Eliza Kane lives a perfectly good life, she has a family, lives in a nice house and attends art college where she has friends. But one day things take a turn for the worst, Mama dies. As Papa loses his vision they are forced to give up their business and their beloved home. They move to the dirty tenements on Henrietta Street and Eliza has to quit art college to be able to care for Papa and her brother Jonty. Eliza isn’t sure if she’ll ever fit in. When the circus comes to town, Eliza finds a job to earn extra money to pay for Papa’s eye operation. One day just as she is settled in, disaster strikes! Eliza has to work harder than ever before. She learns truly what it’s like to be someone living in the tenements.
Papa, Eliza and Jonty Kane are the main characters and have an unusual relationship with each other , Eliza and Jonty feel the need to hide things from Papa to be able to do them things , Madam Ada is the beekeeper at the circus and like a mother figure for Eliza, Albert is the boy at the circus that Eliza and Jonty befriend, Mr & Mrs Pennyfeather are Papas friends and are rich and help out with the Kanes by tutoring Jonty , Annie the friendly tenement girl who helps Eliza settle in , George and Sid are Annie brothers and Jonty becomes great friends with them at the tenements and plays with them as much as he possibly can and Joseph is the boy who lives at the end of Henrietta street , Joseph works at the circus and Annie is as he likes to say ‘my Annie’.
I think it’s a very good and interesting book and no matter what word you stop on you leave yourself on a cliffhanger. My favourite part of the book was the climax because it has loads of action and loads of suspense. My least favourite part of the book was the very beginning because it had no action and it was a very slow build up.
I think that if you’re a confident reader you could read this book at 7 but for most people I would say around 8-14 as some of the language is hard to understand for younger people and it might be a bit boring for the likes of a 15 year old.
I would rate this book 9 out of 10 because I absolutely love this book but I always think that nothing is perfect and there is always room for improvement in anything.
By Aoibheann, 6th Class, Cloonlyon NS, Charlestown, Co. Mayo.
“The Little Bee Charmer of Henrietta Street” by Sarah Webb, published by O’Brien Press, is on sale now for €12.99 (P/B).
Disclaimer: This book was provided by the publisher, O’Brien Press, free of charge to Seomra Ranga for the purposes of this review
