![]() ![]() ![]() He’s far more interested in espionage, which he practices in the park while playing chess with Janie, keeping tabs on a peg-legged Russian he suspects is passing secrets to real spies. Benjamin, however, wants nothing to do with his dad’s profession. But it isn’t long before Janie befriends Benjamin and is drawn into the strange and mysterious world of alchemy.īenjamin’s father is an apothecary, carrying on a family tradition that dates to the Middle Ages. and flee to London - a move Janie describes as “leaving a Technicolor movie and walking into a black-and-white one.” The transition from sock-hopping Hollywood High to the uniformed strictures of St. Janie Scott is the only daughter of screenwriter parents who, suspected of communist activity in 1952, were blacklisted in L.A. A gem of historical fiction for the middle-school set, Meloy’s children’s debut is a pitch-perfect melding of postwar intrigue and ancient medicinal arts told from the perspective of a 14-year-old girl. There are far fewer stories about its Cold War aftermath, and even fewer that attempt to channel the early ‘50s from a teenager’s point of view - but Maile Meloy’s “The Apothecary” does just that. ![]() Putnam’s Sons: 353 pp., $16.99, ages 10 and olderĪ quick Amazon search for books on World War II yields an astonishing 45,961 titles. ![]()
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