Phoebe Stone, author of the sleeper hit DEEP DOWN POPULAR, is back with a middle-grade code-breaking mystery full of romance and excitement. Think ...
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reviews
Dec 27, 2011
Wendy
rated it: 
I know I would have loved this and reread it several times if I'd read it first when I was ten. The things that bother me some now, some inconsistencies and loose ends and crowding of plot, wouldn't have bothered me then.
This book's been mentioned as a Newbery contender, but I don't think it's quite there. In particular, Felicity's voice often sounds TOO self-consciously "British". Like an American girl who goes to England with her parents for a week and comes back and wants More...
This book's been mentioned as a Newbery contender, but I don't think it's quite there. In particular, Felicity's voice often sounds TOO self-consciously "British". Like an American girl who goes to England with her parents for a week and comes back and wants More...
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Jul 13, 2011
Jenn
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So, when this book first came out, all I head about it was people complaining about the cover, because it doesn't scream World War II historical. And I felt a little bad on it's behalf, not least of which because my mom was a kid in the forties and she totally rocked the jeans like 90% of the time, if the snapshots are to be believed. And then it took for-freaking-ever for me to get my hands on a library copy and in that interim I think my wanting-to-like-it grew to an unreasonable degree (I adm
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Jan 22, 2011
Lesa
rated it: 
This was a light read that I enjoyed, and I definitely suggest it for younger readers. Felicity, or "Flissy" as her newly-met relations call her, is a young girl with spunk, and I admire that. She just won't take "no" for an answer. If she's going to hold on to her sanity while the world is tangled up in the insanity of WWII, she's going to need all the courage she can muster, and she has plenty of it to get her through.
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Feb 13, 2012
Barb
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Felicity is mysteriously dropped off at her grandmother’s home in Bottlebay, Maine by her parents. There is so much tension between family members that Felicity wonders what happened to make grandma not come out of the house to greet her son who is Felicity’s dad. Her uncle won’t return her dad’s hug or look at her Mom in greeting. What’s going on? Then there is the wooden door on the second floor that is always closed and that she is to avoid. She knows that someone is in there, but who is it?
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Jan 21, 2012
Ingrid
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I had a hard time putting this book down once I began reading it. Felicity comes from London to Maine with her parents during World War ll and is left with her father's family. She has no idea when her parents will return. She has never met her father's family and although they do their best to make her feel welcome there are also a lot of family secrets. Why has her uncle nailed the piano shut and will no longer play it? Why are these people so cold towards her mother? There are also these myst
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Jan 16, 2012
Rebecca
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WWII has started, and Felicity's parents have risked crossing the Atlantic Ocean to leave Felicity with her father's family in Maine. Then they leave to return to their enigmatic jobs, with no hint of when they might return. Felicity finds her family in Maine to be almost as enigmatic as her parents, but nowhere near as charming. The house seems to be full of secrets and resentment, mostly towards her beloved parents. Then the coded letters start arriving, and Felicity and her new friend Derek s
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Nov 12, 2011
Grier
rated it:
First of all, please ignore the cover of Phoebe Stone's The Romeo and Juliet Code. Its contemporary teen love story vibe simply does not do this book justice. For one thing, the story takes place during WWII. For another thing, if it's a love story, then I completely missed this fact. What it is, however, is one heck of a well-narrated tale of family secrets and wartime intrigue. (And yes, there's a crush in there, too, but it's nothing like what the cover suggests.)
The novel opens j More...
The novel opens j More...
Jun 17, 2011
Beverly
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I really liked this book and might use it as a read-aloud to my class this next year. I certainly plan to read some excerpts and use it as a touchstone book because of the magnificent wording - use of figurative language, particularly. I think we could use it as a mentor piece just for figurative language!
I enjoyed it because it was engaging enough to make me want to keep turning pages to find out what was going to be revealed next. It was not nearly as predictable as some adole More...
I enjoyed it because it was engaging enough to make me want to keep turning pages to find out what was going to be revealed next. It was not nearly as predictable as some adole More...
