THE EDUCATION OF PATIENCE GOODSPEED

Thirteen-year-old Patience Goodspeed has adjusted well to life at sea on her father’s whaler, and she is looking forward to setting out again after a layover in the Sandwich Islands. But the sudden arrival of the odious widow Fanny Starbuck, an empty-headed etiquette maven with an eye to becoming the second Mrs. Goodspeed, and a terrifying encounter with cannibals squelch this plan. Patience and her younger brother Tad find themselves immured in the Wailuku Female Seminary under the watchful eye of the hyper-pious Reverend Wiggins, their only relief being the presence of their kind and sensible Aunt Anne. Patience’s tart narration is as smart and funny as readers of The Voyage of Patience Goodspeed (2002) will recall; her adolescent angst tempered by blooming maturity, aided by friendships with La’ila’i, a student at the seminary, and Charity Wiggins, the mousy daughter of the good Reverend. While neither plot nor characters are stunningly original, the execution of this familiar trope—smart heroine in historical duress—is deftly done, and readers will be glad to learn that Patience’s adventures will continue—with lots of greasy luck, one hopes. (Fiction. 10-14)