Belladonna

July 1, 2011

Gr 7-10-When Thomas Rose returns from school in disgrace because he can't learn reading and writing, he faces an uncertain future. In 1757, a man needs a trade like his wheelwright father or glover grandfather, and the 15-year-old shares neither interest. His life takes a surprising turn when he meets a young woman who has come to rural Lincolnshire in search of her horse, Belladonna. Helene, who is French, has adopted the name Ling since the two countries are at war. Intrigued by her stories of dancing atop the snow white horse as part of a circus troupe, Thomas decides to help. They locate Belladonna, sold to a rich family by George Stubbs, who was hired to paint the son's portrait. Stubbs's fascination with the animals has earned him the name "horse butcher." To understand equine anatomy, he sketches them as he strips layers away from a carcass, and he makes Thomas his assistant. Thomas, who narrates the story, slowly learns about how Ling lost her mother and brother and helps her succeed in stealing Belladonna. Many subplots and minor characters weigh down the tale. While Stubbs's production of drawings for his classic Anatomy of the Horse is recounted in graphic detail, the book assumes readers' knowledge of subjects such as press gangs, apprenticeships, and prejudice against Gypsies. Historical romance fans will know that Ling and Thomas will reunite eventually. Those who concentrate on that central plotline will enjoy the journey, but others may get bogged down on the way.-Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2011

A story as carefully and beautifully rendered as the anatomical studies that inspired it.

When Thomas Rose, "unteachable as a rabbit plucked by its ears from the market," is kicked out of grammar school in rural England, 1757, he faces an uncertain future. Though he works hard, he doesn't love the family wheelwright trade, and becoming a glover like his grandfather would be worse. Yet he must do something. A chance encounter with a young acrobat--Helene, who goes by the stage name Ling--leads him to join a search for her missing circus horse, Belladonna, which in turns leads him to an unsettling apprenticeship under a man named George Stubbs. Stubbs' fame as the greatest painter of horses in history is far in the future; for now, he's dissecting rotting horse cadavers in order to fully understand their anatomy. Thomas needs a strong stomach as well as strong arms. Meanwhile, Ling fights not only for her mare but for her very survival; her history, gradually revealed, shows how completely alone she is. The plot flows slowly but gracefully, culminating in a realistic ending that offers hope without pat solutions. Thomas' voice is thoroughly grounded in time and place, with a sense of history that informs but never overwhelms.

Best of all are the characters, particularly Ling, shown in all their flaws and glories, very much like a painting by Stubbs. (Historical fiction. 11 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

April 15, 2011
Grades 7-10 A beloved and missing horse, a boy on the cusp of adulthood, a girl with an exotic past, and an artist with unusual methods are expertly blended in this novel set in eighteenth-century rural England. Thomas needs to find a livelihood after leaving school, but on his way he finds H'l'ne, a French circus runaway known as Ling, searching for the horse she danced upon, Belladonna. When the two cross paths with artist George Stubbs, a rumored horse butcher, they fear he has preyed on Belladonna for his gruesome tasks. But Stubbs turns out not to be a devil. He apprentices Thomas, teaching him all he can as he creates The Anatomy of the Horse (1766), and helps Ling find a position with the family that now owns Belladonna. Neither youth is fully settled in this arrangement, though, and the two face their true desires as they seek their fortunes. A touch of intrigue and interesting details on horses, early necropsy, and everyday life add a rich frame to this historical coming-of-age story, unique in both its setting and subject.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

May 1, 2011
In 1757, when Thomas Rose meets Ling (an Anglicized form of Helene), she's looking for the horse butcher of Horkstow, who she fears has purchased her beloved horse Belladonna. Thomas has left school in disgrace, and Ling's stories of dancing horseback in the French court lift him from his despair. Together they confront the horse butcher, who turns out to be George Stubbs, the real-life painter and anatomist (an author's note points out other real-life historical figures in the novel). He hires Thomas to help with his dissection and recommends Ling for a position at the great house where Belladonna has been sold. But while Thomas's feelings for Ling grow stronger, change is inevitable: Belladonna is slated to be shipped away when her owner heads off to school, and Ling will turn horse thief before she allows that to happen. Finn conveys the antiquity of the period and the extraordinary nature of her two protagonists through a dense and mannered narrative voice, which is a hard slog at first, but which opens up as the book progresses and allows entrance to a real-world story that reads as magically as fantasy. When Ling has to escape at last, the tension may not be high, but readers will be drawn in regardless, in thrall to the author's compelling, intricately configured prose. anita l. burkam

(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)