LEXILE 760 ages 9-12
"Brilliant, unusual writing." —Chicago Tribune.
Attracted by that accolade on the book's front cover, I started reading Tennyson by Lesley M. M. Blume while administering the MCAS Math tests this month. It was a book purchased for our classroom library at a recent school book fair. The setting and plot also appealed to me: a once grand Louisiana plantation now covered in vines, two sisters coming to terms with their family's dark history. While I wasn't disappointed by the distinctive writing style and the haunting historical elements, I couldn't agree more with the sentiments expressed in the reviews below.
Blume has an impressive command of the English language, but the story is too contrived . . . It's unfortunate that the author's considerable writing talent lacks a stronger plot.
—School Library Journal
The Fontaine history is complex, evoking horror and sympathy; by contrast, a subplot involving Tennyson’s haughty New York editor feels jarringly cartoonish. Still, many readers will respond to this novel’s Southern gothic sensibility, especially Blume’s beautiful, poetic writing about how the past resonates through the generations.
—Booklist
Visit the Lesley M.M. Blume's website for some interesting links to antebellum plantation houses. Also, Belle Grove is said to have been one of the author's inspirations for Aigredoux.
