Gypsy Crown
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Emilia Finch and her cousin Luka are gypsies. They live a strongly traditional life, rich with story, music, dance, and magic, governed by the laws of the clan and the ways of the road. To the repressive Puritanical government of 17th century England, however, the gypsies are thieving, fortune-telling vagrants who are most likely allies of the devil. Soon, a series of terrible events lands the family in jail, charged with murder. Emilia and Luka manage to escape, promising to bring back help and free them. But how? Emilia believes in the legend of the charms: it is said that the luck of the Rom soured after a long-ago gypsy matriarch broke her chain of charms, giving one charm to each of her five children. If they can gather the charms from the families, Emilia thinks, the strong magic of the Rom will somehow bring her family freedom. Luka, on the other hand, is more practical - he wants to enlist the help of the other clans to help the Finches escape.Emilia and Luka must race through the countryside, navigating a hornets' nest of Rom-hating Puritans, Royalist spies, and traitors, if they are to complete their quest before the magistrate delivers a death sentence…VOYASet at the end of Cromwell's rule in England, Forsyth's first historical fiction is also her first young adult novel. Fans of her previous books will not be disappointed in her market shift, and this book is certain to win her new fans. Thirteen-year-old Rom or gypsy cousins Amilia and Luka travel with their extended family to a town fair in hopes of raising cash for Amilia's sister's dowry. Instead their entire family is imprisoned, and the cousins, along with the family menagerie of a horse, a dog, a bear, and a monkey, are sent on a quest to seek magical and practical help from the four other gypsy families of England. Neither Amilia nor Luka are quite sure how much of their story is real and how much is magic, and the reader can enjoy this book either way. The cousins are likeable, and if the reader sometimes forgets that they are only thirteen, it can be forgiven because of their remarkable resourcefulness and self possession. Although fans of fantasy will instantly guess that the children will need to use each of their few possessions, no matter how strange, to achieve their goal, the plot pulls them along despite its predictability. Woven into an accurate picture of mid-seventeeth-century England, this book is perfect for a rainy afternoon. As an added bonus, a detailed afterward separates fact from fiction. Reviewer: Beth Karpas
