How did I not know about this wonderful book?
How have I not heard about the delicious and most satisfying story within the covers of A Corner of White?
I have been missing out! My students have been missing out.
Our library has had this book for at least two years and although I had heard
good reviews about it when it was purchased, it just hasn’t taken off.
So, when I saw the gorgeous new cover of A Tangle of Gold, the third book Jaclyn Moriarty’s ‘Colours of Madeleine Trilogy’ I decided it was time to read the series. Actually, I decided it was time to listen to the series, so I borrowed it from the Auckland Libraries eAudio collection and listened to it on my great commute from the ‘Magical North’ (reference from The Kingdom of Cello, in A Corner of White).
The eAudio experience of this version made it even more stunning. I absolutely adored the voices of Fiona Hardingham as the distracted Madeleine and Andrew Eiden as Elliot, the hero boy from ‘The Farms, Kingdom of Cello’. Kate Reinders and Peter McGowan also join in to bring to life the entertaining characters emerging from ‘Cambridge England, The World’ and the mysterious ‘Kingdom of Cello’.
Fast-talking Madeleine is living in poverty in England with
her dysfunctional mother. They have run away from their former lives of
privilege and even Madeleine isn’t quite sure why. To fill their days
Madeleine’s mother has coordinated home schooling lessons with two other teenagers,
Jack and Belle. Jack, Belle and Madeleine and their ensuing conversations are cracked and crazy,
as are their tutors, one of whom suggests they research a famous person from
Cambridge University as an assignment. Thus connections with Isaac Newton begin
to unfold.
In the other world, Elliot is a strapping, handsome, down-home
boy from a small town called Bonfire, in the area known as ‘The Farms’. Elliot
is quietly confident in himself and the dependable farm folk around him.
Tragedy had struck his family the year before when a ‘colour attack’ had swept
through the town, killing his uncle and taking his father. The mystery around
this disappearance and the role played by the sheriff and his team to solve the
crime was one of the very addictive aspects of the story. ‘Call myself a caged
bird in a lava lamp’ (more Cellian references!), but I just couldn’t get enough of the suspense around the Twicklehams and their
mute daughter from the town of ‘Old Quaint’!
Okay, so you can see there is a lot to the plot! To cut to
the chase, Madeleine and Elliot’s world connect through a crack in the two kingdoms,
which leaves a portal open in Cambridge, England that has attached itself to a
parking meter. Madeleine spots a small note sticking out of the parking meter and the two teens begin to communicate - a totally illegal activity in Cello – and,
although neither understand the other’s world they both have wisdom they can
offer each other in desperate times.
As the publisher summary says: ‘The Colors of Madeleine is
a rousing, funny genre-busting series’. It is a series that does not get enough
attention. I give it five stars *****. Get out there and find this book – you
are missing out!
But wait, there is more. I’m not a big Tweeter, but I
enjoyed this book so much as I was reading it that I felt I needed to tell the
world. Here’s what happened when I did:
It’s so cool when an author responds to a name drop! Go read this book pronto.
