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67th out of 87 books
—
11 voters
Cassandra's Sister
How did a country girl named Jenny become the celebrated novelist Jane Austen? A highly engaging historical novel by the author of ANGELMONSTER.
Young Jane — or Jenny, as she is called — is a girl with a head full of questions. Surrounded by her busy parents and brothers, Jenny finds a place for her thoughts in the companionship of her older sister, Cassandra. Theirs is a c...more
Young Jane — or Jenny, as she is called — is a girl with a head full of questions. Surrounded by her busy parents and brothers, Jenny finds a place for her thoughts in the companionship of her older sister, Cassandra. Theirs is a c...more
Hardcover, 230 pages
Published
August 14th 2007
by Candlewick
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Because we were rushed off our feet on my holiday and doing lots of different things which meant I was SO tired in the evening, I didn't actually read that much as I normally do so only got through this book while in America.
I have read this book before and from what I could remember I found it interesting and was one of the first books I read about Jane Austen herself and her family. This book is a lot like the movie starring Anne Hathaway, Becoming Jane as it is set around that time, although...more
I have read this book before and from what I could remember I found it interesting and was one of the first books I read about Jane Austen herself and her family. This book is a lot like the movie starring Anne Hathaway, Becoming Jane as it is set around that time, although...more
This was such an interesting book, from a lot of different standpoints. I ordered it from another library (didn't have it where I work), and I saw that it was classified in Juvenile fiction, rather than young adult fiction. Would anybody from ages 8 to 12 read this book? Would anybody from ages 12 to 20? I really hope so. I think it's a lovely one. I have a love and appreciation for Austen that probably borders on the mildly goony, so it's hard to separate my reactions to anything Austen related...more
Cassandra's Sisters is both the best young adult book and the best Jane Austen based book that I have read recently. Cassandra's Sister explores the life of Jane Austen for a period of nearly ten years from her late teens to late twenties. We read about Jane's home, family, and associates as we see her travel the countryside, attend balls, and sit in her room and write novels based on her experiences.
Bennett does such a good job of conveying a sense of time and place that I had to keep remindin...more
Bennett does such a good job of conveying a sense of time and place that I had to keep remindin...more
One author's imaginings of Austen in her early adult years. Not bad. I questioned a few things, because what Janeite would not? But otherwise I enjoyed it. Waited with anxiety until Tom LeFroy entered the picture, and read with excitement the few pages he graced. Even before my Austen class in college, I always had my own imaginings of Tom LeFroy's role in her life and have since been intrigued by how others imagined it.
I think what reached me the most with this book was reflecting on my own lif...more
I think what reached me the most with this book was reflecting on my own lif...more
I enjoy reading books about sisters. Veronica Bennett's novel is a historical fiction about Jane Austen's life as a young woman, her relationships with her parents, her family and friends, and her struggles with writing her now-famous novels. But it mainly focuses on the closeness between young Jane and her older sister Cassandra.
Okay, I admit that I was initially drawn to this book because I like the cover. And naturally I was inclined to read it because it's another book about the life of my f...more
Okay, I admit that I was initially drawn to this book because I like the cover. And naturally I was inclined to read it because it's another book about the life of my f...more
Cover Blurb: I like its classiness, and being a person who is drawn to classy stories, the cover did a good job of catching my attention.
What I Liked: I like how the Author portrayed Jane and Cassandra’s close relationship, and I absolutely adored Tom Lefroy; it made me so sad knowing how things turned out between him and Jane! I felt Cassandra’s pain when she received the letter about her fiancé, and I loved all of the real-life parallels for Jane’s novels.
What I Disliked: I didn’t get much of...more
What I Liked: I like how the Author portrayed Jane and Cassandra’s close relationship, and I absolutely adored Tom Lefroy; it made me so sad knowing how things turned out between him and Jane! I felt Cassandra’s pain when she received the letter about her fiancé, and I loved all of the real-life parallels for Jane’s novels.
What I Disliked: I didn’t get much of...more
A fictionalized biography of Jane Austen from the ages 17-27, focusing on possible inspirations for characters and situations in her novels.
I was impressed that the writer didn’t fall into the trap of so many writers when covering a long span of years in a short book; the book didn’t feel like a summary or telling instead of showing. She also managed to do this without gaps of more than a year or so. My only complaint is that she started the book with an entirely gratuitous scene; the beheading...more
I was impressed that the writer didn’t fall into the trap of so many writers when covering a long span of years in a short book; the book didn’t feel like a summary or telling instead of showing. She also managed to do this without gaps of more than a year or so. My only complaint is that she started the book with an entirely gratuitous scene; the beheading...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I am a huge Jane Austen fan and have read each of her books several times; surprisingly I have very mixed feelings about this book.
First, I love the idea of introducing Jane Austen to younger students as a way to (hopefully) inspire them to read the real thing. Secondly there is little biographical writing about Jane Austen that is accessible to students eighth-grade and younger. This type of book has the potential to help alleviate this.
