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bibliophilecats 's review for:
The Midwatch Institute for Wayward Girls
by Judith Rossell
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
What a fun adventure!
I really enjoyed myself with this one and as a preteen, I would have adored this book. At the end of chapters, there are sections on "useful skills" which include such things as Morse code or walking slowly with tips and exercises. I can see young girls meeting up and role-playing. I especially liked that the wide range of useful skills include typical "girlish" tasks such as sewing and baking, but also spy-related activities such as Morse code as well as odds and ends such as walking quietly and making knots.
The setting is a little fantastical from the onset (parents and caregivers just giving their girls up to the orphanage) and I really liked the steampunk setting, with airships and the old-timey speech (holy mackarel) made it feel like 1920/1930s.
The stakes in the story were real and realistic, the villains scary without being over the top (and as an adult, I can really sympathise with the villain for complaining about always being thwarted by little girls, who just pop up each and every time she thought she had got rid of them). It had a nice mixture of funny scenes (Maggies first impression of the orphanage, the visit of the inspector) and tense scenes (encountering the adult henchmen).
The book has really charming drawings throughout and therefore I would recommend the physical book (though they were included in my ebook).
As a side note, I really appreciated that all the German sentences were correct and correctly translated.
I really enjoyed myself with this one and as a preteen, I would have adored this book. At the end of chapters, there are sections on "useful skills" which include such things as Morse code or walking slowly with tips and exercises. I can see young girls meeting up and role-playing. I especially liked that the wide range of useful skills include typical "girlish" tasks such as sewing and baking, but also spy-related activities such as Morse code as well as odds and ends such as walking quietly and making knots.
The setting is a little fantastical from the onset (parents and caregivers just giving their girls up to the orphanage) and I really liked the steampunk setting, with airships and the old-timey speech (holy mackarel) made it feel like 1920/1930s.
The stakes in the story were real and realistic, the villains scary without being over the top (and as an adult, I can really sympathise with the villain for complaining about always being thwarted by little girls, who just pop up each and every time she thought she had got rid of them). It had a nice mixture of funny scenes (Maggies first impression of the orphanage, the visit of the inspector) and tense scenes (encountering the adult henchmen).
The book has really charming drawings throughout and therefore I would recommend the physical book (though they were included in my ebook).
As a side note, I really appreciated that all the German sentences were correct and correctly translated.