title: The Orphan Queen
author:  Jodi Meadows 
description: Gr 7 UpWilhelminamore frequently known as Wilis a princess. However, she's a royal who's more used to stealing food than curtsying in a palace. Wil's homeland of Aecor was conquered 10 years earlier by the Indigo Kingdom and Wil and a band of other orphaned children of Aecor nobility have been living secretly as refugees in Skyvale, the capital of the Indigo Kingdom. The teen and the other refugees have plans to take back their home by infiltrating the palace. As Wilhelmina's mission inside the palace proceeds, it is complicated not just by her secret ability to practice magicwhich has been forbidden for almost a centurybut also by her connection to the vigilante Black Knife, a masked figure who helps the poor and the weak in the streets of Skyvale. Fans of Katniss and the Sisters of St. Mortain from Robin LaFevers's "His Fair Assassin" series (Houghton Harcourt) and other strong, vengeful female heroines will root for Wil, as she plots revolution, struggles with her conflicted feelings for Black Knife, and discovers more about wraith, the toxic by-product of magic. Although this series opener starts off with poorly executed exposition to provide the necessary background, the plot quickly picks up pace, and the highlights of this novel are the subtle lessons in the sacrifices and responsibilities of leadership, as well as the unique way in which magic use and wraith are echoes of our own world's debate about environmental justice.Evelyn Khoo Schwartz, Georgetown Day School, Washington, DC
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  * * *
  
  Poor Richard
  
  
  PART I.
  
  PART II.
  
  PART III
  
  
  
  
  
  This page copyright © 2003 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  
  
  
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  # Poor Richard
  
  
  ### Henry James
  
  
  This page copyright © 2003 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com  
    
  
  * PART I.
  
  
  * PART II.
  
  
  * PART III
  
  
  
  
      
  
  EText by Ian Hillman
  
  
  ### PART I.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  MISS WHITTAKER'S garden covered a couple of acres, behind and beside
  
  
  her house, and at it's farther extremity was bounded by a narrow
  
  
  meadow, which in turn was bordered by the old disused towing-path
  
  
  beside the river, at this point a slow and shallow stream. It's low
  
  
  flat banks were unadorned with rocks or trees, and a towing-path is not
  
  
  in itself a romantic promenade. Nevertheless, here sauntered
  
  
  bareheaded, on a certain spring evening, the mistress of the acres just
  
  
  mentioned and many more beside, in sentimental converse with an
  
  
  impassioned and beautiful youth.
  
  
  She herself had been positively plain, but for th