Sixteen-year-old Meg Moore longs to be published and knows she has talent as a writer. Her own father—a bookseller and sometime publisher—could make her dream come true. But as much as he loves Meg, he cannot abide the idea; it’s almost unheard of for a woman to be so bold. Instead he encourages Meg to consider his apprentice, Will, as a marriage prospect. Meg can almost convince herself that she could be happy running the bookshop by Will’s side. Then word comes that Edward, her best friend’s brother, whom Meg recently rejected as a suitor, has been kidnapped on his voyage home from North Africa. With Meg’s help ransom is raised, and Edward’s return brings a surprising opportunity for her. He wants her to write about what happened to him for publication, determined that his countrymen know the truth of his experiences. Expecting to hear Edward speak harshly of the infidels who held him, Meg is shocked to find that while Edward was cruelly treated at times, it is his own failures that haunt him. More than that, it is the understanding he gained of the depth, richness, and sophistication of North African culture, and the compassion and devotion to God he witnessed among followers of Islam, that he fervently wants to convey. Katherine Sturtevant’s spellbinding story features a young woman determined to challenge the gender expectations of seventeenth-century England who is challenged herself by unconventional, frightening ideas that seem to defy both God and country. In the midst of it all, she is also challenged to understand the desires of her own heart in a captivating and thought-provoking sequel to At the Sign of the Star . (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000). (Ages 12–15)