Set in a woman's prison in the early 1900's near Boston, this story is told
with great voice and fun characters.

It follows a young woman in Sherborn Prison who receives the benefit of a prison-reforming music teacher along with the other inmates. They put together a performance of “The Pirates of Penzance,” and sure enough, the show pulls them together.  As to the main character's crime, I felt it a bit contrived not to reveal it until mid-way into the book, but that is a small criticism.  A great read.

Publisher Marketing

• Publisher: Hyperion Books
• US SRP: $ 15.99  US  -  (avail. at 25% off from CCF)
• Binding: Hardcover 
• Pub Date: June 2003
• Ages: 5th Grade to 9th Grade
  
  Publisher Marketing: In prison, there are few secrets. But Libby Dodge, the youngest inmate, guards the nature of her crime from the other women, even as they openly recount their former lives as arsonists, thieves, and prostitutes. Libby's hopeless and miserable situation changes unexpectedly with the arrival of a new chaplain, Mrs. Wilkinson. Mrs. Wilkinson has surprising and newfangled ideas about prison reform, which include launching an elaborate production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance. The production transforms the women --their views of themselves, their abilities, their place in the world. In this compelling, sometimes humorous novel, Kathleen Karr masterfully re-creates the world of a women's prison and poignantly evokes the injustices of women's lives in the early 1900s.
  

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Meridee Jones Cecil has published stories in Highlights for Children and parenting columns in The Christian Science Monitor. However, her passion is writing middle-grade and young-adult historical fiction.  She also teaches classes in conflict resolution and multiculturalism in the Colorado School of Mines McBride Honors Program.