THE LADY’S GUIDE TO PETTICOATS AND PIRACY BY: MACKENZIE LEE
Bibliographic Information:
Author: Mackenzi Lee
Title: The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy
Copyright: 2018
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
ISBN: 9780062795328
Summary: Felicity has returned to England with two main objectives: avoid the marriage proposal of a suitor from Edinburgh, and enroll in medical school. However, men don’t see the value in her growing intellectually. However an opportunity presents itself: one of her old friends is getting married to a doctor in Germany that she just so happens to idolize! She finds herself still in a predicament because actually meeting the doctor could change her future, but the kicker is she doesn’t have the money to make the trip. As luck would have it, a mysterious good Samaritan lady is willing to pay her way as long as Felicity disguises herself as a maid. Despite her apprehensions, Felicity agrees; however, when the truth is revealed about the mysterious woman, Felicity may find that she may be in for way more than she bargained for.
Critical Evaluation: Felicity and her inner monologue were a little annoying to me just because it was so repetitive. While yes it is upsetting that essentially she is living in “a man’s world”, we get it, it doesn’t need to be constantly reiterated over and over again. It was very distracting. It would have been nice to see her step up and take charge, but instead it seemed like she was either running to something or following someone else. While she is supposed to be the one leading, to me it never really seemed like she was. The plot didn’t really feel like an adventure, it more so felt that Felicity was simply tagging along for the ride. On the other hand Felicity’s frustration, Johanna being upset, and Sim’s discomfort appeared to all be realistic thoughts and feelings concerning the time period. Those situations were very relatable concerning the fact that sometimes those very same things take place in today’s society.
Reader’s Annotation: Will Felicity be able to make her trip or will the cost of the trip be too much for her to bear?
Author information: Mackenzi Lee- Mackenzi Lee lived abroad while attending college. When she returned to the United States she began writing books that had a European setting. In addition to being an author, she is a book seller and an events coordinator at Trident Booksellers & Cafe in Boston. Mackenzi travels around the world in order to obtain research for her books!
She starts her process for writing by reading other historical fiction books that are in the same time period that she has chosen to focus on. Also, she tries to get a good general overview of politics, culture, and the economy of the time period that she is focusing on. Mackenzi also looks at primary sources as research for her books. She has written the following titles: “This Monstrous Thing”, “The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy”, and “The Gentlemen’s Guide to Vice and Virtue”
Q & A with Mackenzi Lee. (2017) Retrieved from https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/73969-q-a-with-mackenzi-lee.html
Genre: Historical Fiction
Curriculum Ties– English
Book Talk Ideas– Women roles in the 18th century
Reading Level/ Interest Age: Grades 9-12
Challenge Issues &Defense Preparation:
Challenge Issues: Womens’ roles in the 18th century
Selection Policy: http://ccclib.org/policies/CollectionDevelopmentAccess-1999-11-16.pdf
Library Bill of Rights: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/sites/ala.org.advocacy/files/content/intfreedom/librarybill/lbor.pdf
Right to Read: http://www2.ncte.org/statement/righttoreadguideline/
Rationale:
Bibliographic Information
Author: Mackenzi Lee
Title: The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy
Copyright: 2018
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
ISBN: 9780062795328
Intended Audience: The intended audience is young adults specifically the upper grades of 9-12. This particular book would be beneficial for an English or social studies class. Primarily the book will be used for individual study in which every member of the class should read the book, and then afterwards there can be a group discussion of what transpired in the book as well as observations and thoughts concerning the book. “The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy” can be utilized to start a discussion concerning women’s roles in the 18th century.
Summary: Felicity has returned to England with two main objectives: avoid the marriage proposal of a suitor from Edinburgh, and enroll in medical school. However, men don’t see the value in her growing intellectually. However an opportunity presents itself: one of her old friends is getting married to a doctor in Germany that she just so happens to idolize! She finds herself still in a predicament because actually meeting the doctor could change her future, but the kicker is she doesn’t have the money to make the trip. As luck would have it, a mysterious good Samaritan lady is willing to pay her way as long as Felicity disguises herself as a maid. Despite her apprehensions, Felicity agrees; however, when the truth is revealed about the mysterious woman, Felicity may find that she may be in for way more than she bargained for.
Relationship to Program: The relationship of the book to school objectives would be helping 9th graders develop their literal and inferential understanding skills and comprehension skills. Through reading this book they would learn SLE # R.9.9.1 Connect own background knowledge, including personal experience and perspectives shaped by age, gender, class or national origin, to determine author’s purpose. R.9.9.5. Draw inferences from a sentence or a paragraph (including conclusions, generalizations and predictions) and support them with text evidence. Concerning summary and generalization students will utilize R.9.9.8 Summarize and paraphrase structures in informational and literary texts, including relationships among concepts and details. Concerning analysis and evaluation students will utilize R. 9.9.11 Recognize and define various points of view (e.g., omniscient narrator, third person limited) and R. 9.9.13 Identify and discuss a position using concepts gained from reading (e.g. debate, discussion, position paper, etc.).
http://www.fayar.net/edvision/language/09_reading_0405.pdf
Impact: I think this book would have a positive impact on the beliefs and attitudes of teens. This book provides an inside look at what life was like for women back in the 18th century. It demonstrates how far we as a society have come concerning the fair and equal rights of women. Having teenage girls read this book would show them what their life may have been like living back in that time period.
Why Included: I personally love historical fiction. For teens, sometimes they tend to stereotype history as being automatically boring. With historical fiction, it has a way of getting you so engrossed in the story that you sometimes forget you are actually traveling back in time and seeing how life was like to walk in their shoes. I think it would be intriguing for the teenage girls to read this book so they could see firsthand all the things that they take for granted now in today’s society.
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