Search of the Moon King's Daughter

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

Search of the Moon King’s Daughter is a powerful, meticulously
researched, and beautifully written historical novel for young adult.
The story begins in the mid-1830s in Manchester, the heart of industrial
England. The protagonist, a true heroine, is only 15.

Emmaline’s happy life with an educated and caring father and a
feckless mother comes to an abrupt end with her father’s death from
cholera. Tommy, her 10-year-old brother, has a speech impediment and can
communicate with his beloved sister only through sign language. Tommy is
stolen away by a villainous “master sweep” who takes him to work in
London as a chimney sweep, a job so hideous that few such children live
for more than five working years. With her precious savings sewn into
her skirt, Emmaline sets out for London to find work, find her brother,
and rescue him by buying him back. She is hired as a scullery maid and
begins to search on her weekly days off.

This novel vividly depicts the lives of a wide range of classes
“below and above stairs,” as the old phrase goes. A tentative
romance between Emmaline and a young Irish footman adds spice and the
prospect of a better future for the couple and young Tommy. Highly
recommended.