Mary, Queen of Scots: Queen Without a Country, France 1553 (The Royal Diaries)
Sent from her native Scotland to live in the court of her future  father-in-law, King Henry II of France, young Mary, Queen of Scots, spends her  time attending balls, hunting and hawking, learning Latin and fractions and  music, and playing with her future husband, Francis. In Kathryn Lasky's  fictionalized diary of the 11-year-old queen, readers will get a piquant taste  of 16th-century life in Europe. Mary is quite aware of her role as the betrothed  to France's royal family. Playing chess together one day, Francis comments to  Mary, "Did it ever strike you, Mary, that we are not so much children and sons  and daughters of parents as we are pieces on a gigantic chessboard called  Europe? You are given to me to help checkmate England." As with the other titles  in the Royal Diaries series (Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of  Tudor, etc.), a fact-packed historical note, epilogue, paintings, and  family tree provide just enough additional information to whet the appetites of  readers for more about the ill-fated queen of Scotland and France. (Ages 9 to  14)--Emilie Coulter