Well, I just finished the book Angeline written by Karleen Bradford. Karleen was born and currently resides in Canada, although she spent 34 years of her adult life in a variety of countries (her husband was a Foreign Service Officer). A brief autobiography: http://www.makersgallery.com/bradford/who.html.
She has written more than one book centered on the Crusades. The book Angeline outlines a coming-of-age journey of a young French girl who embarked on the infamous Children's Crusade, only to be sold as a slave upon disembarking in the Middle East (as was the real-life fate of many or most of the children).
I enjoy historical fiction! I certainly wouldn't call this book a Newberry Medal candidate, but it was well written. I was always interested to see what would happen next with the character of Angeline, and the minor characters were also interesting. More suitable for the younger of "young adult," I would think.
Cons: a bit simplistic in terms of situation, plot, and character development; the world of the Middle East wasn't brought alive for me. Also, I'm not sure of her choice to include a prologue outlining what was happening to the character (ie. she had been part of the Children's Crusade, was being sold as a slave)... I rather prefer having a story unfold at its own pace, let the mystery of what is happening be more slowly revealed (I hate reading the synopses on the back of books before I read them!)
I don't know that I'll pick up a lot more of her books - but I find I am wondering what her fantasy and contemporary novels might be like! Who knows... maybe I'll check them out. I always like to support a Canadian author!
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