The Education of Patience Goodspeed
Grade 5-8–This action-packed sequel toThe Voyage of Patience Goodspeed(S & S, 2002) finds theMorning Stardocked at Lahaina, Maui. While the whaling ship is repaired and provisioned, Captain Goodspeed, 13-year-old Patience, and her younger brother stay with a missionary family. Patience is astonished when bluestocking Aunt Anne arrives unexpectedly from Nantucket, accompanied by their neighbor, the empty-headed Fanny Starbuck. Certain that Fanny has matrimonial designs on her father, Patience resists the woman's attempts to mold her into a proper lady and happily resumes her duties as assistant navigator once they set sail. Her quick thinking saves the crew from cannibals, but this dangerous encounter convinces her father to return his children and the ladies to Maui for their safety. Patience is enrolled in a new missionary boarding school, where she is kept strictly segregated from the native girls to avoid picking up "heathen ways." The author skillfully portrays Patience's emotional development and growing maturity while she chafes at the school's restrictions and slowly gains an appreciation for the worthy character traits hidden beneath Fanny's frivolous exterior. The feisty protagonist and her sometimes-improbable adventures have much in common with Avi's Charlotte Doyle and Nancy Kington of Celia Rees'sPirates!(Bloomsbury, 2003), while the amusingly inappropriate etiquette-book quotations that head each chapter owe a debt to Karen Cushman'sCatherine, Called Birdy(Clarion, 1994). Whether or not they read the first book, fans of historical adventures will find this novel highly satisfying.–Ginny Gustin, Sonoma County Library System, Santa Rosa, CACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.