Second Fiddle - Softcover

Siobhan Parkinson is one of Ireland's leading authors for children and teenagers, and she has won numerous awards for her writing. Her books have been translated into many languages, from Danish to Thai - even ones where they translate your name as well as your book, so somewhere in Central Europe are books by someone called A ivena Parkinsona. She is joint editor of Bookbird, an international journal on children's literature, and when she is not writing stories or pretending to be A ivena Parkinsona, she visits schools and works with children on their writing projects. Siobhan lives in Dublin with her husband and grown-up son.

Grade 6–8—Setting her story in rural Ireland, Parkinson develops the character of Margaret Rose Clarke through the use of first-person narrative. Mags, 12, speaks directly to readers, often explaining her use of dialogue and literary device, letting her audience in on the formation of the novel. ("I am plan-ning to be a writer when I grow up, and I am going to use this story to practice a few little phrases that might be a bit sophisticated." "I've thought a lot about intriguing openings....") Her father has recently died, causing her mother to sell their family home and move to the country. Wandering through the woods, she meets Gillian, a talented musician who has a chance to audition at the distinguished Yehudi Menuhin School of Music but who needs to find her father to ask for plane fare. Mags turns the search for Gillian's father into a mystery to be solved and attacks the problem with considerable energy. The contrast between these two characters, both missing their fathers in very different circumstances, as well as the relationships between Mags and Gillian and Mags and her mother, are artfully rendered, giving readers insight into the protagonist's heart and mind. She is smart, wise, outspoken, and not always as sure of herself as she appears on the outside. While the story has a definite ending, to which Mags adds a short chapter in an attempt to tie up all loose ends, it begs to continue.—Wendy Smith-D'Arezzo, Loyola College, Baltimore, MD
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