Promise the Night

October 31, 2011
MacColl’s sophomore novel is a rousing piece of historical fiction that follows the childhood of Beryl Markham, who would become the first pilot to fly solo from England to North America. In 1912, 10-year-old Beryl lives in a tiny hut on her father’s horse farm in British East Africa, now Kenya. Always seeking adventure, she is eager to become a “murani” (warrior) along with the boys of the neighboring Nandi tribe, and to hunt the leopard that injured her beloved dog. Her friend Kibii’s father agrees to teach her how to track animals, wrestle, and spear targets, but as Beryl becomes a woman, the gap widens between her and the Nandi. And when her father attempts to make Beryl into a proper British girl, it’s war. MacColl (Prisoners in the Palace) addresses the tensions between British settlers and native Africans in this immersive story about a fiercely determined individualist. Fictional interviews, newspaper articles, and journals of Beryl’s flight appear between chapters, emphasizing how Beryl’s childhood fearlessness and refusal to accept the status quo shaped her life as an adult. Ages 9–12.

October 1, 2011
MacColl's second novel brings to life the childhood of future aviator and writer Beryl Markham (Prisoners in the Palace, 2010). Born Beryl Clutterbuck, she moved with her family to the highlands of Kenya as a toddler. Not long after, her mother and brother returned to England, abandoning her with her rough though loving father. MacColl's account begins when a leopard steals into Beryl's hut and attacks her dog--the child leaping from her bed to give chase. Though she loses the leopard in the night, the next morning, she and her new friend, a Nandi boy, Kibii, find the dog still alive and save it. Later she insists on being part of the hunt for the leopard. Young Beryl wants nothing more than to be a warrior, a murani, and to be able to leap higher than her own head. Her jumping skills progress apace, but young white girls, no matter how determined, cannot become part of the Nandi tribe. Her relationship with Kibii's father, the wise Arap Maina, along with a growing awareness of the consequences of her actions, help lead her into a more mature--though still wildly impulsive and daring--life. MacColl intersperses her third-person narrative with faux news reports and first-person diary entries of two decades later, when Beryl Markham became the first person--let alone woman--to fly a plane west from Europe to America. Fluid prose elucidates a life much stranger than fiction. (Historical fiction. 9-12)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from January 1, 2012

Gr 6 Up-Beryl Markham, the female pilot on whom this novel is based, spent her childhood riding horses on her father's ranch in Africa and hunting lions with the local tribesmen. Diary entries and news articles between each chapter shed light on her famous transatlantic flight from east to west. Abandoned by her mother as a baby, and somewhat neglected by her father, a successful businessman and horse breeder, Beryl was raised more by the local Nandi tribe than by her family. She was considered a wild child, defying gender roles from an early age with reckless determination. Issues of racism and class are touched upon, especially in her close friendship with a local boy. An author's note explains that many events are based on fact, including beatings by a governess, expulsion from boarding school, and the strained relationship she had with a married woman who became her father's companion. Several scenes of graphic animal violence are included. Overall, this is a unique historical novel about one tenacious girl who defied odds to become successful in a field dominated by men. Give it to outdoor adventure fans or those desiring a strong female protagonist.-Madeline J. Bryant, Los Angeles Public Library

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2011
Grades 6-9 In Beryl's view, she should have been born to the Nandi tribe in east Africa, preferably as a boy. Nothing infuriates the headstrong, fearless youngster more than rules of ladylike decorum, a tame housebound existence, and the cruel, racist attitudes of British colonials toward Africans. In this fictionalized account of British aviator Beryl Markham's childhood, the heroine runs with African children, even to the point of going on a lion hunt; exasperates her horse-trainer father; and crashes up against nearly every convention in the narrowly constrained world of colonial Kenya in the 1910s. Maccoll vividly portrays her headstrong protagonist, abandoned early by her mother and left to thrive as she could on her father's ranch, with fierce, exuberant spirit. Interspersed between the chapters are documents (also fictionalized, but based on fact) pertaining to Beryl's later career as a famous female aviator and her harrowing east-to-west crossing of the Atlantic in 1936. Readers who choose to interrupt the story and read the history will find the same spirit there.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)