Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Rebecca's Flame by Lynne Kositsky KOSITSKY, Lynne 1947- Born August 14, 1947, in , , Canada; married; children: three. Education: B.A. in psychology; B.Ed. in education; M.A. in English; various honors specialist teaching diplomas in English and drama. Addresses. Home — Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Agent — c/o Author Mail, Kids Can Press, 2250 Military Rd., Tonawanda, NY 14150. E-mail — [email protected] Career. Author of books for children and young adults; poet. University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, educator; has also taught at middle school and secondary schools. Member. Writers' Union of Canada, Canadian Children's Book Centre, Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators and Performers. Awards, Honors. E. J. Pratt Medal, 1981, for poetry; Canadian Author and Bookman Award, 1984, for poetry; "Our Choice" selection, Canadian Children's Book Centre (CCBC), and Geoffrey Bilson Historical Award shortlist, both for Candles; CCBC "Our Choice" selection, for Rebecca's Flame; CCBC "Our Choice" selection, Hackmatack Award nomination, and White Raven Award, International Youth Library in , all for Rachel: A Mighty Big Imagining; Society of School Librarians International Honor Book designation, for The Thought of High Windows; Ontario works-in-progress grant and Canada Council grant, both for Claire by Moonlight. Writings. NOVELS. Candles, Roussan (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1998. Rebecca's Flame, Roussan (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1998. A Question of Will, Roussan (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 2000. The Thought of High Windows, Kids Can Press (Tonawanda, NY), 2004. Claire by Moonlight, Tundra Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2005. "OUR CANADIAN GIRL" SERIES. Rachel: A Mighty Big Imagining, Penguin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2001. Rachel: The Maybe House, Penguin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2002. Rachel: Certificate of Freedom, Penguin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2003. Rachel: An Elephant Tree Christmas, Penguin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2004. POETRY. PCB Jam, Unfinished Monument Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1981. Contributor of poems to periodicals, including Toronto Life, Waves, Quarry, University of Toronto Review, and Canadian Women Studies. Adaptations. The Thought of High Windows has been optioned for an HBO Movie of the Week. Work in Progress. Researching and writing a novel for adults about Emilia Bassano Lanier, who may have been the "Dark Lady" of Shakespeare's sonnets; research for a young adult novel about the plague in Eyam, Derbyshire, , in the seventeenth century. Sidelights. Award-winning Canadian writer Lynne Kositsky is the author of the young adult novels A Question of Will and The Thought of High Windows, as well as several volumes in the "Our Canadian Girl" series for younger readers. Kositsky, a native of Montreal who lives in Toronto, has earned the E. J. Pratt Medal and the Canadian Author and Bookman Award for her poetry, and she garnered the White Raven Award from the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany, for Rachel: A Mighty Big Imagining. Kositsky's debut novel, Candles, appeared in 1998. Candles focuses on a young girl named Anya whose grandmother gives her an old menorah as a Hanukkah gift. When Anya lights the first candle, she is transported back in time to pre-World War II Germany, where she enters the life of Estie, a Jewish girl. Each time Anya lights a candle, she learns more about Estie's history, including her daring escape to England. "Estie's life and through her, Anya's learning to accept and cherish her Jewish identity, are the heart of the story," noted a critic in Resource Links. In A Question of Will, another time-travel story, Kositsky looks at the controversy surrounding the authorship of William Shakespeare's plays. While on a field trip to the Globe Theatre in London, Perin Willoughby suddenly finds herself back in Elizabethan England, where she meets the boorish Will Shakspeare and a host of other colorful characters. After she lands work with an acting company, Perin begins to suspect that the true genius behind the stage dramas she helps to produce is Edward Vere, the earl of Oxford. According to School Library Journal contributor Lynn Bryant, "Kositsky does give a sense of the sights, sounds, smells, and people of sixteenth-century London and addresses the debate over who really wrote Shakespeare's plays." The Thought of High Windows, described as "superb, wrenching Holocaust fiction" by a critic in Kirkus Reviews, was published in 2004. Esther, a Jewish girl who fled Nazi Germany, finds sanctuary in a French castle with a group of refugee children. Life is difficult for Esther: she misses her mother and father, endures the taunts of her fellow refugees, and lives in squalor. "Esther's longing for her family and feelings of depression make her a very real character and her increasing losses and loneliness draw readers into her experiences," observed Beth L. Meister in School Library Journal. When France surrenders to Germany, Esther no longer feels safe and goes on the run, eventually joining the French underground. Martha V. Parravano, reviewing The Thought of High Windows in Horn Book, stated that the author's "focus on human imperfection and quotidian detail poignantly reminds readers that the Holocaust – in all its inhumanity – happened to real human beings." The life of a former slave girl is depicted in Kositsky's tales from the "Our Canadian Girl" series. In Rachel: A Mighty Big Imagining, Rachel and her mother board a ship that will take them from America to Nova Scotia, where Rachel's stepfather awaits. Conditions in their new homeland are harsh and unforgiving, however, and free blacks are not welcomed by all. Despite these hardships, Rachel is determined to learn how to read and write. "This is a simple, believable story told in a straightforward manner," observed K. V. Johansen in Resource Links. Rachel: The Maybe House concerns the family's efforts to move from their horrid pit house to a new home, and Rachel: Certificate of Freedom follows Rachel and her mother after they are sold back into slavery. The final book in the series, Rachel: An Elephant Tree Christmas, adds "a lovely sense of closure," remarked Resource Links contributor David Ward. Biographical and Critical Sources. PERIODICALS. Horn Book, May-June, 2004, Martha V. Parravano, review of The Thought of High Windows, p. 332. