Romeo Blue

by Phoebe Stone

Overview

When Flissy Budwig's parents first dropped her off in Bottlebay, Maine, she hated everything about it. She hated the big gloomy house she was to live in. She hated meeting her long-lost and highly eccentric Bathburn relatives. Most of all, she hated knowing that she was safe in America while her parents faced the guns of WWII in Europe. Especially when she discovered her parents were spies. Especially when she learned her parents were missing.

But a year has passed now, and Flissy has grown to love life in Bottlebay and grown to love Derek, the boy the Bathburns have adopted. Then a man claiming to be Derek's true father arrives, and soon he's asking all sorts of strange questions. Flissy has a nose for trouble. Has Derek's new father come to take him away from Flissy forever . . . or is there something even more sinister afoot in Bottlebay, Maine?

Secrets, spies, and sleuthing abound in this charming follow-up to Phoebe Stone's The Romeo and Juliet Code.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545443616
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	04/28/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 7.63(h) x (d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Phoebe Stone is the beloved and acclaimed author of several novels for middle grade, including The Romeo and Juliet Code, which was hailed by the Boston Globe as “quite simply the best novel for young readers . . . since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” She received four starred reviews for The Boy on Cinnamon Street, and another star for her novel Deep Down Popular. Booklist awarded a starred review to Romeo Blue, the follow-up to The Romeo and Juliet Code, calling it “compelling, and with plenty of heart and soul.” Phoebe and her husband live in Middlebury, Vermont.

Editorial Reviews

“Coming of age in a time of war, feeling both loved and abandoned, clever and yet perplexed, Flissy is an engaging protagonist.” – The Wall Street Journal

“Compelling, and with plenty of heart and soul.” – Booklist, starred review

"Romeo Blue is the best sort of sequel: one you didn't know you wanted but are ever so grateful to have…Both lyrical and propulsive.” – Horn Book Magazine, starred review

“Charmingly lyrical and also notably authentic…” – Kirkus Reviews

“Readers will get caught up in this story of young love, espionage, and war-torn families while still far away from the frontlines of the battlefield.” – School Library Journal

Praise for The Romeo and Juliet Code:

"Delightful" – The Wall Street Journal

"Phoebe Stone's The Romeo and Juliet Code is quite simply the best novel for young readers I've read since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." – The Boston Globe

"Stone's intricate and lyrical novel, set during WWII, resembles The Secret Garden in all the best ways." – Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Flissy is a kick, her ever-so-proper manners and stuffy Briticisms belied by her abundant curiosity and consequent meddling." – The Horn Book Review, starred review

From the Publisher

In this sequel to the WWII historical mystery The Romeo and Juliet Code, some mysteries have been solved but others remain. Twelve-year old Felicity Budwig Bathburn, aka Flissy, now knows her Uncle Gideon is actually her biological father, but she does not know what to call him. And she knows her whole family are some kind of spies, but she does not know where her mom and step-father (Winnie and Danny) are, or even if they are still alive. And she has no idea why the creepy neighbor, Mr. Fitzwilliam, has invited her and adopted cousin Derek for tea, how he seems to know about her parents' secret activities, and why he is trying to help Derek find his real father. When someone claiming to be Derek's father shows up, Flissy is torn between her loyalty to Derek, and her suspicion that this man is not the genuine article and may in fact be a dangerous German spy known as "The Gray Moth." Through a little judicious spying of her own, Flissy figures out that her father, Gideon is going off on a secret mission to rescue Winnie and Danny, who are apparently prisoners of the Germans in France. As America's involvement in the war expands, so too do the losses and deprivations at home, which are succinctly conveyed through the details of everyday life. Flissy is a richly developed and high-energy character, and although she seems a bit young by today's standards, she will nevertheless capture most readers' hearts and imaginations for this time in American and world history. Reviewer: Paula McMillen, Ph.D.

Children's Literature - Paula McMillen

Gr 5–7—This sequel to The Romeo and Juliet Code (Scholastic, 2011) can stand alone as a great World War II story. Felicity B. Bathburn longs for the safety and security of her own home. It's been almost two years since she left London to stay with her grandmother in the rambling house on the coast of Maine. She holds onto memories of her mother and creates conversations and letters in her mind that she would send if only she knew an address. Her American family has secrets of its own and Flissy has learned not to offer explanations or talk about her parents' or uncle's work. The family welcomed her just as they welcomed the orphaned Derek, now 13, who was just a baby when The Gram's son brought him into their home. Flissy is the first one to be suspicious when a man claiming to be Derek's father comes to town and attempts to gain access to the family's secrets and come between the two young teens who are struggling to make sense of the world around them. A Nazi uniform hangs in her uncle's closet and conversations in German become a late-night ritual. Through a series of hidden messages and shortwave-radio broadcasts, Flissy unwittingly learns the true meaning of perseverance and just how much some people will sacrifice when faced with an unbearable truth. Readers will get caught up in this story of young love, espionage, and war-torn families while still far away from the frontlines of the battlefield.—Cheryl Ashton, Amherst Public Library, OH

School Library Journal

In the sequel to The Romeo and Juliet Code (2011), 12-year-old Flissy's World War II adventures continue. Flissy is living with her grandmother, aunt and father, Gideon, as her mother and stepfather (who is--complicatedly--also her father's brother) have disappeared while spying in Europe. In a voice that is somehow both charmingly lyrical and also notably authentic, Flissy relates the events on the homefront, as foster cousin Derek, just a year older and--she believes--the love of her life, attempts to track down his father. Unfortunately, a man claiming to be him shows up, but it's perfectly clear to Flissy, who's sworn to secrecy, that the man is a fraud. Finally, in despair over the wreckage of her family, Flissy runs screaming into the nighttime sea, only to be saved from certain death by Gideon--an epiphanic moment. Even after the fraudulent-father plotline is resolved in a suspenseful climax that comes only midway through, the tale goes on. When her mother finally returns after being rescued by Gideon, who's then lost in the fog of war, Flissy has much to work out with the woman who has become a stranger to her. In an attractively depicted Maine coastal setting, her relationship with Derek evolves, she mends fences with her mother, and she waits for a resolution of her father's and stepfather's situations. While realistic and employing lovely language, the slow, deliberate pacing sometimes diminishes the overall effect. Patient readers will nevertheless enjoy this combination spy novel/coming-of-age story. (Historical fiction. 11-16)

Kirkus Reviews