In the Flatlands, Emmeline is considered unnatural due to her curved foot. When a soldiers come to take her father away and a flood devastates her town, she has no choice seek a new life elsewhere. In the rest of Anguland her people are looked down upon as the lowest of the low and yet she finds a family who is willing to over her comfort and care. It is while she is in the care of these people that she meets their handsome son Owen and also learns of her gift. Emmeline can turn churn butter into chocolate. This special power does not lead to happiness for Emmeline however, as she is kidnapped and held hostage. While Emmeline hopes her ability will save her father and maybe her people, she has no way of realizing exactly how much it will change the whole kingdom.
It’s a wonderful thing to have a book where the main character has some type of physical difference. Moreover, of all of the things that get “fixed” about Emmeline, this is never one of them. It is part of who she is throughout the whole book. Additionally, toward the end of the book we meet a highly sympathetic character who is gay.
The only thing I really would have liked to see done differently is that Emmeline herself has very little to do with her eventual rescue. She does not seem helpless throughout, but it would have been nice to see a bit of extra initiative.
Like many fairy tales, there’s not much sexual to worry about, the only action you’re privy to is a kiss. There are a few other allusions to sexual desire, listed below. There is slightly more violence, but it is not done in a very disturbing way. I would recommend this for teens and some tweens even.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – At the opening of the book, the main character describes her own birth, how she was pushed out. There is a husband market where girls bid on men. One of the men who will be up for bidding spends time building a cottage while shirtless. A girl spreads a false rumor that a boy tried to kiss her. The crowd shouts “virgin” at a shy man in the husband market. A girl poses as her father’s wife. A man talks about the milkmaids breasts spilling out of their tops. His mother once caught him half-naked with a milkmaid. A woman gazes at a man’s bare chest. A chieftain wanted to share a queen’s bed. A father tells his son to take a wife, but warns him away from a specific girl and tells him not to get her with child. A man wants to kiss a woman. A man spent hours kissing a girl. A woman dreams of a man being in her bed at night their legs entwined. A man trades kisses, smiles and who knows what for food and drink. A marriage is arranged. A powerful man is gay. There is kissing.
Profanity – “bastard,” “damned,” “piss off,” “hell,”
Death, Violence and Gore – The baby is left in a field to be killed by predators. People talk about how most unwanted babies die like they are supposed to, possibly due to wolves. Sometimes at the husband market a woman murders someone. Some girls throw pebbles at Emmeline. Tax evaders are hanged. Emmeline’s mother passed away. A man is known to beat his children. Several potential brides get into a fist fight over a man. A war breaks out and all unmarried men are expected to go. The river rose and many people died in the waters. A girl stays with a cow as it lays dying. A man likes to fight (boxing type fighting it seems, but with bare fists?) A man thinks about what will happen to a cow if it dies and the vultures come. A man’s sister died. A woman has a gash on her leg that needs medical attention. In a fight, a man is nearly strangled to death and breaks a rib. Rotting corpses flowed down the river after a flood. An invader slaughters many of the queen’s chefs and threatens to slit the throats of the rest. Blood ran in rivers down the corridors. A man is beheaded. A queen is killed. A man is stabbed. A woman is bound and kidnapped in the night. A girl was raped and then drowned herself. A woman is slapped across the face. A hanging is described, the victim’s bulging eyes, soiled pants, tongue dripping blood. A skull is mounted on a sign. There are lepers and the policy is to burn lepers. A lepers face is badly disfigured. A leper dies and is found dead. A man uses a sword to kill two soldiers, one he stabs, the other’s throat is slit. Men are forced to work as slaves in an environment with bad air. They look like skeletons and cough up blood. A man holds a knife to another’s throat, pricking it so it bleeds. A man is punched repeatedly in the jaw. A man plans to knee another in the groin and punch another in the throat. A man has a missing eye and there is seepage from the empty socket. According to one man, forest spirits eat human flesh. A country is invaded and its people were massacred. Men are to fight to the death. If one doesn’t kill the other, another man chooses the winner and kills the other. There are a lot of threats of death. One man asks others to kill him.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – Emmeline’s father goes to the tavern to drink ale. Many men drink, one swigging repeatedly from a flask. A fighter is drunk. Two people share a jug of ale.
Frightening or Intense Things – The girl’s mother is told that she is stillborn, and she is taken away by the midwife because she has a “curled foot.” Emmeline is found barely alive by a riverbank.
