Description
Description
When seventeen-year-old Giulia, the orphaned, illegitimate daughter of a Milanese nobleman, learns she's to be packed off to a life behind convent walls, she begs an astrologer-sorcerer for a talisman that will secure what she's certain is her heart's desire: true love and a place where she belongs. But does she really know the compass of her heart? The convent of Santa Marta is full of surprises, including a workshop of nuns who are creating paintings of astonishing beauty using a luminous blue mixed from a secret formula: Passion Blue. As Giulia's own artistic self is awakened she's torn: should she follow the young man who promises to help her escape? Or stay and satisfy her growing desire to paint?
This richly imagined novel of a girl's daring journey towards self-discovery transports readers into the fascinating world of Renaissance Italy where love and faith and art inspire passion--of many different hues.
Passion Blue is one of Kirkus Reviews' Best Teen Books
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"An elegant retelling of that old crucial story of finding one's place in the world, set against a vivid, evocation of the Italian Renaissance." --Robin McKinley, author of The Hero and the Crown, winner of the Newbery Medal
"I don't just like Passion Blue, I love it...It has adventure, arguments, soul-searching, villains, romance, hair-breadth escapes, dastardly betrayals, and girl power. I simply galloped through it." --Jane Yolen, author of The Devil's Arithmetic
"From its opening chapter to its final harrowing unfolding, Giulia's tale holds the reader riveted. Passion Blue is both a soul-felt journey and a triumphant, transcendent work of art." --Meredith Ann Pierce, author of The Darkangel trilogy
"A lovely read." --Megan Whalen Turner, author of The Queen's Thief series
"The historical details are rich and very satisfying...Strauss keeps the story moving at a nice clip and does a fine job interweaving Guilia's relentless search for her heart's desire with the historical backdrop." --Stacked Books
"[Strauss's] detailed, rich setting and complicated characters yield their revelations to careful reading, free from judgment. Her moral lessons, while present, don't bludgeon readers into agreement. And her situations, while building to an inevitable end, never cease bearing a texture of joyful surprise." --Kevin Nenstiel, WordBasket
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
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