Fallen Grace
In this Dickensian read, Grace Parkes and her sister, simple Lily, have been abandoned to fate. Their mother�s dead, and their father long ago disappeared. Life in a school for underprivileged girls led to pregnancy for Grace after one of the school�s benefactors came to her bed. When the book opens, Grace is at the cemetery hiding the remains of the baby, who died in childbirth, in a stranger�s casket because she is too poor to provide a burial. There she meets a handsome young lawyer who offers his card and a shifty woman who offers her work in a funeral home. All of Dickens� touchstones are here: the tightly wound connections; the great�and not-so-great�expectations; the bumpy twists; and the detailed descriptions of life in Victorian England. The latter are particularly notable. Hooper has done her research, and she makes elements like Victorian funeral practices absolutely fascinating. The story itself moves at an energetic, page-turning clip. If at times the coincidences seem, well, too coincidental, blame Dickens. Grades 7-10. --Ilene Cooper