Queen of Hearts

June 6, 2011
When 15-year-old Marie-Claire and her younger brother and sister are diagnosed with tuberculosis, they are admitted to Quebec's Pembina Hills Sana-torium, where they separately struggle with the disease. In the 1940s, the only cureâaccording to Marie-Claire's nurseâis "rest.... besides eating properly and breathing in fresh air at night and during rest hours and, sometimes, surgery." Brooks's (Mistik Lake) premise may not instantly click with readers, but they will sympathize with the book's prickly heroine, who feels as though "my world as a normal person has just ended." Marie-Claire has many anxieties, from worrying about her siblings to fearing a grisly operation. But as Marie-Claire recuperates, she grows up, too, beginning a sweet romance with another patient and learning to support those she loves, even though "bad things happen and will keep on happening." Marie-Claire and her fellow patients' fears will be recognizable to contemporary readersâin a heartbreaking scene, another girl, Signy, wonders, "And who will love me?" And those worries gain real depth from truly being a matter of life or death, instead of just feeling that way. Ages 12âup.

Starred review from July 15, 2011

An absorbing and quietly moving coming-of-age story about a French-Canadian teenager during World War II who contracts tuberculosis, along with her younger brother and sister, and is confined to a local sanatorium for long-term care just before her 16th birthday.

"It's the second week of December, 1941, and my world as a normal person has just ended." Raised on a farm on the Canadian Prairies in Manitoba, Marie-Claire Côté always thought of herself as healthy as a horse (and something of a daredevil). Now, with a TB lesion on her right lung, she must adapt to day-to-day life at "the San," to "chasing the cure." She's smart, angry, speaks her mind and is tremendously worried about her siblings, particularly her beloved brother Luc, who is the most ill. Her uncommonly cheerful roommate, 17-year-old Signy, a wealthy girl from Winnipeg who was diagnosed with TB when she was 12 and is as "thin as a skeleton," declares "it's fate that I found you and you found me." As their relationship shifts, readers will be caught up by the choices Marie-Claire makes.

It's a testament to Brooks' fine and empathetic writing (Mistik Lake, 2007, etc.) that she's able to bring vividly and compassionately to life the parallel/alternate world of what Marie-Claire calls "TB exiles" and create an emotionally rich, stirring story about loss, friendship, love and healing. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 12 & up) 

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

Starred review from July 1, 2011

Gr 7-10-It is 1940, and Canada, along with the rest of the world, is at war. Marie-Claire, 15, lives on a farm with Maman, Papa, and her younger brother and sister. Never easy, life gets much harder after down-on-his-luck Oncle Gerard comes to stay and then dies from tuberculosis in the local infirmary. Soon, Marie-Claire and her siblings are diagnosed with TB and consigned to the same institution. Adventuresome and headstrong Marie-Claire is confined to a bed next to painfully cheerful Signy and told to be a "patient patient." When her brother dies just before Christmas, Marie-Claire must come to terms with the blame she has placed on herself for having taken him to visit their Oncle, as well as her father's inability to deal with what has happened to his children. The novel provides an intriguing glimpse into the now-unfamiliar world of TB sanatoriums. From a scene in which the women tan naked to soak up the sun to Marie-Claire's stolen moment spent flying a kite by moonlight with her new love, the story is played out in small moments, sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes sweet, and always poignant. Brooks masterfully re-creates a TB sanatorium through the protagonist's experience and believable characters. A well-drawn, innocent, yet compelling work of historical fiction.-Jill Heritage Maza, Montclair Kimberley Academy, Montclair, NJ

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2011
Grades 7-10 Set in a tuberculosis sanatorium in Canada during the early 1940s, this moving perspective of the home front during wartime is told in the first-person, present-tense voice of Marie-Claire, who at 14 is infected with TB and must move with her younger brother and sister from their Manitoba farm to a treatment center, where they are separated. Over nearly three years, she suffers not only the crushing physical symptoms of her disease but also loneliness, fury at her parents, and overwhelming sorrow and guilt when her little brother dies. So weak at first that she cannot get out of bed, she slowly recovers, but others do not. Along with the medical detailslesions and treatments, infection, collapsed lungs, fluoroscopythe personal drama drives the story, from scenes of Marie-Claire venting furiously to her sweet, supportive roommate about this stupid pathetic place to surprising reversals. Marie-Claire falls in love, but there is no easy resolution, especially with her distant dad. Readers will be held by the story's heartbreaking truths, right to the end.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)