Braided (Sisters Ever After #5), by Leah Cypess

I've been enjoying all of Leah Cypess' middle-grade sisterly twists on fairy tales as they've come out, but Braided, the newest in the series (May 28, 2024,  Delacorte Press), is my favorite.  It's a reimagining of Rapunzel, from the point of view of a little sister, Cinna, growing up knowing her big sister was imprisoned in a far-off tower.

Cinna is thrilled when Rapunzel is rescued and comes home again, but Rapunzel seem less than thrilled by the role of princess that's she's expected to assume.  Yes, she has the family's magical hair, that enables the kingdom to confine the fey (more or less) to their own realm (as does Cinna).  But unlike their mother, the Queen, who devotes all her energy to this task, Rapunzel just doesn't seem to see the point.  

Cinna wants Rapunzel to be the big sister she's always wanted, but Rapunzel wants more for Cinna, and for herself, than being trapped by a giant wall of responsibility.  And Rapunzel must return to the fey realm after only three days....

The bond that the two of them manage to build, and the magic and wits that they have in plenty, will save them both, despite fierce challenges both from the fey realm and from their own circumstances.  

I loved the sisterly part of the story lots, especially all the letters that Cinna wrote (but never sent) to her missing sister that start each chapter),  It was both sweet and emotionally rich, and when combined with dragons (as shown on the cover), some monsters, wonderful hair magic, and the machinations of both the fey and the people of the court, the result was a lovely gripping story! Cinna, and the reader, must question what is good and what is evil, and what they owe to others, and what they owe to themselves.

Young readers just meeting this series with Braided will almost certainly want more!

The Lovely Dark, by Matthew Fox

I loved Matthew Fox's first book, The Sky Over Rebecca, so much that I ordered The Lovely Dark (July  2023 in the UK, Hodder Children's Books) from Blackwells (free shipping from the UK!) and read it pretty much in a single sitting yesterday. I meant to review it, but it felt too raw to do so immediately, so I'm squeezing it in before today's round-up post.

The Lovely Dark is a middle grade reimagining of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, with a dash of Sleeping Beauty. It begins with sadness, when Ellie's grandmother dies alone of Covid during the height of the pandemic. and it quickly becomes fantasy, when her grandmother's ghost pays Ellie a cryptic visit. As covid restrictions lift, Ellie becomes great friends with Justin, who's just moved in across the street. Justin takes her to see a newly discovered mosaic of the Orpheus story, found deep underground....and disaster strikes when the walls around the excavation give way, and the two children are trapped by the inrushing water.

They find themselves in the underworld, determined to stick together and find a way home. But they each have a different path to follow, and are forced to split up. Ellie's path takes her to Eventide, a sort of school (but with no lessons) filled with other children, with tasty food, pleasant grounds, and secrets. The other children are all dimly content there, despite having died, but Ellie is determined to find Justin again. In her explorations, she finds that in the locked library another girl named Ash is hiding in a secret room behind the books, which are themselves somewhat haunted--fairytales in particular keep being pushed off their shelves.

(This is where the Sleeping Beauty part enters into it--Ash and Ellie agree to give themselves permission to kiss each other if they ever need to be awakened from a cursed sleep, and this is an important plot point later).

Ellie keeps exploring, and finds much that discomfits her, and then she and Justin make contact again, and he helps her go home. And Justin, unlike Orpheus, doesn't look back and I wept.

Slight spoiler--Ellie's experiences could all be written off as a dream, but I am so glad Matthew Fox doesn't throw this in our (tear-streaked) faces. And since the ghost grandmother can't be explained way, the story gets to stay fantasy.

In short, Matthew Fox is now firmly an auto-buy (as expenses allow) author for me.  And I am determined that next time I won't peak at the ending halfway through, concerned though I may be for the fate of characters I am deeply invested in!

The Little Match Girl Strikes Back, by Emma Carroll, illustrated by Lauren Child

 I read and reread Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tales as a child, with more morbid fascination than true enjoyment, although I did appreciate how very good he was at making pictures in the mind.  The little match girl's frozen body, for instance, is still distressingly clear to me.  So it was somewhat cathartic to read Emma Carroll's re-imagining of the story, The Little Match Girl Stikes Back (Sept 2023 in the US, Candlewick), in which she isn't just a pathetic victim. 

