The Secret Sisters

by Avi

Overview

Newbery medalist Avi tells the story of a young girl determined to define her own place amidst old rules and new ways in the Roaring Twenties.

Attending high school in Steamboat Springs is Ida Bidson’s dream—it’s her next step toward becoming a teacher and her best shot at escaping a life of milking cows. It’s 1925, and from using telephones to attending movies, Ida is thrilled by her new experiences in Steamboat. She and her school friends even form a club, the Secret Sisters, to celebrate everything modern.

But when they accidentally antagonize the strict, traditionalist principal, Ida’s high school career may be over before it even begins. It's up to the Secret Sisters find a way to save Ida’s dream!

Readers will cheer for Ida as she continues the adventure begun in the one-room schoolhouse of Avi's popular The Secret School!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780358248088
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/29/2023
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Avi is the award-winning author of more than eighty-two books for young readers, ranging from animal fantasy to gripping historical fiction, picture books to young adult novels. Crispin: The Cross of Lead won the Newbery Medal, and The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and Nothing but the Truth were awarded Newbery Honors. He is also the author of the popular Poppy series. Avi lives in Denver, Colorado. Visit him online at avi-writer.com.

Date of Birth:

December 23, 1937

Place of Birth:

New York, New York

Education:

University of Wisconsin; M.A. in Library Science from Columbia University, 1964

Website:

http://www.avi-writer.com

Editorial Reviews

?"An enjoyable historical novel with a likable heroine." — Booklist

"One for smart, outspoken kids looking for their places in the world." — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2023-05-24
Ida, 14, leaves her rural Colorado mountain ranch home for Steamboat Springs in this stand-alone companion to 2001’s The Secret School.

Ida Bidson attended a one-room schoolhouse, but in September 1925, she says goodbye to her family. She won’t be home for two months. Ida dreams of being a teacher, so she must go 20 miles away to high school. Kind county school inspector Miss Sedgewick lets Ida board with her for free, and everything feels so modern: indoor plumbing, electricity, and a telephone! Ida’s anxious to please but wrestles with what’s considered proper and what other people think of her. When she makes some friends, they form the Secret Sisters club to try new things and help each other in school. But the girls end up on the bad side of the principal, who has firm attitudes about ladylike behavior, women voters, and the capability of rural students and threatens to expel them. Getting good grades on the upcoming midterm exams is critical. While maintaining a solid grounding in the 1920s, the novel tackles self-discovery amid challenging situations, including dealing with peer pressure, misogyny, classism, and general unfairness, in ways contemporary readers will find accessible and relatable. Historical facts are memorably and organically conveyed through Ida’s innate curiosity. Characters read White; one of Ida’s friends is from an immigrant mining community, and her name cues as having East European heritage.

One for smart, outspoken kids looking for their places in the world. (author’s note, glossary, bibliography) (Historical fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews