On Fortune's Wheel

Two generations after Jackaroo (Atheneum, 1985) takes place, another innkeeper’s daughter finds herself outside the boundaries of her society. Like Lloyd Alexander, Voigt creates a setting in no known historical past, but with many medieval echoes. Birle, 14, tries to stop a boat thief and instead becomes his passenger as he flees downriver. The thief, however, is no ordinary man but Lord Orien, the next ruler of the Kingdom who is running away because he is convinced that he will be an ineffectual leader. The two become marooned on an island, and are then sold into service. Without Orien, Birle submits to her bad fortune, works hard, and befriends others held in thrall by one master or another. It is only when she acknowledges her desires and begins to work to achieve them that she is able to rescue a nearly dead Orien. Birle is a thoughtful heroine, Orien a worthy hero, and the sudden confusion both feel over the roles assigned to them is nicely resolved. Realizing that free will, at least in part, determines their future, both separately renounce the roles society has made for them to begin a life. Readers may wonder how Orien, Birle, and their baby will manage in the fierce anarchy of the southern cities, but at least they will be making their own way, not following the ways defined by ``fortune’s wheel.’’ This coming-of-age story at first moves slowly, but that makes the horror of enslavement even more dramatic. Voigt presents the horrors of slavery and despotic rule as seen through Birle’s eyes, and readers are left with many powerful images of the consequences of acting dishonorably, weakly, selfishly, or thoughtlessly.

School Library Journal. Susan Hepler, Arlington Public Library, VA.