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Seraphina's Circle
Book by Shipley, Jocelyn
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
About the author
Jocelyn Shipley
17 books15 followersBorn and raised in London, Ontario, Jocelyn graduated from York University and has studied writing at St. Lawrence College and the Humber School for Writers. She always wanted to be a writer, and won her first award at age nine, for poems entered in the local Hobby Fair.
Jocelyn now lives in Toronto and on Vancouver Island. Her YA novel,How to Tend a Grave, won the 2012 Gold Medal Moonbeam Award for YA Fiction - Mature Issues.
Jocelyn now lives in Toronto and on Vancouver Island. Her YA novel,How to Tend a Grave, won the 2012 Gold Medal Moonbeam Award for YA Fiction - Mature Issues.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 4, 2020
"Banished" to her grandmother's farm in the country for the summer, twelve-year-old Morgan is at first consumed by her anger at her strict mother, and her resentment at being constantly compared to her "lovely" cousin, Clare. But as Morgan becomes involved in Clare's secret romance, she begins to see parallels between her own experiences and those of her grandmother, whose older sister Seraphina was also involved in a forbidden love affair - an affair that ended tragically. When disaster strikes, Morgan wonders if the past has repeated itself...
This brief children's novel provides an engaging narrative, and a realistic but likeable young heroine. Shipley clearly has an understanding of the intense feelings of adolescence - the sudden bouts of almost uncontrollable anger, the subsequent repentant sorrow, and the confusion of conflicting emotions. This last is particularly evident in Morgan's relationship with her mother, whom she simultaneously hates and loves. Anyone who has been a teen will probably find something in this experience that strikes a chord.
On another level, Seraphina's Circle also functions as a discussion about the nature of grief, and the way in which the young romanticize tragedy. The cousins' "acting out" of Seraphina's story, their almost ritualistic game, is a fairly accurate portrayal of girlhood socialization. In many ways it reminded me of some of the passages in Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye .
This brief children's novel provides an engaging narrative, and a realistic but likeable young heroine. Shipley clearly has an understanding of the intense feelings of adolescence - the sudden bouts of almost uncontrollable anger, the subsequent repentant sorrow, and the confusion of conflicting emotions. This last is particularly evident in Morgan's relationship with her mother, whom she simultaneously hates and loves. Anyone who has been a teen will probably find something in this experience that strikes a chord.
On another level, Seraphina's Circle also functions as a discussion about the nature of grief, and the way in which the young romanticize tragedy. The cousins' "acting out" of Seraphina's story, their almost ritualistic game, is a fairly accurate portrayal of girlhood socialization. In many ways it reminded me of some of the passages in Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye .
June 26, 2025
Ääälskade denna som liten, läste iaf 3 ggr 🤣
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews