Hush - by Donna Jo Napoli (Paperback)

About the Book

Fifteen-year-old Melkorka, an Irish princess, is kidnapped by Russian slave traders and not only learns how to survive but to challenge some of the brutality of her captors, who are fascinated by her apparent muteness and the possibility that she is enchanted.

Book Synopsis

An Irish princess is kidnapped and sold into slavery in this powerful retelling of an Icelandic legend from award-winning author Donna Jo Napoli, a companion to Hidden.

Melkorka was a princess, the first daughter of a magnificent kingdom in medieval Ireland--but all of this is lost the day she is kidnapped and taken aboard a marauding slave ship. Thrown into a world that she has never known, alongside people that her former country's laws regarded as less than human, Melkorka is forced to learn quickly how to survive. Taking a vow of silence, however, she finds herself an object of fascination to her captors and masters, and soon realizes that any power, no matter how little, can make a difference.

Review Quotes

Napoli does an extraordinary job of using the first-person voice to keep readers in tune with Melkorka's maturing character; her beautifully recounted journey will stay with teens long after the book ends.--Cheri Dobbs "School Library Journal"