Product Description

Included in one of the 2004 YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults lists

Nominated for the White Pine Reading Program of the Durham District School Board

Gentle Emmaline loves nothing more than books and flowers and her little brother Tommy. Sadly, her idyllic country life in Victorian England comes to an abrupt end when her father dies of cholera. The family is forced to move to a mill town, where Emmaline’s mother is dreadfully injured in a factory accident. To ease her pain she takes laudanum and is soon addicted, craving the drug so badly that she sells Tommy into servitude as a chimney sweep in London. Emmaline knows that a sweep’s life is short and awful. Small boys as young as five are forced to climb naked into dark chimneys, their bare feet prodded by nail-studded sticks to keep them working. If Tommy is to survive, it is up to Emmaline to find him.

Linda Holeman brings a bygone period to life in a book of serious historical fiction for young adults.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #269577 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-02
• Released on: 2003-09-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9-Emmaline, the daughter of a village shopkeeper, leads an idyllic existence in 1830s England. When her father dies of cholera, the family is forced to move to a factory town where her mother finds work in a mill. When Emmaline is 15, her mother is injured in an industrial accident and becomes addicted to laudanum; she sells her young, deaf son into service as a chimney sweep to support her habit. Emmaline goes to London to search for him and finds work as a scullery maid. When she is not working, she relentlessly searches for her brother. She also begins to form connections with her fellow servants in the house where she works and lives. Emmaline is a strong young woman who takes things into her own hands. The supporting characters are also well drawn and three-dimensional. The narrative moves swiftly, thanks to short chapters and several subplots and twists, and builds to a satisfying conclusion. Period details enhance the descriptions, especially that of sooty, Dickensian London. Fans of historical fiction will be hooked.
Kristen Oravec, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Strongsville, OH
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 8-11. In the 1830s, following her father's death, 15-year-old Emmaline Roke and her penniless family leave their English country village for a mill town, where things are just as difficult. Bad turns worse when her mother, injured in a mill accident, becomes addicted to laudanum and, desperate for drugs, sells Emmaline's little brother into service as a chimney sweep. To rescue him, Emmaline must go London, a quest she finds dangerous but also unexpectedly rewarding. Holeman vividly portrays the many contrasts of daily life in Victorian England, from the upper classes to child laborers, and creates an engaging, well-developed protagonist who exemplifies the power of determination and love--whether she's coping with the harsh complexities of living with an addicted parent or bravely trying to rescue her brother. Diverse supporting characters, drama, suspense, and a hint of romance round things out. A compelling story of hard times, worse times, and hope for better times to come. Shelle Rosenfeld
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
?The narrative moves swiftly?and builds to a satisfying conclusion?. Fans of historical fiction will be hooked.?
?School Library Journal [starred review]

?Holeman vividly portrays the many contrasts of 1830s Victorian life?and creates an engaging, well-developed protagonist who exemplifies the power of determination and love?. Diverse supporting characters, drama, suspense, and a hint of romance round things out. A compelling story??
?Booklist

?This gripping novel draws a shockingly realistic portrait of?19th century England.?
?The White Ravens 2003, A Selection of International Children?s and Youth Literature

?Significant research and vivid imagery provide readers with an accurate and poignant image of England during its industrial coming-of-age.?
?VOYA

??virtue finally triumphs over vice in this richly plotted Dickensian saga??
?The Horn Book Guide

?Holeman?s?[novel] is absolutely outstanding?. While the strong storyline and vivid characterizations are sufficiently compelling to provide this book with a ?Highly Recommended? rating, it is the period detail that Holeman seamlessly weaves into her plot that truly sets this book apart?. One of this year?s absolute ?must? purchases??
?CM Magazine

??a powerful recreation of life in 1830s England?. Holeman packs a great deal of fascinating material into her moving portrait of the period.?
?Quill & Quire

??a welcome addition to the outstanding list of books [Linda Holeman] has written for young people? This novel is rich in historical detail? [T]een readers?will find Search of the Moon King?s Daughter immensely satisfying and engaging.?
?Books In Canada

?This work does a good job of portraying the realities of life?in early nineteenth-century England?. In the classroom, this book could be used when discussing the social history of the nineteenth-century or the effects of the Industrial Revolution??
?Resource Links

