View source for Pull Out All The Stops! by Geraldine McCaughrean

{{infobox2
|title=Pull Out All The Stops!
|sort=Pull Out All The Stops!
|author=Geraldine McCaughrean
|reviewer=Luci Davin
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=A delightful historical adventure story with a travelling theatre company and a great cast of characters.
|rating=5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=272
|publisher=OUP Oxford
|date=October 2010
|isbn=978-0192789952
|aznuk=0192789953
|aznus=0192789953
|cover=0192789953
}}

A diphtheria epidemic is in town and has already claimed several victims including pupils at school. The school is closed and all the remaining children sent out of town to stay with relatives and friends until the danger is over. Cissy and two of her classmates are sent away to stay with their former teacher, Miss Loucien, now part of a touring theatre company with her new actor husband. Their new teacher, Miss May March, comes along as a chaperone on the train journey, motivated by a sense of duty and concern for her charges' welfare.

This historical novel set in 1894 has a wonderful cast of characters. Cissy is a bright girl who is keen to learn all she can and look beyond the lives of her parents who run the town grocery store. She has some inspiring role models. Miss March is undoubtedly more qualified as a teacher, and better educated herself, but the children are very happy to be reunited with the eccentric Loucien Shades and her actor husband. Miss March's disapproval of her predecessor is almost certainly mixed with envy of the children's affection for her.

Then there is Kookie, an affectionate and impulsive boy with lots of ideas on how to solve problems which usually have unintended consequences – if there is trouble to get into, Kookie will be there.

The Bright Lights Theatre Company has a few problems to deal with – the boat they are travelling on is a wreck and they don't have the money for repairs. When the children and Miss March catch up with them, one of her first tasks is to get Curly released from jail, after someone objected to his profanity (a recitation of Shakespeare). There are plenty more adventures to come. Excitingly, Loucien is in ''an interesting condition'' - she is soon to have a baby.

In the late 19th century, sudden death from accidents and disease was never far away, and the possibility is a very real one in this book - at the start, another girl at school, Sarah Waters, has already died from diphtheria and sadly she is not the only one. While Pull Out All the Stops is a very funny and enjoyable entertainment, there are lots of serious issues facing the characters.

One of the things I liked most about this book was its strong female characters – Cissy, Miss March, who underneath her sometimes forbidding exterior and Christian convictions is keen to help her pupils, especially the clever ones like Cissy, to fulfil their potential, and Loucien Shades. Both women help Cissy realise there is more to life than the domestic small town existence of her parents – her mother wants her to leave school and work in the family store. Although she has taken a step back from the acting, Loucien will not let pregnancy and motherhood stop her. Later in the novel she suggests the educational potential for the boys at school of helping to look after the baby and learning childcare, while the girls learn something else. 

Thank you to Oxford University Press for sending this delightful story to the Bookbag.

This is actually the second book featuring these characters – it would be just as enjoyable on its own, but after enjoying the first few pages I remembered I have another book by Geraldine McCaughrean and hunted it out – it turned out to be [[Stop the Train by Geraldine McCaughrean|Stop the Train]], which introduced Cissy and many of the other characters in the story.

Geraldine McCaughrean's [[The Death Defying Pepper Roux by Geraldine McCaughrean|The Death Defying Pepper Roux]] is also reviewed here. Another historical novel which comes highly recommended by the Bookbag is [[Gatty's Tale by Kevin Crossley-Holland]].

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