Immediately compelling and action-packed, this carefully researched work of historical fiction introduces young readers to the childhood of the fam...
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Jan 10, 2012
Kristen
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My review of Promise the Night first appeared in the November 2011 issue of Historical Novels Review:
Anyone who has ever read the gorgeous West with the Night by Beryl Markham may doubt the need for a young adult novel written about the aviatrix’s early life. Within a few pages of Michaela Maccoll’s new young adult novel, however, even the most skeptical should be persuaded. Promise the Night tells the story of the pre-teen, horse-loving, lion-hunting Beryl Clutterbuck, who became Bery More...
Anyone who has ever read the gorgeous West with the Night by Beryl Markham may doubt the need for a young adult novel written about the aviatrix’s early life. Within a few pages of Michaela Maccoll’s new young adult novel, however, even the most skeptical should be persuaded. Promise the Night tells the story of the pre-teen, horse-loving, lion-hunting Beryl Clutterbuck, who became Bery More...
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Jan 30, 2012
Cindy
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In the early 1900s a girl named Beryl Clutterbuck was growing up on a ranch in what was then British East Africa. With a mother who had returned to England when she was a baby and a father who had little time to spend on raising her, Beryl grew up wild and as resistant to taming as the land around her. Her best friend was a native boy, Kibii, and she wanted to train to be a Nandi warrior.
Beryl’s fierce sense of daring and adventure never left her, and she later went on to be Beryl Mark More...
Beryl’s fierce sense of daring and adventure never left her, and she later went on to be Beryl Mark More...
Jan 07, 2012
Barbara
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Beryl Markham grew up training race horses for her father in British East Africa, an experience that marked her for life and likely formed the independent, determined side of her personality. Sometimes she took risks and made mistakes that ended badly, but that risk-taking and independence will stand her in good stead once she takes to the skies and becomes the first person to fly alone from England to North America. The book begins in 1912 when Beryl is ten, allowed to do whatever she wishes, w
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Jan 03, 2012
Margo
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This new historical fiction title is inspired by the life of aviatrix Beryl Markham, the first woman pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic from East to West (considered more challenging than flying East because of prevailing winds). Novelist Michaela Maccoll intersperses the story of Beryl's historic 1936 voyage with Beryl's life as a ten-year old growing up in what is now Kenya, where she lived with her English father on a horse ranch, her mother having abandoned them years before. Her life a
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Sep 20, 2011
Ronald
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Promise The Night is an excellent blend of facts and story telling. It's one of those books you just enjoy reading. Beryl Markham, the famous aviatrix of the 1930's, is the central character. She shared the headlines of her day with such women pilots as Amelia Earhart. But, it is her formative years in British East Africa that are the main focus of this book. She was raised on a ranch by her British father, Captain Clutterback. When Beryl was very young, her mother left the wilds of Africa takin
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Sep 21, 2011
Susanna
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Beryl Markham was one of the famous pilots of the golden age of aviation, even becoming the first pilot - male or female - to fly the East-to-West route across the Atlantic Ocean solo. Yet even before this amazing feat, Beryl led a remarkable life. Raised on a remote Kenyan ranch by her father, Beryl Markham grew up racing horses and living a life atypical for daughters of European settlers. She became best friends with a Nandi boy, Kibii, and grew up alongside him and his tribe, breaking both e
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Aug 24, 2011
Tara
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I thought this was a decent read though it is def aimed at an even younger crowd than I originally thought. It's not aimed at teenagers, but the 9 to 12 year olds. I don't normally read books aimed at kids that young, but I love women in aviation and wanted to learn more about Beryl Markham, the woman who crossed the Atlantic, East to West.
The novel chronicles Beryl's childhood in Africa, her forays into hunting with the native tribes, her rocky relationship with her father's mistre More...
The novel chronicles Beryl's childhood in Africa, her forays into hunting with the native tribes, her rocky relationship with her father's mistre More...