Bridie comes close, though.  She is out in the snowy misery of 19th century London, desperately selling matches to help feed her little family (mother, herself, and her younger brother).  Her mother works at the match factory, which is its own hell of physical misery, pathetic wages, and phosphorous poisoning (not quite as bad as the poor radium girls, but close....).  And one day everything goes wrong for Bridie--hit by a carriage, all but three of her matches are ruined.  And one by one she lights them....and wishes.

The first match gives her a luxurious meal in a grand house, that leaves her no better off than before (the food not being real).  The second wish, though, is a catalyst for actual change.  She wishes "that rich people....didn't have everything while poor families like mine have nothing."  And magically, she meets in her dream a woman who is in real life a fierce advocate for the poor, and together they visit the match factory, where her mother is being fired.  The match fizzles out, but not the spark that has been lit, and the third match gives Bridie a vision of a possible future without desperate poverty and her mother's phosphorous poisoning that gives her hope that change is possible.

And so Bridie galvanizes the women of the factory to strike, and the advocate she met in her vision takes the cause up to a national level, and it succeeds. It's based on an actual strike, discussed in a non-fiction coda at the end of the book, and the mixing of this real and important history with the fantasy and reality of Bridie makes for an engrossing and memorable story.  The illustrations and decorations add beautifully to the fierceness and desperation of Bridie's life.

It's not your regular sort of fantasy--the magic is real, but, like the matches, burns only in flashes.  But they are very bright flashes.  And it's not your regular sort of straight historical fiction, because the story depends on the magic.  Offer it to young readers who like both, especially if they happen to be fascinated by labor horror stories of yesteryear, and love reading about kids who make change happen.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.

The Little Match Girl Strikes Back is eligible for this year's Cybils Awards in Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction and has not yet been nominated.  Here's where you go if you want to show love for this one, or many of the others still waiting for their call....

Windswept, by Margi Preus

Windswept by Margi Preus, illustrated by Armando Veve (September 2022,  Harry N. Abrams) is a middle grade fairytale, in which a dauntless girl, with brave and gifted companions in true fairy tale style, must save her sisters from a curse.  It is also a fable of environmentalism, set in a time after the collapse of our current status quo.  And it is also a good read with beautiful writing, though not quite to my personal taste.

Tag's three older sisters went outside to play, and she tried to go to, but being younger, she was slower.  And so when the wind came up and swept the other girls away, Tag was left behind.  Shut up in a sad house with only a knot hole to peek through at the outside world, she was kept safe, like all children under 15, from being windswept.

But one day another child, breaking the rules about kids being outside, stuffs a message through her knot hole--a map showing a meeting spot.  And Tag remembers that there might be a way out of the confines of her safe house--up in the attic.  There is, and not only does she make it outside, but she takes with her a book of fairy tales that had been hidden up there.  The fairy tales, forbidden by the government, are as new and magical to her as the outside world.

She finds the meeting place, and there meets a group of other kids who are determined to find out where the wind has taken their own siblings.  The book of fairy tales is the only guide book they have.

Then comes a truly fairy tale journey, the sort where some will help and some would hurt, where wits and true heart matter more than strength. And in the end, as the reader of fairy tales knows she will, Tag frees her sisters and the other children the wind has taken.

If you have read fairy tales, you will recognize many elements of them in the story; it was like seeing old friends.  If you are a child who hasn't, it's no great mater--the magical journey stands on its own, full of encounters beautiful, whimsical, and dangerous.  This is the part that's not quite to my personal taste--magical episodic journeys just aren't my favorite thing.

That being said, I appreciate that there's plenty of emotional weight to this particular journey--Tag has (understandable) self-doubt, and all the kids (who I liked very much) bring with them the sadness of losing their siblings.  Heavier weight comes from the book's message about human greed and disregard for the environment, which though a bit forced at times was still powerful and timely.

