The Glorious Adventures of the Sunshine Queen

April 25, 2011
McCaughrean continues the story of Cissy and Kookie from Stop the Train! (2003) with this tall-tale adventure set at the end of the 19th century. A diphtheria outbreak has already claimed the lives of several children in Cissy's small Oklahoma town when a much-loved former teacher offers temporary shelter aboard the Sunshine Queen, a paddle steamer shipwrecked on the banks of the Missouri. This sounds ideal to Cissy, whose mother has just decreed an end to her schoolingâit's time to work in the family's store. In the company of their stern current teacher, Cissy, Kookie, and the beautiful Tibbie join the Bright Lights Theater Company for one dramatic triumph (followed by narrow escape) after another. McCaughrean writes vividlyâyou believe Cissy's pain when the loop of her shop apron suddenly feels "like a hangman's noose"âand there is plenty of bawdy and slapstick comedy. The huge number of characters may make this a challenging read for those unfamiliar with the first book; the use of obscure (hoicked?) and invented (spackfacious?) words, plus frequent but mystifying biblical allusions, probably push this to an older audience. Ages 10âup.

April 1, 2011

A companion to the achingly effervescent prairie epic Stop the Train! (2003). The adventure begins with a bored 12-year-old girl named Cissy Sissney in a small Oklahoma town in the 1890s. Cissy's boredom comes to an abrupt halt when a diphtheria outbreak forces her and her friends Tibbie and Kookie to flee town in the care of their current school teacher. They hope to take refuge with their beloved former teacher, Miss Loucien, who has become part of a touring theater group. The little band of travelers locates the troupe on a dilapidated paddle wheeler, and, little by little, they become trusted members of a dysfunctional family of actors and performers of every stripe. As The Sunshine Queen steams down the Missouri River, the crew tries to make a living by stopping at various towns to put on shows. Unfortunately, they find trouble much more often than money, and high jinks always ensue, leading to the troupe's attempt to rescue Miss Loucien's brother-in-law from being unjustly executed. The plot involves strategically placed rumors, a private train and a daring impersonation of Queen Victoria and her advisors. This one has a bit of a Huck Finn feel, and those readers who like their adventures with heavy doses of plot twists and tomfoolery will be smitten. (Historical fiction. 10-14)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

July 1, 2011

Gr 5-7-Cissy, 12, lives for the days when letters arrive from Miss Loucien, her free-spirited former teacher turned traveling actor. When diphtheria breaks out in her 1890s Oklahoma town and a freak accident destroys her house, Cissy's silver lining comes in the form of evacuation into the care of Miss Loucien and the Bright Lights Theater Company. An amnesiac captain, a pregnant leading lady, and an actor who speaks only in Shakespearean quotes are a few of the motley crew aboard the Sunshine Queen, the old steamboat that the troupe calls home. Spunky and lovable Cissy fits right in with the cast of characters and saves the day on more than one occasion when gamblers, swindlers, and overeager sheriffs cross their path. Life on the boat has an almost magical quality; despite regular catastrophes and brushes with death, everyone survives unscathed and ready for the next escapade. Colorful literary devices enliven the prose: "a great tidal wave of Boredom rolled in from the eastern horizon, then broke over the school roofs." The plot itself takes a while to gather steam, but once it does, it churns its way through adventure after rollicking adventure, with a culminating feat of derring-do that will leave readers cheering.-Emma Burkhart, Springside School, Philadelphia, PA

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2011
Grades 5-8 Cecilia Cissy Sissney finds Olive Town, Oklahoma, dull at the best of times, and things look even worse after her mother pulls her out of school indefinitely and puts her to work in their general store, ostensibly to avoid a diphtheria outbreak. Then an outrageous series of events throws her into an adventure with a bunch of ragtag new friends and a beleaguered theatrical company traveling down the Missouri River on a dilapidated, out-of-commission paddle-wheel boat called the Sunshine Queen. Many of the characters from McCaughreans 2003 Carnegie Medalnominated title, Stop the Train!, return in this rousing, madcap companion, filled with derring-do. Pirates carouse, boilers explode, gamblers swindle, and Cissy and company meet each encounter with equal parts luck and pluck. McCaughrean invests her characters with humanity and shows a farcical sense for dialogue, while her arch narrative voice, includes theatrical vocabulary and clever turns of phrase. Readers will enjoy following the action-filled exploits of the Sunshine Queen even as they relate to the tender circumstances of its colorful inhabitants.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

May 1, 2011
In her second novel set in the American West just before the turn of the century, McCaughrean trades in her railroad town on the prairie (Stop the Train!, rev. 7/03) for a riverboat on the Missouri, delivering another rip-roaring adventure. Twelve-year-old Cissy Sissney can't help missing her former teacher, now part of the touring Bright Lights Theater Company. However, following a pair of calamities -- first her house is destroyed by a freak accident and then a diphtheria outbreak takes a turn for the worse -- she and two of her classmates visit their beloved teacher, whose acting troupe has now taken up residence on a rundown steamboat that is also populated by some interesting sideshow acts. Villains emerge, hijinks ensue, and Cissy and friends save the day. Cissy is a wonderful creation: inquisitive and adventurous, but caught between an overbearing mother and a sympathetic father, and in love with the neighbor boy who seems oblivious to her crush. The ensemble cast of characters also fairly brims with quirky, original characterization in this warmhearted paean to the milieu of Mark Twain and the tall tales of the American West. jonathan hunt

(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)