Unfortunately this book just doesn’t work for me. I was f...more
First, I love the idea of introducing Jane Austen to younger students as a way to (hopefully) inspire them to read the real thing. Secondly there is little biographical writing about Jane Austen that is accessible to students eighth-grade and younger. This type of book has the potential to help alleviate this.
Unfortunately this book just doesn’t work for me. I was f...more
What a sweet and brilliantly written book! I was so very impressed by how well the author used a more old-fashioned form of writing without it sounding awkward or as if she were trying too hard. The characters were delightful, especially Jenny & Cass and the flow of the book was perfect. It was also fun to see how the author slipped in snippets of Jane Austen's books into this story about Jane Austen's life. I highly recommend this book to anyone, most especially fans of Austen's works.
Apr 01, 2012
Lianna Navasardyan
added it
I chose this book because it was a very detailed book. Cassandra’s sister falls in love with a guy but when a another girl claims his heart she has to get it back. My favorite quote is how can a gentleman behave in such an ungentlemanly fashion, I picked this quote because it is a true quote on how a gentleman can act ungentlemanly like the writing style because it is an old fashion writing style .Yes I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a romance book.
I loved this book!!! I wasn't sure what I was getting to begin with, but if you've seen (and liked) Becoming Jane, then I recommend you reading this book. I knew that Becoming Jane was based on Jane Austens life, but I didn't know there was a book that covered that as well! The book, or course, is didn't from the movie (I'm assuming that the book has the correct facts), but they are both good!
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
VERY 'YA' lit historical based fictional telling of Jane Austen and her sister at a partiular time in their lives. I am a JA fan and love all kinds of pov on her works and life, but this was a little too silly and didn't conviningly scratch the surface. There were no new ideas, and not much insight.
Too bad, because YA could use some good JA stuff.
Too bad, because YA could use some good JA stuff.
If you unfortunately watched "Becoming Jane" you saw an adaptation of Jane Austen's life that had almost no facts and barely the same names. Author Veronica Bennett definitely has done her homework on Jane Austen's life. I have read a half a dozen biographies and I felt the author really kept with the voice of Austen's letters.
A fictionalized account of the life of a young Jane Austen and her older sister Cassandra. The language was a little difficult to get into at first, but a good read if you persist. Definitely gives a background to the novels Jane would go on to write, as well as insight into the difficulties of life in the late 1700's. B
I have a precocious 6th grader who has already read Jane Austen and loved her work (I want to tell her to revisit it again in 10 years). This will be a great book for her --as it tells the life of the early Jane Austen growing up with her family. Definitely light, but charming.
Excellent fictional account of Jane Austen's life based on what the author imagines may have inspired the characters in her books. Captivating, and in my opinion true to the tone of Austen's novels, though sadder, of course. Highly recommend it to Austen fans.
I guess I can't truly say I didn't like it since I didn't finish it. It was so hard to get into and boring, I tried a dozen times or so to keep reading it and couldn't push myself into it. Maybe another time down the road...
This is the fictionalized story of Jane Austen's life from age 17 to about age 25. It imagines her life of balls and everyday social politics. If you like her books, you will probably like this.
If she wrote such fantastic novels, how do depictions of her real life always turn out so dull? This one in particular suffered from periodic bursts of awkward, overly forced feminism.
18 year old Jane Austen loves writing stories to amuse her large family, but she's looking for a man who she can love and marry, and live out her stories. But what does life hold for her?
This was an interesting fictionalized (because many deals were lost) account of Jane Austen's life. Worth a read and I am sure much beloved by young adults who read Jane Austen.
Pretty nice historical fiction. The time line is often hard to follow and the characters get all mixed up. Good historical note at the end. Great for Austin fans.
Apr 22, 2009
Book Concierge
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
young-adult,
women-writers,
sisters,
library,
jane-austen,
historical-fiction,
concierge,
british
This is an interesting young adult book on the life of Jane Austen. It's well-written and nicely explores the sister's relationship.
I really liked this book. It is an interesting and plausable fictional account of Jane Austen's life during her young adulthood.
My 2009 resolution here - 6 word summaries.
Here is the first
Historical fiction - Austen's becoming a novelist.
Here is the first
Historical fiction - Austen's becoming a novelist.
A snoozer. I wasn't captivated at all. Made out Jane Austen to be excessively shallow in matters of the heart.
Growing up Jane Austen - fictional look at jane/jenny's life with her family. Good
It was alright, buy very obvious that the book was directed towards younger readers. I think the book would have been geared towards older readers, I would have appreciated it more.
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| Front cover | 1 | 5 | Jun 01, 2009 06:08pm |
Veronica Bennett is a children's novelist. Until recently, she worked part-time as an English Lecturer; she now writes fiction full-time. She graduated from University College, Cardiff in 1975 with an Honours degree in English. She began her writing career as a freelance journalist, but soon moved into fiction. Her first book, Monkey, was published in 1998 and was acclaimed by The Times Educationa...more
More about Veronica Bennett...
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