Gr 6—10—Orphaned at four, Bet and Will have been brought up by Will's great-uncle. They were raised together, but not equally, since Bet's mother was a maid who worked for Will's parents. Still, the young people have come to think of each other as siblings. Now that they are 16, Bet wants to attend school and Will seeks to join the army. But in 19-century England, this is not going to be easy. Will is an underage gentleman—he is expected to go to preparatory school. And as a young woman of no means, she cannot attend a school. But clever Bet hatches a plan so that they can both get their desires—they will swap places. Will joins the army and Bet cuts her hair, binds her breasts, and enrolls in his school—as Will. Baratz-Logsted's writing has broad characterizations; a cheerful, modern tone without overt anachronisms; obvious plot points; a quick pace; and a tidy ending. This makes for a fun read without much depth. By the third page, readers know that Will and Bet share a father, even if the characters do not. As the story progresses, any hiccups in Bet's plan are smoothed over with a minimum of fuss, and all loose ends are tied up neatly by the end. There is a long literary tradition of girls passing themselves off as boys to get further in the world, and while this is a pleasant enough version of that trope, it is not an essential addition to the canon.—Geri Diorio, The Ridgefield Library, CT
In nineteenth-century England, Bet's decision to impersonate a boy and attend boarding school leads to an unexpected set of learning experiences, since bullying and sports have too prominent a place in the curriculum. Like the Shakespearean and Dickensian heroines she admires, however, Bet is graced not only with energy and wit, but a string of improbably fortunate plot-twists that enable her to triumph.
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