My brain is such a word-eater when I get going reading that I didn't register the illustrations because they weren't words (oh, there was an illustrator? I thought when I started writing this post...sorry illustrators...)  But I see going back through the book that in fact there are decorations and some full pictures that help make this a Story, like Tag's beloved fairy tale book...

Short answer--glad I read it, parts were lovely and make memorable pictures in my mind that I appreciate lots, and I bet there will be plenty of kids who love it.  

ps.  I am currently frantically trying to read as many middle grade sci fi and fantasy books as possible, before the public nomination period for the Cybils Awards ends (October 15) so that I can my use my own nomination as best as possible, and also so that I can encourage others to nominate.  Windswept is eligible this year, but hasn't gotten its call yet, and there are a bunch of others still waiting here on the Elementary/Middle Grade speculative fiction ideas board.....If you've already nominated a book, thanks, and if you haven't, do think about showing a book some love! Here's where you nominate--Cybils Awards Nomination Form

The Mirrorwood, by Deva Fagan, for Timeslip Tuesday

Happy book birthday to the lovely middle grade fantasy, The Mirrorwood (April 12, 2022,  Atheneum Books for Young Readers), by Deva Fagan! What with all the new mg fantasy books this week, and the scramble to get reviews up, I was worried that Timeslip Tuesday would interfere with my plans....happily The Mirrorwood has enough timeslip in it that I can in good conscience count it as today's offering!

Fable's family lives near the impassibly thorny border separating the Mirrorwood, full of dangerous blight magic, from the safe, ordinary world. But blight still gets through, twisting whatever it touches into something impossible. And Fable was touched by it when she was born. She has no face of her own, but must borrow other's faces.... wearing them until they start fading into featureless gray, taking her life force with them. Her family loves her, and share their faces, but she can't go far from their farm, because those who are blighted are feared, and even hunted and killed.

And when a father/daughter blight hunter team sets their sights on her, the only way to escape is to try to get through the thorns into the Mirrorwood, where she had been heading to try to find a way to free herself of her curse. She's accompanied by the daughter, Vycorax, who hadn't been able to killer despite her father's orders. The two girls agree to truce as they set off to explore the world beyond the thorns.

There they find a world lost in a spell, cast by one of the Subtle Powers, the twisty immortals who can grant wishes, or make bargains that could snare the unwary. The people of the Mirrorwood have been trapped in a time loop; every day time resets and they live the day again for the first time. The only people who know of this trap are those who have themselves, like Fable, been blighted. They can see the horrible reality.... but can't do anything to fix it.

Fable and Vycorax are found by one of the Subtle Powers, the wish granter, who tells them how the Mirrorwood came to be cursed. The true prince has been caught by the time warp, and a blighted demon imposter has taken his place. If the demon is killed, the curse will be lifted, but it is an almost impossible task. Which the girls, in true mg fantasy form, set off to undertake regardless.... there really isn't a choice. Fable has made a wish of her own, as well--that she could have her own true face.

And this is where things really get interesting! Not only are the girls moving from enemies to loyal friends, but there's a twist to the whole demon prince thing.... the curse isn't exactly what the Subtle Power told them it was. Lyrian, the demon prince, proves to be a much more complex character than the girls had anticipated...

And also at this point is where I stopped just happily reading along, enjoying the story, and became grimly determined to read faster and faster so that I could see what would happen next! Twists and turns, new characters to meet and learn to care about, depth to the story and more about the darkness that preceded the curse, more impossible questing, riddle and illusions, alongside growth in Fable's character.

There's also an increase in the tension of the time warp; it's concentrated inside the castle, where instead of a day, those at the heart of the curse have only seconds of life repeating endlessly, those just outside have minutes or hours, not necessarily nice ones (one bit of this was immensely powerful, driving home the horror of what had happened.

It's clearly a riff on Sleeping Beauty, and it will please fans of reworked fairy tales just fine, but it's more than a reimagining; it's its own thing.  A lovely, gripping thing, with a strong message that it's what's inside that really counts.  Fable realizes that she is still her true self, no matter what her face is, and Vycorax learns that she can make her own choices, and not be bound to her single-minded killer of a father.  People who look like monsters aren't necessarily bad, and the converse as well.  