??[a] gripping historical novel??
?Toronto Star

?[Linda Holeman?s] exhaustive research and eye for detail help her to evoke the years 1830-36 with verisimilitude and to teach her readers ? whether child or adult ? a thing or two?. [This] is a book a young reader would be pleased to receive as a present. It is as entertaining as it is informative, possessing a great story??
?The Vancouver Sun

?This is great writing, and a consuming read.?
?Brandon Sun

?This fine work of historical fiction navigates authentic emotional territory.?
?Today?s Parent

?We see?the kind of wisdom with which great battles are fought and won, and admire the journey she embarks upon?. Search of the Moon King?s Daughter is ahead?by just a step or two.?
?Star Phoenix


From the Hardcover edition. -- Review

Customer Reviews

You'd never know by the title
Picking up this book from the library, I figured it was a fantasy about some Princess on a quest. Imagine my surprise when I found out that it was about Emmaline, an English girl living in the 1800's. When Emmaline's father dies, her mother, her deaf younger brother Tommy, and Emmaline must move away from their country home into a dirty, crowded city. Emmaline's mother goes to work in the mills, and Emmaline herself must work as a seamstress to her Aunt Phoebe.
Then another tragedy strikes: Emmaline's mother is severely injured at the mills. She can no longer work and worse, she soon becomes hooked on laudanum, the pain-reliever she takes. Not only does she spend all the money Emmaline brings in on the drug, but she also sells Emmaline's few possessions and, eventually, even Tommy.
When Emmaline finds that her mother has sold Tommy to be a chimneysweep in London, she goes there to find him. The only problems are that London is a big city, and Emmaline has no idea where Tommy is. Besides that, she doesn't have enough money to survive until she finds him.
This is an awesome book that you will probably enjoy. It's historical fiction, but doesn't make you feel as if you've been lectured. I reccomend this book.

A Lovely Surprise
When I picked up this book from the library, I wasn't expecting much to be behind the pretty cover. Was I ever in for a surprise! Linda Holeman has created a uniquely beautiful novel that deserves to be much more popular than it is.

In 1830's England, Emmaline Roke spends her childhood in a a quiet country village. Surrounded by her carefree father Jasper and an idyllic setting, she is shocked when her father dies and her baby brother Tommy's illness harms him tragically. Poverty-stricken without Jasper's money, Emmaline's mother Cat must begin a horrible life of mill work. Then her mother is injured in a mill accident-and the consequences of her accident endager both Cat and Tommy, who is the dearest thing in Emmaline's world. Intelligent, sweet, and determined, Emmaline goes on a quest to rise above her terrible life and save her precious brother.

Emmaline's story is wonderfully engaging. Holeman writes with beauty and skill, and her somehow quaint style captures the essence and sweetness of Emmaline and Tommy. While in other books a similar story would be dull, this book is filled with enough characterization, fascinating period detail, and complications that it grabs the reader. Emmaline inspired and impressed me, and I couldn't wait to see what happened to her.

My only complaint with the book is that the ending, although it had excellent themes, was that it seemed a little too rushed. However, everything else about "Search of the Moon King's Daughter" was completely wonderful.

An Incredibly Crafted Tale
A sad, shockingly accurate depiction of Victorian England in 1830 during the industrial age when the elite and upper echelon held sway and power over the lives of the poor, and wretched downtrodden.

In a Charles Dicken's like fashion, rich in detail of the haves and have nots, Holeman takes us to the gritty, nasty streets of England cities where prostitution and mill work are a few of the only options for women, where children are sold to a life of climbing into and cleaning dirty chimneys, where food is miserly given to the hungry while the rich feast on sumptuous banquets, where the help are treated miserably and the rich have carte blanche to do with them as they will.

Emmaline, her father, mother and baby brother live a calm countryside existence. Rich in beauty of character, her father teaches her the poetry of Yeats and thus, Emmaline calls him The Moon King.

When Cholera takes the life of her father, her emotionally weak mother drinks herself into denial while at the age of ten Emmaline tries her best to fend for her brother and self.

Forced to flee to a mill town, Emmaline's mother obtains work in the factory where she is maimed by a machine. Out of work and a means of income, to quell the physical and emotional pain, Emmaline's mother becomes addicted to laudanum. In a drug induced state, she sells her small son Tommy to the men who use children as labor to clean the chimneys.

Against all odds, Emmaline, The Moon King's Daughter, searches for her brother in the hope to find and save him.

Highly recommended not only because of the well-researched material throughout, but also for the beautiful story of a sister who loves her brother with all her heart and will not cease until she finds him.