Blood is thicker than water -- unless the King decrees othewise. A compelling first-person narration of childhood as told by Henry VIIIs daughter Mary Tudor. History remembers her only as Bloody Mary" because of the brutality of her reign but this compelling recreation of her childhood brings alive the contradictions & conflicts & true danger of being the daughter of a divorced queen as her father falls under the spell of the "witch" Anne Boleyn & why such an apparently privileged little girl could grow up to be such a monster. Published by Harcourt Brace in USA 1999 it has been widely reviewed & accalimed; was an ALA Notable Book & among the ALA 10 Notable Books of that year."