Mar 26, 2011
Pam
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If you liked Stead's When You Reach Me because of the homage to Wrinkle in Time, then you will probably like The Romeo and Juliet Code as Stone is paying homage to The Little Princess and The Secret Garden. In this story, a very British (almost stereotypical) girl moves to a coastal town in Maine from London during the early days of WWII. Left by her parents with her estranged grandmother, aunt, and uncle, Felicity is sad, bewildered, and lonely as she tries to fit into a life she doesn't wan
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Mar 20, 2011
Shelley
rated it:
I am torn on this title. It was...weird. I think it tried to be a lot of things, and didn't really succeed. I thought I was going to love it - 12 year old girl evacuated from London to her uncle's family in Maine, in 1942, with bonus mysteries and code solving. But the characters never gelled for me. Flissy was so immature, and I don't totally get why. There were allusions to what her teacher said (blaming her mother), and her grandmother said it was no wonder, that her mother never should have
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Feb 16, 2011
Gail
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I found this book charming. It is a story about a young girl who is delivered to her grandmother's home under some suspicious circumstances. Her mom and dad don't seem to be welcomed warmly by her dad's brother or mother and when she is left there, no one tells her why or for how long. She struggles with not being able to talk with her parents and not being able to write to them. She has so many questions and no one wants to tell her anything. During the story, many things pop up to give her
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Jul 16, 2011
Karen
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A very strong contender for the Newbery this year. The cover might lead you to believe this is a contemporary young person's romance. Not so. The Romeo and Juliet Code is historical fiction, set in 1941. Felicity Bathburn Budwig, eleven years old, travels from bombed-out London to Bottlebay, Maine to live with the American relatives she's never met and who've become estranged from her dashing, reckless father, "my Danny," and her beautiful British mother, "my Winnie." Fa
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Nov 20, 2011
Aimee
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Don't judge this book by its cover! "The Romeo and Juliet Code" is a historical fiction book about WWII. I really enjoyed this book, but I probably wouldn't have picked it up because it just looked like a cute romance. There was much more to this book than romance. Felicity, the main character, is struggling to understand the events going on around her. Her parents left her to live with an aunt, uncle, grandma, and "cousin" she had never met. She doesn't understand why
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Sep 14, 2011
Mary
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This is a good historical fiction book for students who must read historical fiction and don't like it. At the beginning of WWII, Felicity's parents take her from their London ome by ship to Maine, and leave her with her grandmother, Shakespeare-loving aunt, secretive Uncle Gideon, and the mysterious Captain Derek, none of whom she has ever met before. At first Felicity is uncertain of her welcome with her relatives, and confused by her parents' uncharacteristic behavior, but over the course of
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Feb 21, 2011
Heidi
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Felicity Bathburn Budwig arrives at her father's family home in Maine in the fall of 1940 only to discover that there is tension between her father and his family. She determines not to be influenced by this strange new family, including her Uncle Gideon, Auntie Miami, and The Gram. But as she gets to know them, she realizes that there is more to her family than she ever imagined. The situation gets more complex when she discovers Derek, an adopted boy, who is recovering from polio. When her U
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Jan 19, 2012
Bdalton
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This is a charming story about an eleven year old girl, Felecity Bathburn Budwig, who is delivered to her grandmother's house in Maine by concerned parents who wish to protect her from the Nazi's attach on London. Her mother, Winnie, and father, Danny, leave her and return to Europe. Winnie Uncle Gideon and Aunt Miami live with her Grandmother along with a slightly older boy, Derek. Derek won't come out of his room because he has recently been stricken by polio. Once Winnie gets over the sho
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Jun 15, 2011
Brandy
rated it: 
Review originally posted here.
A lot of my negative reaction to this book is because I am well and truly tired of the whole "kid is abandoned by parent(s) with obscure little known relatives and has to be brave and learn something" story. So why did I read this? Hope that eventually someone has to subvert the trope. Hope that the mystery would be mysterious and intriguing. Hope for a good examination of British/American relations and thoughts in 1941. This book is sadly More...
A lot of my negative reaction to this book is because I am well and truly tired of the whole "kid is abandoned by parent(s) with obscure little known relatives and has to be brave and learn something" story. So why did I read this? Hope that eventually someone has to subvert the trope. Hope that the mystery would be mysterious and intriguing. Hope for a good examination of British/American relations and thoughts in 1941. This book is sadly More...
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Apr 07, 2011
Rita_book
rated it:
My only novel for the last Review & Evaluation of the year...
This is an odd little book. It seems, on the surface, to be a typical historical fiction book, but it also incorporates a bit of mystery as well as some romance. "Proper British girl" Felicity is sent to live with her father's family in Maine to escape the London blitz at the beginning of World War II. She misses her parents terribly, but grows to love and appreciate her quirky American family, while trying to unravel More...
This is an odd little book. It seems, on the surface, to be a typical historical fiction book, but it also incorporates a bit of mystery as well as some romance. "Proper British girl" Felicity is sent to live with her father's family in Maine to escape the London blitz at the beginning of World War II. She misses her parents terribly, but grows to love and appreciate her quirky American family, while trying to unravel More...
Mar 23, 2011
Liz (Consumed by Books)
rated it:
I always enjoy books whose plots and characters send me on a rollercoaster ride. Sometimes I like it when that happens in books, namely when I wind up like something better than I expected. The Romeo and Juliet Code is something of a modern re-telling of The Secret Garden, and at first it didn’t really draw me in. By the end of the novel, I found it to be a sweet and charming story that I would happily pass on to just about any middle grade reader.
I’ve never read The Secret Garden, b More...
I’ve never read The Secret Garden, b More...
Jun 08, 2011
Ofilia
rated it: 
Felicity Bathburn Budwig is an eleven year old British girl clinging on to her teddy bear, Wink, as her parents practically dump her in Maine with family she has never known. They claim it is to keep her safe from the bombings in WWII London, but she suspects there is something more they are not telling her. Come to find out she is absolutely right. Almost immediately after crossing the Budwig threshold, she is rechristened as Flissy and she begins to realize there are secrets enveloping these f
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Mar 18, 2011
Lisa
rated it:
I liked so much about this book: the quirky, endearing characters, the writing style that brought to mind A.A. Milne for some reason, the mysteries surrounding Felicity's parents, Felicity's charming British style, and her relationship with her bear Wink. There were two things that bothered me. The cover is attractive, yet has no apparent relationship to the book. Did the wrong cover get put on this book? It leads one to imagine they're about to read a contemporary story, not one set in the 1940
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Mar 19, 2011
Jamie
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In 40+ years of reading books, I have never ever ever seen a worse mismatch of cover to book. I'm convinced that it was just a giant mistake. The sad part is, that the cover mismatch is so egregious, that it is the first thing I will think of about this delightful book.
