Synopsis
ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD ISABELLE IS A LACEMAKER IN THE TOWN OF VERSAILLES.
One day as she delivers lace to the palace, she is almost trampled by a crowd of courtiers — only to be rescued by Marie Antoinette. Before Isabelle can believe it, she has a new job — companion to the queen's daughter. Isabelle is given a fashionable name, fashionable dresses — a new identity. At home she plies her needle under her grandmother's disapproving eye. At the palace she is playmate to a princess.
Thrown into a world of luxury, Isabelle is living a fairy-tale life. But thisfacade begins to crumble when rumors of starvation in the countryside lead to whispers of revolution. How can Isabelle reconcile the ugly things she hears in the town with the kind family she knows in the palace? And which side is she truly on?
Inspired by an actual friendship between the French princess and a commoner who became her companion, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley offers a vivid portrait of life inside the palace of Versailles — and a touching tale of two friends divided by class and the hunger for equality and freedom that fueled the French Revolution.
Publishers Weekly
Bradley (For Freedom) gives readers a glimpse of the overwhelming poverty the French people suffered before the French Revolution and juxtaposes it with the luxuries enjoyed by their royals. Eleven-year-old Isabelle lives with her mother and grand-mère in poverty, eking out a meager living by making lace; her older brother, George, supplies a few coins from his job as a palace stable hand. One day, Isabelle delivers a piece of lace intended for the Princess of Lamballe and literally runs into Queen Marie Antoinette. She is introduced to Princess Thérèse, who desires Isabelle to be her playmate, thus beginning a somewhat odd friendship and Isabelle's dual life. In the morning she helps her mother and grand-mère make lace; in the afternoon she lives a fairy-tale life. As Isabelle becomes more involved with palace life, George forces her to see the growing unrest caused by the king and queen's lavish spending and scant regard for the peasants. Fans of historical fiction will enjoy the numerous details about Louis, Marie Antoinette and Versailles that are neatly woven into the story and will be further be drawn into Isabelle's adventure as she flees the palace as it is attacked by angry peasants, thus ushering in the French Revolution. Ages 8-12. (May)
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