Victoria

September 1, 2017

Gr 6 Up-This intimate portrait of Queen Victoria simultaneously provides a panorama of the 19th century's great cultural, political, and technological upheaval. Victoria's life is novelistic in scope, and Reef deftly integrates primary sources. Speaking through her diaries and letters, the young Victoria engages readers in her passionate struggle for self-determination. As an older queen, her stormy opposition to the reforming Prime Minister Gladstone provides ample drama. Balancing Victoria's voice, her family, prime ministers, and the British public, Reef offers myriad, often dissenting, perspectives. While the queen embodied middle-class domesticity, Reef reminds readers that she also oversaw the British Empire. A prime example is Victoria's balancing of her eldest son's education and the outbreak of the Crimean War. The plentiful lush images track both Victoria's Britain and changing artistic technologies and styles, from satirical Regency cartoons to family photographs. The appendices include a precis of the limits of monarchical power, a family tree, and a list of British rulers. Fact-seekers can navigate the extensive back matter with much success. VERDICT For history buffs and fans of historical fiction, this biography allows readers to immerse themselves in 19th-century voices and aesthetics.-Katherine Magyarody, Texas A&M University, College Station

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2017
Grades 7-10 Royalty seems to have a perpetual hold on young readers' imaginations, and this biography brings the young nineteenth-century queen to the forefront. First, it skims her childhood in a palace, coronation, and fairy tale wedding before going beyond those highlights to shed light on Victoria's long-lived importance at a time when England and its empire were rapidly changing amid spectacular technological advances. If the conditions of Her Majesty's rule recalls that of great-great-granddaughter Elizabeth II's reign, it won't be lost on those absorbing Reef's beautifully produced book. Full of color portraits, period engravings, and fascinating photographs of the queen, her consort, and her progeny, this endeavor is made to pore over again and again. Victoria's personality is at the forefront and humanizes the bio. She is by turns hot-tempered and fair, hardworking yet emotional. Back matter includes a family tree that leads to newest royals George and Charlotte, as well as extensive notes. Anglophiles and history lovers should definitely enjoy this.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2018
A vivid portrait of the feisty British monarch who ruled for over sixty years. Reef dexterously shows not only Victoria's development as a person but also her evolution as a ruler within the social and political upheavals of her time, elegantly layering in details to provide a broader view of the era. Primary source material and spectacular reproductions in full color appear throughout. Timeline. Bib., ind.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2018
Fans' obsession with Victorian England seems never-ending, yet how much do young Victorianaphiles know about the real woman who gave the period its name? Coming to the rescue is veteran biographer Reef (Ernest Hemingway, rev. 9/09; Florence Nightingale, rev. 5/16) who, beginning with Victoria's family background and her complicated and cruel upbringing, paints a vivid portrait of the feisty monarch who assumed the British throne at age eighteen and then ruled for over sixty years. Reef dexterously shows not only Victoria's development as a person but also her evolution as a ruler within the social and political upheavals of her time, elegantly layering in details to provide a broader view of the era (including the misery of the desperately poor throughout the British Isles, and the brutal bloodshed tied to Britain's empire-building in places like the Crimean region, Afghanistan, Turkey, and Victoria's "jewel in the crown," India). On the personal side, readers will be intrigued by the well-drawn descriptions of Victoria's relationships with a range of individuals including prime ministers, her own children, other family members, and the various men in her life. These last include her beloved husband Albert and the Scotsman John Brown, a retainer who became (scandalously) close to Victoria after the prince consort's death. Full of primary source material and spectacular paintings in full color as well as back matter that includes a Windsor family tree, source notes, and a rich bibliography, this is a biography for Victoriana and history lovers alike. monica edinger

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from September 1, 2017
One of history's most influential rulers became queen just out of girlhood and led her country during a time of great change. Victoria, until recently Britain's longest-reigning monarch, became queen through a series of tragedies and accidents. Her father, the Duke of Kent, died when she was an infant, so she and her German-born mother moved into Kensington Palace, where Victoria grew up as part of the royal family but suffered the machinations of her mother and her late father's assistant. Although Victoria was just 18 when she became queen, she was old enough to act on her own behalf--and did so. During her reign, she worked with various prime ministers, saw her country and its empire through multiple wars, and presided over a nation coping with vast technological and social change. Reef is an accomplished biographer for young readers, and this is one of her best. Victoria's personality comes through in the lively narrative, though Reef never shies from the public and personal controversies that Victoria brought on herself. All the necessary context for understanding her life and times is woven through without ever getting in the way. The text is enhanced by a plethora of contemporaneous illustrations, making this a handsome volume. The backmatter includes a list of British monarchs, family tree, extensive source notes, bibliography, and picture credits. A biography fit for a queen. (index) (Biography. 12-18)

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