From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9-Sarah, the oldest of mysterious Mama's "adopted" children, who must thus care for the younger ones, lives in fear and squalor. Through Will Quaver, nephew of the stationmaster who mans the railway station from whence Mama picks up her occasional new baby, the 12-year-old begins to envision new possibilities of freedom and a glimmer of insight into the machinations of the woman who holds her hostage. When a new baby's arrival is followed by little "brother" Robbie's mysterious and terminal illness, Sarah begins to wonder. When Mama makes Sarah dose healthy little Horace with "special" medicine, Sarah worries about his alarming decline. All comes clear, of course, with Horrie's death, when Mama enlists Sarah in the garden burial and proceeds to lie to all regarding his whereabouts. Ever-observant Will arrives with the police, and Sarah gathers her courage and stands up to the evil woman, who is tried, convicted, and executed for murder. Based on true stories from the 1890s of several murdering "Mamas" who convinced hysterical, unwed, or otherwise needy women to pay them to "care" for their infants, this potentially powerful plot is marred by several weaknesses. Sarah tells the story in a dispassionate voice. The setting (Australia, 1894) is described only in the prologue, which many readers skip over, and the miraculous appearance of Sarah's birth mother in the last chapter (hinted at awkwardly in an earlier sequence) is unbelievably contrived. Given the violence and horror within, this book is surprisingly devoid of emotion.
Mary R. Hofmann, Rivera Middle School, Merced, CACopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Gr. 6-9. In the years before reliable birth control, young mothers often placed their infants with older women who could better care for them. Some of these "baby farmers" were less than scrupulous: they made a habit of collecting fees from young mothers and later disposed of the children in despicable ways. Crew's latest novel, set in Australia in 1897 and based on a composite of three actual criminal cases, is told from the point of view of nine-year-old Sarah, the oldest of Agnes Pratchett's children and the one who cooks, cleans, and cares for the other children. In a relentless, compelling narrative, Crew depicts Sarah's gradual awakening as she realizes that the life she leads and the only mother she has ever known are far from normal. Although the author wisely prepares readers for the horrific events well in advance, this gripping story isn't for the fainthearted. Young people who like horror of a realistic sort, however, will find this novel impossible to put down until Sarah is safely rescued from Pratchett's evil clutches.
Kay WeismanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