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, November, 2004, Jo Ann Yazzie, review of The Thought of High Windows, pp. 272-273. Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2004, review of The Thought of High Windows, p. 181. Resource Links, June, 1999, review of Candles, p. 12; February, 2000, review of Rebecca's Flame, pp. 25, 28; October, 2000, review of A Question of Will, p. 28; December, 2001, K. V. Johansen, review of Rachel: A Mighty Big Imagining, pp. 18-19; February, 2003, Joanne de Groot, review of Rachel: The Maybe House, p. 11; April, 2004, Carol-Ann Hoyte, review of Rachel: Certificate of Freedom, pp. 18-19, and Brendan White, review of The Thought of High Windows, p. 38; October, 2004, David Ward, review of Rachel: An Elephant Tree Christmas, p. 14. School Library Journal, November, 2001, Lynn Bryant, review of A Question of Will, p. 160; May, 2004, Beth L. Meister, review of The Thought of High Windows, p. 151. Will Power. Enter an average teenage kid on a school trip to London to learn about “the greatest playwright that ever lived.” Left behind by the group and lost on the way to the Globe Theatre, Perin Willoughby (soon to be known as Willow) is drawn towards the foggy Thames near London Bridge and whisked back in time. She recovers in the arms of newfound friend John Pyke, an actor with the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. He soon becomes a love interest. The story that follows – from Willow’s 1595 fall into the arms of her beloved “Pykester” to the end – is gripping. In much the same way as Willow, we are thrown into London theatre life, with all its spit and swashbuckling adventure. As Willow establishes herself in her new grottier surroundings, Kositsky really picks up the pace. (As with Rebecca’s Flame, the author’s second novel, I couldn’t put the book down.) The resolution to this comedy of errors, of gender concealed, disguised and discovered, of love, can only happen if and when de Vere proclaims himself the playwright of Shakespeare’s works, or if Willow returns to the twentieth century. Willow becomes a key player in shady dealings between her roomie Will Shakespeare (who sleeps in his birthday suit) and de Vere. She also becomes a leading actor in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, gaining popularity with Queen Elizabeth. As a young entrepreneur, she introduces fried spuds (chips in a twist) and sandwiches to the spectators in the pit, and launches history’s first awards show – the Bessies – complete with sealed scrolls and miniature statuettes of the Queen for her majesty’s entertainment. Kositsky even throws in a classic love triangle: Willow likes Pyke likes de Vere’s daughter likes Willow. What novel twists to lighten the gloom and gore, the dust and dirt of London’s theatre scene in the sixteenth century! The language is rich and playful, a mix of Willow’s feisty teenage expressions and Kositsky’s tinkered-with version of Tudor English. The result is a novel that speaks in many tongues, brought alive by the author’s lively alliterations and singular similes – the evil Gabe Spencer’s eyes as “runny as raw egg whites,” “baggage as heavy as a month of Sundays,” and Queen Elizabeth’s teeth like “blackened gravestones in the boneyard of her mouth.” Imaginative and entertaining, A Question of Will could create a whole generation of teenage Shakespeare fans – or should I say Edward de Vere fans? Sarah Rosenfeld is a writer and associate editor for a travel and leisure magazine for Canadian physicians. Leave a Reply Cancel reply. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. “A Question of Will” by Lynne Kositsky: Available Again! A Question of Will , Lynne Kositsky’s delightful Oxfordian novel for young adults, is now back in print and available here on Amazon in the U.S. for only $5.99. It is also available from most Amazon outlets worldwide. This book is a great way to introduce young people to the Shakespeare authorship question and the Oxfordian theory. Kositsky is a poet, author, and independent researcher, who co-authored with Professor a major book of Shakespearean scholarship: On the Date, Sources and Design of Shakespeare’s (2013). Her honors include the E.J. Pratt Medal and Award for Poetry and the Canadian Jewish Book Award for Youth. Her other books for young readers include Candles , Rebecca’s Flame , and Claire by Moonlight . Lynne and her husband Michael, a composer, have written a musical version of A Question of Will , which received a staged reading at the SOF Annual Conference in Boston in 2016. Lynne was named the Oxfordian of the Year in 2006. A Question of Will follows a feisty, fast-talking, teenaged girl, Perin Willoughby (“Willow”), as she travels back in time to the Elizabethan era. Willow is frightened and fascinated by the strange time period in which she lands. She snags an acting job at The Theatre (the first permanent one in England), all the while masquerading as a boy to avoid being thrown out on the street. Readers will enjoy Willow’s odyssey as she experiences the sights and sounds — and smells! — of the streets of Elizabethan London. She soon finds herself carrying manuscripts from a mysterious nobleman to a drunken actor named Will Shakspere. What’s going on here? The novel will entertain Shakespeare fans young and old. First published in 2000, A Question of Will went out of print when its original publisher went out of business. The book is now back in print thanks to a new edition published by the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship. Copies will be distributed at the 2019 convention of the National Council of Teachers of English, November 21–24, to encourage teachers to use it in their classrooms. This enterprise was funded entirely through an SOF GoFundMe project. You can order A Question of Will here on Amazon for $5.99.