Sister Of The Lionheart

A feisty medieval English princess finds adventure in the Sicilian royal court and the Crusades in this epic historical series opener. Joanna is the strong-willed daughter of King Henry of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Close to her brother Richard Lionheart, she grew up at courts in France and England. From jousts to the infamous Courts of Love, from family quarrels to international intrigues, Joanna’s youth was spent in the thick of it all. With her ambition to become a queen, like her much-admired mother, Joanna marries King William of Sicily and is swept away to a court that is a crossroads for Normans, Italians, Jews, Arabs and Byzantines. She is furious when she learns that her husband William possesses a harem—but she refuses to accept it in silence, acting like a true descendant of Vikings. That is only the beginning of Joanna’s adventures. When Jerusalem falls to Saladin, her husband and The Lionheart make plans to go on Crusade. And Joanna persuades Richard to let her accompany him. This historical epic introduces a strong and truly unforgettable heroine, Joanna Plantagenet, whose drive and persistence helped change the course of history. Praise for Sister of the Lionheart “Chock full of historical events and people about which much has already been written, what makes this particular Plantagenet novel so appealing and readable is Benford’s ability to create a believable, lovable and altogether dynamic character in Joanna. She is the glue that holds this marvelous, oft-told story together, this time from a new perspective. . . . I am waiting (impatiently) for the next Joanna book and highly recommend this installment.” —Historical Novel Society

Joan, Queen of Sicily and sister of Richard the Lion Heart, accompanies him on the Third Crusade as companion for his bride, Berengaria. Twelfth century life and the Crusade are the background for her romance with Raimond of St. Gilles.

An epic novel, the sequel to Sister of the Lionheart, revealing the widowed Queen of Sicily’s role in the Crusades and marriage to the Count of Toulouse. Joanna Plantagenet accompanies her brother Richard the Lionheart on the Third Crusade—the only woman to visit Saracen-held Jerusalem. When she returns to France, Joanna learns that her renowned brother has been captured and held hostage, and with Richard’s wife Berengaria, she must work for his release. And when Joanna marries for love—a rarity at the time—things go badly wrong when she finds that someone is trying to have her killed . . . This is the conclusion to the grand story of a remarkable heroine from history.

A Sister’s Crusade is a story of a wronged heroine set towards the end of the 12th century. Aubrette, raised at Romhill as a companion to the local lord's only daughter Rowena, discovers that she is actually Rowena’s half-sister. This revelation comes on the day Rowena meets her future husband, Simon Fitzroy, one of King Henry II's illegitimate sons. Aubrette remains with her now sister, and becomes Rowena’s maid after she is married. After a tragic incident, she becomes Simon's secret mistress. The affair is unbeknown to Rowena, until Aubrette discovers she is pregnant. Her son is taken from her at birth for Rowena to raise as her own child. Aubrette, having thought Simon truly loved her, is unwillingly married to Hugh, a companion of Duke Richard and loyal friend to Simon. When the King dies, Richard succeeds him to the throne and he travels with Simon to the Holy Land on a crusade. Aubrette and Rowena accompany Hugh and Simon as attendants to Queen Berengaria, Richard's long-neglected wife. A series of traumatic life changing events follow that result in Simon being sent back to England, but not before he and Aubrette are married in Cyprus. Back at Romhill, Aubrette settles into domesticity and everything appears perfect. But could a threat from an unexpected enemy ruin Aubrette's happiness? Full of adventure, love, lust and deception, A Sister’s Crusade will appeal to fans of romance and historical novels in equal measure.

Into the Closet examines the representation of cross-dressing in a wide variety of children’s fiction, ranging from picture books and junior fiction to teen films and novels for young adults. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the different types of cross-dressing found in children’s narratives, raising a number of significant issues relating to the ideological construction of masculinity and femininity in books for younger readers. Many literary and cultural critics have studied the cultural significance of adult cross-dressing, yet although cross-dressing representations are plentiful in children’s literature and film, very little critical attention has been paid to this subject to date. Into the Closet fills this critical gap. Cross-dressing demonstrates how gender is symbolically constructed through various items of clothing and apparel. It also has the ability to deconstruct notions of problematizing the relationship between sex and gender. Into the Closet is an important book for academics, teachers, and parents because it demonstrates how cross-dressing, rather than being taboo, is frequently used in children’s literature and film as a strategy to educate (or enculturate) children about gender.

Given the substantial impact of feminism on children’s literature and culture during the last quarter century, it comes as no surprise that gender studies have focused predominantly on issues of female representation. The question of how the same patriarchal ideology structured representations of male bodies and behaviors was until very recently a marginal discussion. Now that masculinity has emerges as an overt theme in children’s literature and film, critical consideration of the subject is timely, if not long overdue Ways of Being Male addresses this new concern in an unprecedented collection of essays examining how contemporary debates about masculinity are reflected in fiction and film for young adults. An outstanding team of scholars elucidates the ways in which different versions of male identity are constructed and presented to young audiences. The contributors, drawn from a variety of academic disciplines, employ international discourses in literary criticism, feminism, social sciences, film theory, psychoanalytic criticism, and queer theory in their wide-ranging exploration of male representation. With its illuminating array of perspectives, this pioneering survey brings a long neglected subject into sharp focus.

A colorful biography of five royal sisters in medieval England. In 1254 the teenage heir to the English throne took a Spanish bride, the sister of the king of Castile, in Burgos. Their marriage of thirty-six years proved to be one of the great royal romances of the Middle Ages. Edward I of England and Leonor of Castile had at least fourteen children together, though only six survived into adulthood, five of them daughters. Daughters of Edward I traces the lives of these five capable, independent women, including Joan of Acre, born in the Holy Land, who defied her father by marrying a second husband of her own choice, and Mary, who did not let her forced veiling as a nun stand in the way of the life she really wanted to live. These women’s stories span the decades from the 1260s to the 1330s, through the long reign of their father, the turbulent reign of their brother Edward II, and into the reign of their nephew, the child-king Edward III.