Ye Toads and Vipers! That's Meggy Swann's way of expressing her frustration with her situation when the story begins. She's 13 and has just been sent from the small village in Elizabethan England where she lived with her mother to London to live with her father. Her father is an alchemist, studying the possibility of transformation of elements, focused only on his work, so Meggy has to make her own way around London, which is difficult as she is crippled and needs walking sticks to get around. With the help of her father's former assistant, she makes friends and adjusts to life in London. As she begins to help her father with his work, she faces a moral dilemma and has to make some hard choices. The rowdiness and filth of 16th Century London is vividly described and the audiobook, which just won an Odyssey Award, transports you to another time and place. The narration, by Katherine Kellgren, is pitch perfect. Alchemy and Meggy Swann by Karen Cushman. Read by Katherine Kellgren, Listening Library, 2010.
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