Tagged: royal diaries
Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba by Patricia McKissack
(Cover picture courtesy of The Flying Librarian’s Hideout.)
First Month of Mbangala:
The Season When the Grass is Burned
So here I am in the garden, writing…if these words have magic, then I will use them to plot and plan a way to drive the Portugese from our land. And maybe one day my pages will tell others that I, Nzingha, First Daughter of Kiluanji, was a Mbundu, one of a powerful people who are free and unafraid to fight for our beloved homeland of Ndongo in the Kwanza River Valley.
Later the Same Evening
My sisters found me. Kifunji cannot resist teasing. She gives a big laugh. “Writing is good for you, sister. To see you sitting quietly is such a rare pleasure. Isn’t it better than hurling a spear, or wrestling some boy to the ground?”…I am accused of being independent. It is true, I suppose, for I would rather be kept in an open basket than a lukata—a box.
Now here is a woman who absolutely deserves a book in The Royal Diaries! And the sad part? I had no idea she even existed until I read it a few weeks ago.
By all accounts, Nzingha was a very strong leader in her later life and we see hints of that in her ‘diary’ as a girl of thirteen. She’s also not perfect, something everyone can relate to, making a false accusation in front of the whole court, which turns out to be baseless. Unlike a lot of the princesses in The Royal Diaries, Nzingha grows wiser as she grows older and we see believable flashes of the woman she would become. Her mistrust of the Portugese, but also her prowess as a warrior make her an enjoyable, believable character.
The plot is fairly fast-paced, but I was dismayed that Patricia McKissack changed some history to make things more dramatic. When Nzingha went to meet with the Portugese, she sat on one of her warriors so as to be equal with the leader at age 13. However, in the Historical Note we learn that this did not happen until way later in her life. Sometimes history doesn’t need to be changed to be more exciting and this is one of the cases. There’s nothing wrong with telling it as it really was! I think part of it was that McKissack had to add not just more exciting events, but more events period because it is a very short book.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
*Only available used.
Lady of Palenque: Flower of Bacal by Anna Kirwan
(Cover picture courtesy of Examiner.com.)
9.15.18.2.11 9 Chuen 14 Mol (July 7)
Lakamha, Bacal Highland
I thought, now that I leave Lakamha, I may never return. I may never see my family again. Well, perhaps I will see some of them. But I will be like the water that comes down from a spring deep in the heart of a mountain cavern. It can flow and seep and pool and cascade all the way down to the water lily fields, all the way down to the big river, all the way to the marshes and the great salt sea….
But it can never flow back uphill to its home.
I will never forget Lakamha, even if Lakamha forgets me.
All I really have to say is meh. Lady of Palenque was a book that had so much potential that was unrealized; I should have loved it. I have visited 3 different Mayan cities, two of which are mentioned in the book and was fascinated by even the little bit of history I learned while there. So when I saw that Lady of Palenque was written in the point of view of a Mayan princess, I practically jumped with joy. Here was a great opportunity to learn more about the Classical Mayan Period and their culture!
Um, not really. Sure, I learned a few things, but Anna Kirwan didn’t really seem to know how to explain all of the exotic customs and items from daily life to readers. It seems like she just assumed readers would know about these things. Well, no. Despite the Mayan Doomsday scare of 2012 perpetuated by an idiotic media, not much is actually known about the Mayan culture in the mainstream. Even someone like me who has visited multiple Mayan sites really has next to no background in their history in the relative scheme of things. So I didn’t really learn as much as I did from other books in The Royal Diaries.
Part of the problem was the names. Oh my word, the names! When the main character introduces herself as ShahnaK’in Yaxchel Pacal, Princess Green Jay on the Wall, you know things are going to be complicated. And that really isn’t the Lady of Palenque’s name because Anna Kirwan had to make up her personal name. Her real name was “Chac Nik Ye, Yax Ahau Xoc”. Now, I’m a huge advocate for being as realistic as possible in historical fiction, but with all of the insanely long, complicated names (to a Westerner with a frankly pathetic background in language) I had a hard time following the story itself. As far as I can tell, it mostly features the thirteen-year-old Lady travelling to her husband-to-be in Xukpi.
There has to be a better way to keep the names straight without completely dumbing down the book, right? Right?!
I give this book 2/5 stars.
*Only available as a used book.
Jahanara: Princess of Princesses by Kathryn Lasky
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
December 1, 1627
My father has four wives, but I am the daughter of the one he loves most, Arjumand Banu Geum. I, too, am a Begum, a princess. My name is Jahanara, great-granddaughter of Akbar, the greatest Moghul ruler of India…
I have diamonds the size of my small toe, and rubies the size of beetles, and I have thirty servants and eight elephants trained specifically for me. I have everything except freedom. We are all of us imprisoned: my mother, my father, my younger brothers, and my younger sister. In tents hung with gold cloth, we drink from emerald-studded chalices and yet we are prisoners.
