Yours from the Tower

Starred review from March 1, 2024

Gr 7 Up-It's 1897, and Polly, Sophia, and Tirzah have just graduated from school, ready to take on the world. Polly teaches at an orphanage in Liverpool, Sophia is starting the London Season as her aunt's charity case, and rebellious Tirzah is stuck in rural Scotland taking care of her mean-spirited grandmother. Separated in body, but united in spirit, the girls exchange letters in a round, by turns encouraging and joking as they help one another navigate the challenges of career, family, and romance. This is a world where few women have made exceptional progress-they admire the reporter Nellie Bly and read The Girl's Own Paper adventures-but they are stuck trying to change the world in ordinary ways. Privilege is relative. Polly gets involved tracking down extended family for young brothers shunted to the orphanage by a stepmother, while she falls in love with the superintendent, Mr. Thompson, who uses polio crutches. Sophia finds herself torn between a boring, rich aristocrat and a charming, feckless bohemian. Tirzah teeters closest to disaster, making out with a caddish young blacksmith and then running away to Edinburgh in an attempt to find her long-lost mother. When her plans go awry, friendship cushions her fall. The voices of the three girls and their other correspondents are spot-on. The form of the novel feels contemporary (with letters like video-chats and telegrams as texts), while remaining true to the historical period. VERDICT A delightful, addictive epistolary tale of female friendship and romance.-Katherine Magyarody

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2024
Grades 8-12 In 1896, Sophia, Tirzah, and Polly graduated from their British boarding school and went their separate ways in a society that has offered them few options. In November, they begin writing letters to one another. Sophia is in London, staying with wealthy relatives and gearing up for the Season (teas, balls, and other social events intended to lead toward marriage). Meanwhile, Tirzah is serving as an unwilling, frequently cross, and sometimes rebellious companion for her grandmother. Living with her parents and siblings, Polly works as a teacher at an orphanage and finds the experience rewarding. Nicholls tells their intertwined stories as they share their experiences and respond to one another's thoughts and questions. The writing convincingly expresses the three characters' views, and because they are well-developed, consistent individuals with distinctly different backgrounds and voices, it's easy to tell who is writing, even without their signatures. Romance plays an increasingly large part in their lives and letters as time passes. With eye-catching jacket art, this engaging novel will appeal to readers intrigued by the late-Victorian era.

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November 1, 2023
An epistolary novel unfolding through letters, primarily round-robin correspondence between three young women in late-19th-century Britain. Friends Tirzah, Polly, and Sophia were at school together and are now out in the world seeking their futures. Tirzah bookends the novel with her letters: A girl "in misery and exile," she feels trapped and lonely in her grandmother's house in Perthshire. Her story unfolds through her confinement, her actions to change her circumstances, and readers' understanding of her mysterious childhood. Polly--the novel's moral center--teaches in an orphanage in Liverpool. Her missives detail her happy family life, dedication to her students, and romance with the superintendent. Sophia, meanwhile, is in London with her aunt's family during her first "Season," where she feels duty-bound to secure a financially advantageous marriage. Her letters describe parties and suitors and her conflicting emotions around her prospects, and they introduce readers to the unconventional love match she eventually makes. The three girls, who are cued white, encourage each other's best selves and turn tropes on their heads as they find some control over their lives despite their circumstances. This clever novel's strength lies in its structure: The format effectively supports the drama, character development, voice, and pacing, even while it asks readers to pay attention and fill in details--or wait to see what the next letter will reveal. A warm, gentle work with well-drawn characters and brisk pacing celebrating female friendship and independence. (Historical fiction. 14-18)

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from October 16, 2023
Via letters rendered using a chatty, confiding tone, Nicholls (The Silent Stars Go By) presents a captivating epistolary novel set in 1896 that chronicles the friendship of teens Tirzah, Sophia, and Polly after they leave boarding school and embark on separate lives. Contrarian Tirzah chafes in her role as an unpaid companion to her grandmother in Scotland, practical Sophia revels in participating in her first London Season but faces pressure to find a wealthy husband to help her financially struggling family, and idealistic Polly teaches in an orphanage in Liverpool. Within the confines of the expectations placed on them, each girl challenges her circumstances: as Tirzah seeks out her absent mother, Sophia questions whether she can marry only for money, and Polly tries to unite orphan siblings with their long-lost father. The girls’ letters offer insight into their longings and dreams as they face individual hardships and triumphs, and interspersed among the teens’ correspondence are gossipy newspaper items and mail from other characters, including Sophia’s charming—if not entirely suitable, according to her family—beau. With great affection and sympathy, these winning heroines forge their own paths in this highly readable, tautly paced work. Main characters cue as white. Ages 14–up.