'Like Cushman's 1995 Newbery Honor Book, Catherine, Called Birdy, this novel is about a strong young woman in medieval England who finds her own way home. This is a world, like Chaucer's, that's . . . dangerous, primitive and raucous....

Set in California in 1949, young Francine Green finds it best to lay low and keep to herself, especially with people being investigated and blacklisted for speaking their minds, yet when Sophie Bowman suddenly shows up at her school a...