Set in 1941, a young girl is taken by her British parents (actually, Dad is from Maine, Mom is British) to live with her fathers estranged family in Maine, ostensibly to save her from the dangers of war. There are man More...
Set in 1941, a young girl is taken by her British parents (actually, Dad is from Maine, Mom is British) to live with her fathers estranged family in Maine, ostensibly to save her from the dangers of war. There are man More...
Apr 12, 2011
Treasa
rated it:
When eleven-year-old Felicity is left by her parents at her father's childhood home, where her grandmother, uncle, and aunt live, she is not happy. She misses her home in England; things in Maine are so very different. She understands why she had to leave London - it was much too dangerous with all the bombs being dropped by the Germans - but she still doesn't like it. And she knows that Uncle Gideon is hiding something from her: envelopes arrive addressed in her father's handwriting, but she is
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Mar 10, 2011
Laela
rated it:
You should stop what you’re doing and read this book, and I mean now. It’s one of those books that I have been saving that fifth star for. Something so good, you want everyone around you to read it, so that everyone can be in on the awesomeness.
I took this book everywhere I went while I was reading, asking everyone “What do you think this book is about?” based solely on the cover. The cover lies, it’s not really a light romance; it’s a book about spies, and war, and America, wi More...
I took this book everywhere I went while I was reading, asking everyone “What do you think this book is about?” based solely on the cover. The cover lies, it’s not really a light romance; it’s a book about spies, and war, and America, wi More...
Oct 05, 2011
Kristin
rated it:
Some people seem to be knocking this book because they feel the cover art doesn't reflect what the story is about. I would agree the cover art could have been better, but I did like this story for its originality. The narrator is a little precocious, but she's not irritating. The descriptions are good. I also like how the characters are drawn by highlighting small details about their personalities. One thing I hate about mysteries (which this books avoids) is a long explanation outlining how the
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May 28, 2011
Bethany
rated it:
This book was not all what I expected, nor how it was advertised. When I first began reading it, I wasn't so sure about it. However, it charmed me. The book was sweet; in fact, probably too sweet for the age group I teach. I would see this more for 5/6 than junior high.
The only major problem with this book is the big reveal at the end. As an adult, I could see it coming. Kids, I don't think, would anticipate it as well. Still, the way the main character simply accepts the news w More...
The only major problem with this book is the big reveal at the end. As an adult, I could see it coming. Kids, I don't think, would anticipate it as well. Still, the way the main character simply accepts the news w More...
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May 02, 2011
Michele
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I've heard some great recommendations for this book, but I cannot say that I love it. The cover and even the blurb on the back of my Scholastic edition are misleading. It appears to be a bit of an early romance story. However, it is not that at all--it is a book about a young British girl living in the U.S. during WWII and attempting to break a secret code with a boy who is her cousin by adoption. Felcity, the main character, is well drawn and I like her and her family, but I didn't find the
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Apr 22, 2011
Cat
rated it:
Unfortunately, I was bored for the majority of the story. It finally picked up around page 200 (of 300), and then it was a quick read. Still though, I was never fully satisfied. There were way too many "unknowns" and it bugged me that the character wasn't fighting harder for answers. I was glad she was able to mature and grow so much in her new environment, but I felt under-satisfied. I kept worrying she would replace her old life with her new one. I was actually pretty nervous about i
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Apr 04, 2011
Annie
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Don't let the cover deceive you. This is a completely charming work of historical fiction set in coastal Maine during World War II. The protagonist, young British "Flissy" as her new family nicknames her, has a personality like Flavia de Luce in Sweetess at the Bottom of the Pie and the other Alan Bradley Books. She is clever and has gumption in spades--just what a young girls needs if her parents dump her in the middle of nowhere with family she's never known while they go off to help
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Nov 03, 2011
Zeke
rated it:
This book is going to be magical....for the right reader.
I say that because it may take a little extra push to get it into his/her hands. The cover is the WRONG cover for this book. This is not, in fact another boy meets girl/girl meets girl/boy meets boy book. It's actually a delightful (and sometimes dark) mystery novel, set during World War II.
Felicity Bathburn Budwig is a "proper British girl" who has been sent to stay with relatives in Maine. While there, she uncovers layers and More...
I say that because it may take a little extra push to get it into his/her hands. The cover is the WRONG cover for this book. This is not, in fact another boy meets girl/girl meets girl/boy meets boy book. It's actually a delightful (and sometimes dark) mystery novel, set during World War II.
Felicity Bathburn Budwig is a "proper British girl" who has been sent to stay with relatives in Maine. While there, she uncovers layers and More...