Feb 18, 2012
Danielle
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Galloping into the air much like the horses she later trained, Beryl Clutterbuck Markham was a young women coming of age in a time not prepared for her vivaciousness. Growing up the only daughter of a successful farmer and horse trainer, Beryl turned to the native Nandi people in her East African home to teach her discipline and survival. Every day was an adventure filled with lions, leopards, a “step-mother”, a governess and eventually school in the city. Beryl grew from each of her experiences
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Jan 15, 2012
Erica
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Michaela MacColl has done it again. Promise the Night was an absolutely fabulous read that I just adored. I loved every page of this book, and am already beginning my wait for another great read from Michaela MacColl.
Promise the Night was such an interesting story. The story is told from Beryl's childhood, but in between each chapter is a short diary entry, interview, something like that from her adult life when she is a pilot. Both of these played off the other and it was just a lot More...
Promise the Night was such an interesting story. The story is told from Beryl's childhood, but in between each chapter is a short diary entry, interview, something like that from her adult life when she is a pilot. Both of these played off the other and it was just a lot More...
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Dec 02, 2011
Alison
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This is a wonderful book. It is the story of aviator Beryl Markham's Kenyan childhood in the early 20th century interspersed with fictionalised interviews and diary extracts of her record breaking solo flight east to west across the Atlantic. The details of her friendship with Kibii, a Nandi boy, and her education into his tribe's customs, is cleverly used to demonstrate how these experiences helped her (along with her strong will and energy) to become firstly a successful racehorse trainer and
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Feb 13, 2012
Christina
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An excellent historical fiction novel based on the life of a real person, Beryl Markham, the first woman to fly solo west to east across the Atlantic Ocean, in 1936 (Amelia Earhart's flight was east to west). The novel takes place in 1912, during her childhood in British East Africa (now Kenya), when she was 11 and quite a tomboy. Since her mother had left years ago, unable to live in such primitive conditions (huts with dirt floors), Beryl had been able to run wild. Her father is busy running a
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Oct 11, 2011
Meaghan
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I got this book free through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.
This is an excellent story, full of all sorts of roaring African adventures that will keep 9-to-12s of both sexes enthralled. But there's more depth to the book than I would have thought: in addition to Beryl's tramping around the African forests like Tarzan, you see more subtle themes of growing up, and trying to get on with others different from you. Beryl would be a delightful heroine even if she didn't later beco More...
This is an excellent story, full of all sorts of roaring African adventures that will keep 9-to-12s of both sexes enthralled. But there's more depth to the book than I would have thought: in addition to Beryl's tramping around the African forests like Tarzan, you see more subtle themes of growing up, and trying to get on with others different from you. Beryl would be a delightful heroine even if she didn't later beco More...
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Jan 14, 2012
Bookworm1858
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I really enjoyed MacColl's first novel about young future queen Victoria so I was interested in her second outing, another historical fiction novel about a British heroine in vastly different circumstances. This time the heroine is famed aviatrix Beryl Markham, who grew up in British East Africa. I had never heard of her and entered the book with no idea what to expect.
I really liked the writing and the adventures. Beryl is not a shy, retiring young lady; she is bold and daring, not co More...
I really liked the writing and the adventures. Beryl is not a shy, retiring young lady; she is bold and daring, not co More...
Nov 11, 2011
icedtea
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Jan 03, 2012
Tasha
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Beryl Markham was the first person to fly solo from England to North America. She also had a remarkable childhood, growing up in British East Africa. Here the story of her childhood is interwoven with her perilous journey across the ocean to set the record. Her younger years reveal the birth of her independent, rebellious spirit. She could ride the fieriest stallion on her father’s horse farm in Africa, match wits with the boys of the local tribe, unsettle the most stern governess, and even
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Feb 14, 2012
Mckensy
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It is about a girl who wants to do dangerous and fun stuff. Her father wants her to stay out of danger and for her to educated.But at first she resist and then she is sent to private school. She have to stay at school for a year or she does not become a ranch hand of her father's farm.
I think is a good book to read because it has lot of action.
I think that people who like action or,horses will like this book.
I think is a good book to read because it has lot of action.
I think that people who like action or,horses will like this book.
Feb 09, 2012
A good interview with the author can be found here:
http://motherdaughterbookclub.com/2012/0...
http://motherdaughterbookclub.com/2012/0...
Jan 22, 2012
Beryl Markham - female pilot who flew solo across the Atlantic east-to-west
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