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Title: Too obviously subversive
Review: Reading this with my 6th grade tutee. I'm all for books about women shirking the rule of oppressive men and learning to be independent. But I felt the book shallow. Where is the source of reason and the rationality for a girl's search for independence? I didn't find it here because the antagonist is so unrealistically evil. I know this is fiction, and a children's book to boot, which explains why everything is so obviously black and white, but Captain Jaggery is so uninterestingly evil. He's more like a scratching post that you automatically have to hate. Good way to encourage directionless angst. Besides that though, I did find it suspenseful at times, so I give it a 2.
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