Orphaned young Lady Catherine was naturally enthralled by the dashing Sir Walter Raleigh and his tales about the bountiful new world, waiting across the sea for the rule and law of his gracious Queen Elizabeth I.
But Cate didn't realize that showing even slight interest in the Queen's favorite could be the end of her time at court. Being banished from such a hostile place - a death sentence or a blessing?
Enjoy this tale of the early English colony whose mysterious disappearance continues to intrigue us.
**kmm
Book info: Cate of the Lost Colony / Lisa Klein. Bloomsbury, 2010. [author's website] [publisher site] [book trailer]
Recommendation: Seeing Indians in Queen Elizabeth’s court, young Lady Catherine Archer is enthralled by Sir Walter Raleigh’s reports of his New World colony and by Sir Walter himself. But when poems from Sir Walter are found in her room, the orphaned Cate is sent away from the court by the jealous Queen, who keeps Raleigh close by her, not allowing him to even visit the colony that he raised money to establish.
Locked in the Tower of London, Cate worries that she will die alone and forgotten. But after weeks in prison, her fate is announced – she has been banished to Roanoke Colony in Virginia, never to return to England! For a 14 year old girl, raised to be a gentle lady, the long sea voyage (where pirates or the enemy Spanish are sure to attack the English ship) and the primitive conditions of the Colony are more likely a death sentence than any mercy from the Queen.
Cate is determined to see for herself the wonders of the New World that Raleigh’s captains reported, as she completes the voyage which brings the first women colonists from England to Roanoke. But they find the fort’s walls destroyed, the planted crops withered away, and the Roanoke soldiers dead or missing…
Will the colonists be able to survive with only the supplies in their ship? Did the friendly Indians kill the soldiers or are there other enemies beyond the trees? Will the Queen let Sir Walter visit his colony at last? And will city girl Cate let go of her dreams of Raleigh and find a happy ending in this wilderness? 336 pages (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.
My parents have a house in Duck, NC and every year we go down. I took my oldest to see The Lost Colony reenactment last year. So much fun. She will LOVE this book. Thanks for the great recommendation! I've come to expect no less.
ReplyDelete@Tia - she really will get into it if y'all have visited the area. I can just hear the whispering of the dune grasses when Cate is watching the sea...
ReplyDelete**Katy M
Recommending YA books beyond the bestsellers at http://BooksYALove.blogspot.com
Follow me on Twitter @BooksYALove
Just ordered this and can't wait to read it and share it with my daughter before our Outer Banks trip in August. Thanks for your wonderful recommendations!
ReplyDelete