The Queen's Soprano »

CAROL DINES is the author of two previous young adult novels, Talk to Me and Best Friends Tell the Best Lies. She lives half of each year in Rome, where she discovered and researched Angelica's story, and the other half in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

A powerful historical novel about a seventeen-year-old girl who would sacrifice everything in order to be free to sing.

Laura Woodruff - VOYA

Life in seventeenth-century Rome is difficult for a beautiful and exceptionally talented girl, especially one born into a humble family. Seventeen-year-old Angelica Voglia does not question her ambitious mother or the generous priest who funds her musical education until orphan Lucia becomes her family's servant and Angelica's best friend. Lucia warns Angelica that her mother means to sell her to the highest bidder in order to advance her own station. Among the many suitors who gather daily beneath Angelica's window, the teenager favors French artist Theodon. Although poor, handsome, and gifted, Theodon has prospects. They court secretly with Lucia as a go-between. When Angelica discovers that her mother intends to deliver her to a married nobleman at the conclusion of a performance, she arranges to enter the service of Swedish Queen Christina and to live protected in the only quarter of Rome where women are permitted to sing. What follows is a series of intrigues and dangerous encounters as Angelica seeks to chart her own course among powerful, opposing factions. Written by a celebrated author and based on a factual story, the novel is genuinely gripping. Its innocent and brave heroine does not arrive at a happy ending; nonetheless her growth in understanding through sorrow and her commitment to self will ring true with today's young readers. VOYA CODES: 4Q 4P M J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2006, Harcourt, 336p., $17. Ages 11 to 18.