Young Adult Literature

 

The Teeth of the Gale
by Joan Aiken

          1988

From School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up A stirring continuation of the adventures of the resourceful orphaned heir who, at 12, ran away from his Spanish grandfather's estate to seek his English father's people in Go Saddle the Sea (Doubleday, 1977; o.p.); and a year later made a shipwrecked return, in Bridle the Wind (Delacorte, 1983). It is a more mature Felix, now 18, who develops an understanding of his responsibilities as he meets physical dangers and political intrigues when his studies are interrupted and his help asked in regaining custody of children kidnapped by their mad fatheran escaped political prisoner. His elderly aunts fear that it is all a political trap to confiscate the estates, as grandfather is a known liberal, whose friends and views are out of favor with the restored monarch turned reactionary. But one member of the rescue party is Juana, the Basque girl whom Felix lovesrespectfully, since she has entered a conventand hopefully, since she has not taken final vows. Full of action, interesting characters, and made-real places, this forms a well-meshed conclusion to earlier episodes and an intriguing glimpse into Spain in the 1820s. (Author's historic notes and reading list are appended.) These books get better with each reading; share them with the adults. Ruth M. McConnell, San Antonio Public Library
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Themes/Categories

-Adventure
-Historical Fiction

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