HOLD MY HAND AND RUN

Thirteen-year-old Kazy finds her aunt Latimer’s beatings harsh indeed, but what she cannot abide is when the victim is her small stepsister, Beth. The aunt has taken over after the death of Beth’s mother, Eliza, and she is a harsh change from that carefree spirit. Their father, a canon in 17th-century England, is too lost in grief over the loss of both young wives to see the cruelty his sister inflicts on the girls. Thus begins a great adventure. Kazy runs away with Beth, and manages to keep them alive, outwit tinkers, elude those who search for them, and finally find a place with relations of Eliza’s that Kazy had only vaguely known existed. While the whole is rather romanticized and the ending terribly neat, Kazy’s passion in protecting and defending her sister is fully realized and vividly rendered. There’s enough historical detail to place the tale firmly in a far-away, but compelling past, and the adventure will attract readers who enjoy stories of resourceful girls who triumph over adversity. (Fiction. 9-14)