The Silver Blade

by Sally Gardner

Overview

With his beloved Sido safely in England and the Reign of Terror at its height, mysterious Yann returns to revolutionary France to smuggle out aristocratic refugees who will otherwise face the guillotine. But while the two are apart, Yann's Gypsy origins prejudice Sido's guardian against their marriage, spoiling their reunion. When Sido is kidnapped under strange circumstances, Yann must use all his strength and courage to outwit the evil count, rescue Sido, and save all of France.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780142417317
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	09/16/2010
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Sally Gardner grew up and still lives in London. Being dyslexic, she did not learn to read or write until she was fourteen and had been thrown out of several schools, labeled unteachable, and sent to a school for maladjusted children. Despite this, she gained a degree with highest honors at a leading London art college, followed by a scholarship to a theater school, and then went on to become a very successful costume designer, working on some notable productions. After the births of twin daughters and a son, she started first to illustrate and then to write picture books and chapter books, usually with fairytale- or otherwise magical subject matter. She has been called “an idiosyncratic genius” by London’s Sunday Times. I, Coriander is her first book for older readers, and she is currently working on a second.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

-A luscious melodrama, rich in sensuous detail from horrific to sublime, with an iridescent overlay of magic.+ -Kirkus Reviews

Editorial Reviews

-A luscious melodrama, rich in sensuous detail from horrific to sublime, with an iridescent overlay of magic.+ -Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Gardner once again writes with stirring energy . . .

Booklist

Gardner employs both lush prose and a rich, Dickensian cast of unusual characters . . . a worthy companion to its predecessor.

Horn Book

The thrilling conclusion to the tale begun in The Red Necklace (2008) plunges readers back into the filthy and terrifying streets of Paris in 1794, when a single word can betray one to death by guillotine and no one can be trusted. Sidonie, in London, longs for Yann, who remains in Paris, using his actor's skills and his Roma gifts to spirit French aristocrats to safety as the Silver Blade. Count Kalliovski, who has sinister designs on both Sido and Yann, has no humanity left, working his evil from a magnificent palace deep in the Parisian catacombs that is steeped in darkness and horror. The Count has ghosts and a demon dog to do his bidding, and Sido is taken by his minions while Yann fights despair and Robespierre. The denouement is as light-filled and glittering as the rest was dark and stench-ridden. A luscious melodrama, rich in sensuous detail from horrific to sublime, with an iridescent overlay of magic. (Fantasy. 12 & up)

Kirkus Reviews