Da Vinci’s Tiger by L. M. Elliott

Elliott’s book is on a topic you won’t find much in YA fiction: the idea of Platonic love as it was practiced during the Renaissance in Italy. It was a concept I hadn’t even heard of until I took a specialized gender/history class in college. Elliott uses a real historical woman as her inspiration: Ginevra de Benci, who was painted by Leonardo da Vinci early in his career. The real Ginevra was a poet (only a single line of her poetry survives, echoed by the title of the book) who was married to a man much older than her at the age of 16. She was involved in a Platonic relationship with Bernardo Bembo, the ambassador from Venice, who commissioned poems about her and regarded her as his muse. Da Vinci’s portrait of her is remarkable in many ways, one of which is that it’s the first Italian portrait to feature a woman head-on, rather than a profile view.

Da Vinci’s Tiger chronicles Ginevra’s life from age 16 onward, showing her meetings with Leonardo da Vinci for the painting, her burgeoning relationship with Bembo (and its end), and her friendship with other Italian girls and women. It also touches some on the politics surrounding the de Medicis, which Ginevra becomes more involved in as her relationship with Bembo intensifies. It’s an interesting look at one young woman’s life, as well as an example of how some Italian women of that time achieved some independence or power within the very strict confines of their society via these Platonic relationships. This is not a book I’d hand to teens who don’t have a natural inclination to historical fiction, as it’s a rather quiet book and the historical details provide nearly all of the appeal. But for readers who want to know what Renaissance Italy really looked and felt like, this is a great option. Elliott separates fact from fiction at a page on her website, which provides further fascinating reading.

Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee

When Samantha’s father dies in a fire in their shop in Missouri in 1849, she’s left to fend for herself. She and Annamae, a runaway slave, set off on the Oregon Trail, disguising themselves as boys. Sam is after a friend of the family who has a priceless family heirloom she wants to recover; Annamae wants to find her brother, who promised he’d meet her out west after he, too, escaped slavery. Since Sam is Chinese and Annamae is black, it makes their journey all the more perilous – not to mention that there’s that little problem of the man that Sam killed before she fled Missouri, and she and Annamae are on wanted posters for his death.

Diverse historical fiction, especially set in the United States, can be really hard to find. This is a shining example of how it can be done, and done well. Lee weaves Chinese culture and beliefs into Sam’s character: the book is narrated by Sam and she often shares tidbits about the Chinese zodiac with the readers. There’s a bit of a culture clash between Sam and Annamae (“Andy” when she’s dressing as a boy) too, which helps give each girl a distinctive personality. This is a story about friendship, breaking gender barriers, and learning how to be a cowboy. It’s a great read for teens who are fascinated by the Oregon Trail but are tired of the same old story that just seems to copy the 90s computer game. There are no wagons, no oxen, just two girls (and a group of genuinely good boys who travel with them for a while) on the adventure of a lifetime.

The Forbidden Orchid by Sharon Biggs Waller

I quite enjoyed Waller’s first historical YA novel, A Mad Wicked Folly, about the feminist movement in 1909 London. Her second book is about Elodie, a teenage girl who goes orchid-hunting with her naturalist father in China during the Victorian era. This premise sounded interesting to me, and it’s a topic I know virtually nothing about. At one point, Elodie’s father explains just how dangerous orchid hunting in China really is – hostile Chinese people, hostile animals, diseases, thirst, hunger, and so on. I expected a pretty fun adventure featuring a girl who had to break all the gender rules of her time, but that’s not quite what I got.

I fear this book fell victim to my expectations. Over half of it was set in England and involved the setup for the adventure – Elodie’s father fails to bring back the orchids he’s been commissioned to find due to a horrible event he won’t talk about, and as a result, Elodie and her mother and sisters may be sent to the workhouse. Her father’s employer has the right to recoup his losses by seizing their possessions and their house. So Elodie convinces her father to go back to China, and she finagles a way to go with him, which involves stowing away on the ship dressed as a boy, which doesn’t go very well. She ends up in a somewhat coerced marriage and there’s some awkward romance that I didn’t especially love (and I’m normally a big fan of it). By the time they finally get to China, over half the book is done. None of this necessarily makes it a bad book, but it wasn’t what I was hoping for, and I was a bit disappointed. For readers who don’t crave that adventure aspect, though (or don’t mind waiting for it), this could be a winner. It’s set right after Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species and covers some of the religious tension over it, plus it touches on English imperialism in China and the opium trade.