The Red Necklace

Author: Sally Gardner

Publisher: Orion Children's Books

Publication Year: 2007

Most of the readers will be: Middle school girls and boys.

Reader's Advisory: Rather than living through the French Revolution, Norby the robot travels back in time to experience it in the Asimovs' Norby and the Queen's Necklace.

Summary:
Yann Margoza puts on magic shows with his friends Tetu and Topolain. He can throw his voice and read people's thoughts and the future. Tetu has some special talants, too. He can move things with his mind. Together, they make an automoton come to life on stage as Topolain performs. Soon, however, they realize they have gotten some unwanted attention.
Count Kalliovski wants them to perform at a party being held at the new chateau of the Marquis de Villeduval. Once they get to the chateau and actually meet the Count, Tetu and Topolain realize they are in grave danger. Count Kalliovski is a man they once knew by a different name and he is willing to kill them to keep his past a secret. Topolain does not make it out of the chateau alive. Tetu and Yann are helped to freedom by the Marquis's unfortunate daughter Sido.
Yann must flee to England to escape the Count. He is unhappy and feels very out of place at first. But he makes some good friends and takes some comfort in the fact that his new family are Sido's aunt and uncle.
As the revolution heats up and aristocrats are being jailed and murdered, Yann returns to France to rescue Sido from both the revolutionaries and the clutches of Count Kalliovski. With a little luck and magic he might just be able to get her out of the country.

My favorite passage:

'My dear young sir, I cannot thank you enough for your bravery in the face of such terrifying and, may I add, murderous villains. May I ask the name of my saviour?'
'Yan Margoza.'
'I have to report,' Mr Trippen carried on, standing up, 'I have to report that I felt my dying moment upon life's tentative stage had come. Its drama in its myriad forms rushed before my misty eyes, my courage slipping from me like a shadow when I thought of my darling Mrs Trippen and the young Trippens all left fatherless.'
'Do you always use so many words?' asked Yann, smiling.
'They are like bonbons for the tongue, my young friend,' He took out his hanky and mopped his brow. 'Lucky, weren't we, about the young girl being there. I can't imagine what she saw in those two rogues. But I can assure you that the fairer sex is one of life's mysteries, a folly of Mother Nature's creation, for never has there been anything more delightfully irrational and tantalising upon the face of the earth than woman. If it were not for Delilah, Samson and the temples would still have stood; if it were not for Cleopatra, Caesar...'
''Allo!' came a voice, 'Why did you run away so quickly?'
Mr Trippen spun round, his face pale. 'Alas, my young man, she has followed us. Those two ruffians will be here in a moment. I tell thee, young sir, we are undone!'
'Didn't you realise?' said Yann. He began to laugh. 'That was me pretending to be a woman.'
'No! That is incredible,' said Mr Trippen. 'Why, my dear sir, I had no idea I was talking to a fellow thespian.' He looked earnestly at Yann. 'I see now a touch of the Hamlet about you. A noble yet tragic face. Where did you learn to speak such excellent French?'
'In France,' Said Yann.(pg 120-121)

What I really think:
Most of the historical fiction novels I have read have been very realistic. The author invents the particular characters, but we can imagine that the events that take place very well could have happened.
Gardner takes great liberties with history. Yann and Tetu do things normal people can't do. Count Kalliovski has blackmail material on pretty much the entire aristocracy. There is a lot going on here besides the Revolution. And yet, Gardner gets across what that time was like in France. Love notes fall from the sky after the Bastille falls. Aristoracts fear for their lives.
These two things together, the fantastic and the real, make this an engaging novel. Really, if I am enthusiastic about a historical fiction novel, it must be good.