reading skills and the other girls' sign language abilities seem far too proficient to be believed. Malley's skin color is never described; races aren't specifically named in this imagined world, though several girls are described as having brown skin and dark curly hair. An intriguing premise that doesn't quite carry through. (Fiction. 8-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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R Is for Rebel DAY 1 IT TAKES HALF THE CONSTABULARY to bring me in to national school. I lead them a merry chase, though. Over croplands new-sown with barley and through a gap in the hedge that puts me in a sprawling, manicured pasture--they expect me to head for the greenwood, ha!--past the hanging tree with its lingering noose and toward the broad, rushing river. I'm halfway across the covered bridge when two of the big oafs appear at the other end, hulking against the flat gray sky beyond. There's no question of going back the way I came. There's only one other choice, but it's a good ten feet of drop, that current looks treacherous, and I can't swim. Captain Lennart pulls me off the guardrail as I'm about to jump into the surging black water below. I want to say I see a ripple of sympathy cross Captain Lennart's face as he's marching me toward the school's detention wagon. He's the one who argued for clemency when my parents were convicted of treason, who insisted that the only decent thing to do was transport me to the penal colony with them. But the judge took one look at me, trussed up like I was in that silly pink dress the lawyer made me wear, and announced it would be cruel to sentence me to my parents' fate when I was still a child with a moldable mind, and a victim of their disgraceful influence as well. The whole point of the Education Act was to give Milean kids a proper chance in life by sending us to national school so we'd learn the deference and compliance and proper work ethic that would ensure our successful future in the Wealdan empire--things we'd never learn in our ignorant, superstitious households. My parents were already in violation of the act, and it was the Crown's solemn duty to take me in hand and preserve my future from any further damage. That, said the judge, was the only decent thing to do. Captain Lennart marches me up the wagon steps. His grip is secure but not painful, and I don't bother trying to break away. Not with a dozen constables around and not without a head start. Once I'm in, Captain Lennart swings the door behind me and bolts it shut. It's musty but dry inside, not nearly the stinking, jam-packed crates from the Burning Days when Milea first fell. I must know a thousand songs about how the grandmas and granddas were hauled off to the workhouses where they labored till they died, carving out roads and mining coal to pay back the Crown for the cost of the invasion and seizure of their homeland. This wagon has two small barred windows, one on either side. Now that I'm catching my breath, it's starting to sink in. All of it. Those days on the run. Sleeping rough. Eating rougher. How far away my parents are already. How I'm ending up in the very place they fought so hard to keep me out of, where I won't know a soul. My eyes start to sting, so I put my face up to one of the windows and sing "The Noble-Hearted Three" as loud as I can. I'm just at the part where the heroic rebels are hacking the locks off a prison wagon very much like this one to free their comrades bound for the gallows when a constable drums his fist on the outside of the wagon, right by my ear. "Shut it!" he shouts. "Or it'll be lashes for singing outlawed songs!" I bite my lip, hard, because twenty strokes with a whip marks you in more ways than one, and most of these constables are using their service to fulfill the Crown's military entrance requirements so they can train to become one of the graycoated butchers that pass for soldiers. I retreat a few paces while muttering swears in Milean, but real quiet so the big ox can't threaten me with lashes for speaking an outlawed tongue as well. The constables are laughing now, wondering what kind of medals the Crown will pin on them for chasing down and bringing in the only child of the murderous, machine-breaking arsonists who were recently transported to the empire's most notorious penal colony for the rest of their natural lives. Those brutes are talking loud so I'll be sure to hear. Well, they can send me to national school. Whether they can keep me quiet is another matter. Excerpted from R Is for Rebel by J. Anderson Coats All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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