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Books For Youth - Fiction - Historical Fiction
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The Silver Spoon of Solomon Snow.
Umansky, Kaye (author).
Oct. 2005. 304p. Candlewick, hardcover, $14.99 (0-7636-2792-5). Grades 4-6.
REVIEW.
First published November 1, 2005 (Booklist).
Umansky amusingly writes in the flap copy that after rereading Dickens, she thought, “I could do that.” She soon learns, “I couldn’t.” That’s all right, as this quest for story for middle-graders has enough Dickensian moments and clever characters to find a welcoming audience. Solly Snow, abandoned 10 years earlier at the home of a washer woman and her wastrel husband, learns his origins when “Pa” sells the silver spoon that arrived with Solly in a laundry basket. Furious, Solly takes off to find his real family. He’s soon joined by Prudence, who is as sharp as her pointy nose, and annoying little Rosabel, always referred to by her circus sobriquet, the Prodigy, who knows how to bat her eyes and get her way. The short chapters, directed toward the “Intelligent Reader,” are chock-full of twisty turns and high-stepping adventure. Only the ending, which finds Solly virtually back where he started, disappoints. Pair this with Philip Pullman’s The Scarecrow and His Servant (2005), another adventure full of fun and flimflam. — Ilene Cooper
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