Facebook Twitter Instagram
    Reading Time
    • Home
    • Reviews
      • Highly Recommended
      • CBCA Short Listed
      • Early Childhood Books
      • Younger Readers
      • Intermediate Readers
      • Older Readers
      • ANZAC books
      • Great Read Alouds
      • Information Books
      • LGBTQIA+
      • Picture Books
      • Professional Development
    • Interviews
    • Suggestions
    • News
    • Meet The Review Team
    • Contact Us
    Reading Time
    You are at:Home»Reviews»Younger Readers»The Monkey’s Secret

    The Monkey’s Secret

    0
    By Admin on September 29, 2015 Younger Readers

    monkey-s-secret

    Gennifer Choldenko,  The Monkey’s Secret,  Hot Key Books/Five Mile Press,  1 August 2015,  265pp.,  $14.95 (pbk),  ISBN 978 1 471403 52 1

    We are in San Francisco in 1900. Lizzie lives with her brother Billy and her doctor father, a few steps away from her aunt Hortense and uncle Karl. Aunt Hortense would like her to marry well, but Lizzie has other ideas. She wants to be a doctor. The one person in her father’s house she loves as much as her family is Jing, the Chinese servant, who, Lizzie discovers, has a secret upstairs where he lives. When San Francisco is threatened with the plague, Lizzie finds out more about Chinatown and her own family. She also faces a new tragedy.

    Middle primary school students will enjoy Choldenko’s story. It follows the historical truth of San Francisco at the turn of the twentieth century, and it is excellent historical fiction. However it is Lizzie’s struggle to gain equality of education, to find the truth about her self, and the difficulties she has of being taken seriously that make The Monkey’s Secret a compelling read.

    Reviewed by Stella Lees

    Related Posts

    The Ghost Locket

    The Ghost Locket

    Specky Magee

    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    • Themes
    • Curriculum
    Action adventure Airplanes Alphabet Anxiety autism Bullying CBCA Awards Coming of age Dystopian emotions family fantasy friendship grief Historical humour magic Mystery Post apocalyptic Readers Cup reluctant readers school Sci-Fi series of books siblings Sport Starting school Teacher Notes
    ANZAC Australian animals Australian history Biography Culture & Diversity Disabilities First Nations Geography health Humanities mental health Poetry Reconciliation resilience Science STEM Stolen Generation sustainability Wordless books



    Recent Comments
    • Cherie on Elephant Island
    • Patricia Tilton on Freddy the Not-Teddy
    • Jilanne Hoffmann on Freddy the Not-Teddy
    • Penelope Pratley on The Secret of Sapling Green
    • Emily Flint on Walk of the Whales
    Recent Posts
    • The Bravest Word
    • The Ghost Locket
    • The Ghost Locket
    • Enough Love?
    • Wonderful Shoes
    Recent Comments
    • Cherie on Elephant Island
    • Patricia Tilton on Freddy the Not-Teddy
    • Jilanne Hoffmann on Freddy the Not-Teddy
    • Penelope Pratley on The Secret of Sapling Green
    • Emily Flint on Walk of the Whales
    © Copyright 2021 The Children’s Book Council of Australia - All rights reserved

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

    Posting....