Love by the Morning Star

Gr 8 Up—It's 1938 in rural England, and Anna Morgan is desperate to find a way out of her life as the working-class daughter of a grocer. When she's given an opportunity to live at a grand country estate called Starkers, she believes that her chance has finally come to marry well and fulfill her destiny of becoming a lady, despite the fact that she's supposed to be there working as a kitchen maid in order to spy for a group of Nazi sympathizers. In Berlin, Hannah Morganstern is happy with her life as a singer in her father's cabaret, and confident that she'll soon find a place as an opera singer in Vienna. Her dreams are dashed, however, when the German government begins shutting down Jewish businesses and threatening to send Jews to prison camps. Hannah is half-Jewish, and her parents believe the best way to keep her safe is to send her to live with distant relatives, who she has never met, at a grand estate in England. When the two girls arrive at Starkers on the same afternoon, one is welcomed as a member of the family and a companion to the lady of the house, while the other is sent to work in the kitchen. What follows is a delightful comedy of errors, full of near misses, misunderstandings, and double entendres. While the plot drags at time and lacks some necessary historical context, this is a light and fun romance that should appeal to fans of Downton Abbey.—Liz Overberg, Darlington School, Rome, GA