This was my first introduction to the splendor that was India and I have to say it was great! Kathryn Lasky obviously did her research and included many little details that tween readers will love, however I cannot and will not comment on the accuracy of Jahanara: Princess of Princesses. Unlike with ancient Egypt and ancient Rome, I know next to nothing about India and I’m certainly not about to pretend I do.
Jahanara herself is a very good character that many readers will look up to. She believes that women in India have no power, but eventually she is taught that she was wrong. She has family troubles, like many people do and worries constantly about the radical religious streak she sees in her older brother.
Political intrigue, romance, war and death make Jahanara: Princess of Princesses a bit more mature than many of the other books in The Royal Diaries, so I would recommend it for older tweens and young teens. However, there really isn’t all that much to worry about because the violence isn’t explicit and there is no sex (obviously).
I give this book 4.5/5 stars.
Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile by Kristiana Gregory
(Cover picture courtesy of Elmhurst.)
3 Januarius, Morning
I could feel my insides shaking. Would this sister try to poison me? Yes, I believe so. As for my other older sister, Berenice—never! She and I adore each other even though I am eight years younger.
I took the cup and raised it toward Tryphaena as if toasting her, but really I was watching the liquid, looking for oil floating on its surface, or powder sticking to the sides of the cup. If I suspected poison and tossed it into the pool, she would have her guards behead me on the spot. If it was indeed poison, one sip and I could die…
My eyes closed as I took the first sip, as if savoring such an excellent taste, but really my thought was, O Isis, I am afraid….My stomach turned with nervousness, or was it from a fearsome death beginning in me?
The Royal Diaries series is a great one for young girls to learn about the lives of famous women. And no woman is more famous than Cleopatra VII, who has become a cultural phenomenon. So who was she? What was she like as a child? Kristiana Gregory tries to answer that question by writing a diary from Cleopatra’s own point of view.
What I like about Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile is that it doesn’t feel like you’re reading a diary. It feels like you’re seeing the events happen in real time as Cleopatra describes them, unlike some of the other books in the series. Kristiana Gregory obviously put a lot of research into her novel and it shines through in the little details about ancient Egyptian life. The narrative takes a different direction than a lot of books about Cleopatra’s younger years as it shows her going to Rome with her father, which may or may not be true—after all, it is ancient history. This is where she meets Marc Antony and helps her father, who speaks no Latin, navigate Roman politics.
Readers will fall in love with Cleopatra. She’s resourceful, strong and is, at the same time, a teenage girl at heart. She falls in love, she gets scared, she doubts herself…most readers will be able to relate to her.
The only caveat I have about this book is the religious aspect. Cleopatra admires Nefertiti and Akhenaten for their monotheism, even though no one by the Ptolemaic period would have had any clue who they were as the city they built (Akhetaten) was torn apart brick by brick and used in other Pharaohs’ monuments.
I give this book 4.5/5 stars.
Isabel: Jewel of Castilla by Carolyn Meyer
(Cover picture courtesy of The Flying Librarian’s Hideout.)
Segovia—12th of April 1466
After Mass this morning, I climbed the narrow, winding stone steps to a window high in one of the castle turrets. I often come up here to see what lies beyond my prison. Segovia is surrounded by four thick walls, each with a heavy wooden gate. The aqueduct built by the Romans more than a thousand years ago stretches to the horizon.
Far below the castle, the Eresma River rushes through a narrow gorge. Across the river, flocks of sheep seem to flow like a river themselves. The sheep bleat, their bells tinkle—I know this, even if I cannot hear them. In the fields beyond the walls, little green shoots of wheat are pushing up. How I yearn to be there instead of here.
Queen Isabel of Spain was both a woman to be admired and a woman to be hated. On one hand, she was an incredibly strong female leader for her time who actually chose who she got to marry. On the other hand, she was the very woman that started the horrible, bloody Inquisition that killed thousands of innocents and forced thousands more to flee their homes. Here in Isabel: Jewel of Castilla, Carolyn Meyer has attempted to explain both her strong side as well as her ruthless side that came from a combination of her deep faith and her hellfire-and-brimstone-preaching confessor, who later runs the Inquisition. She certainly succeeds in creating an interesting explanation for Isabel’s brutality in her later life.
Since the story is told from Isabel when she is young, readers aged 10-12 will be able to enjoy this book. It talks of her impending marriage and the civil war currently going on, but never actually touches on much sexuality or violence. I wouldn’t call this a fast-paced novel, but at least it is an interesting one. The dynamics between the characters (Isabel and her brother or Isabel and Queen Juana) are definitely realistic and very believable since the book is supposed to be Isabel writing her innermost thoughts about the people in her lonely life.
I never really knew much about Medieval Spain until I read this novel and I can assure you, I learned quite a lot. Isabel certainly was a complicated woman, but Carolyn Meyer has made her much more accessible to modern readers. Anyone who reads this will be entertained and learn a lot of history at the same time.
I give this book 4/5 stars.