And as an added bonus, Fable's lovely cat, with whom she can speak, is along for the ride as well! 

The ending is satisfactory, making this a stand-alone, but I'd love to return to the Mirrorwood for more. Partly because it's such a wonderfully strange place, and partly because I'd like to see if the glimmerings of attraction between Fable and Vycorax, and a little between Fable and Lyrian, come to anything....I can't decide which I'd prefer!

short answer: I truly enjoyed it!

disclaimer: review copy received from the author, and deposited by the delivery person in shrubbery next to a door I don't use, so I was very glad I found it safely after who knows how long!

The Seventh Raven, by David Elliott

For those who love retellings of fairy tales, The Seventh Raven, by David Elliott, is a must-read (March 16th 2021, HMH Books for Young Readers)! Marketed as YA, but just fine for adults as well, and told in verse, it's the story of a girl whose older brothers are transformed into ravens when their father's thoughtless wish comes true. She must make a perilous journey and suffer many hardships in order to bring them back.

A woodcutter and his wife have been blessed with seven sons.

And these are the sons
Of good Jack and good Jane
The eldest is Jack
And the next one is Jack
And the third one’s called Jack
And the fourth’s known as Jack
And the fifth says he’s Jack
And they call the sixth Jack
But the seventh’s not Jack
The seventh is Robyn.

Robyn is not like his brothers, content with the hard labor of cutting wood. He is a dreamer, out of place in his family, pretty clearly coded as queer.

There are many days I wonder- why me?
Why was I born into this family?
This body? This time? This land? This space?
Did nature play a joke or simply misplace
the instructions about who I was meant to be?

And his father looks at him and thinks:

Robyn's a weakling

Girlish and slender

Too light on his feet

Too feeling too tender

Jack and Jane aren't content with seven sons; they long for a daughter. But when she is born, it seems she will die. The boys scramble to fetch water so the priest can baptizer her. In the rush to fetch it the pail is lost...and the father, enraged, curses his sons.

Why must they live
While she lies here dying
Our daughter our prize
Our one consolation
these boys are a torment
no better than ravens

And the boys twist and change, and fly away on their dark wings, and the baby, little April, lives.

April is raised not knowing she has brothers, and that their fate eats at her parents.  She learns the truth when she's almost grown, and sets out find them...and in true fairy tale style, must suffer and persevere on a seemingly hopeless quest till she reaches the glass castle where her brother roost.  And there she makes a sacrifice to transform them...one not entirely welcomed. 

There are different poetic voices used for the characters--the parents, the older brothers, April, and Robyn.  At its best, the words sing and make sharp pictures in the mind.  It didn't quite work for me because I got hung up on something other readers might not give two hoots about--the woodcutter and his family quite often use words that don't seem appropriate for simple wood-cutting folk.  I found it jarring.  If it had just been Robyn the dreamer or April the questor I wouldn't have minded, but the brothers speaking of the wildwood's "strident harangue" or Jane contemplating a "rank maze of resentment and acrimony" and such gave me pause.  It seemed to me that the poetry was being put ahead of characterization.

That being said, there are moments of real poetic power, and moments where the words make intense energy on the page.  And it is a beautiful book, with black and white illustrations adding much atmosphere, and it did stick in my mind more keenly than I thought it would while I was reading and fixating on Latinate words.  Robyn, in particular, is a memorable character, who made a huge impression on me, and the twist of his ending was perfect/sad/happy, and April is everything a brave heroine should be.

It won't be everybody's cup of tea, but if words and rhythm and reading slowly and deeply are your thing, and you appreciate a good retelling, do give it a try!

disclaimer: review copy received from the book's publicist.

Thornwood, by Leah Cypess

If you love fairy tale reimagining's, and stories of sisters with complicated relationships, you are in for a treat with Thornwood, by Leah Cypess (April 1st 2021 by Harvey Klinger)!

Princes Briony is rarely tidy, let alone polished, and is happy to avoid the public spotlight of being the heir to the throne.  Her older sister, Princess Rosalin is beautiful, poised, and the pride of her parents.  Rosalin is also cursed.  She will to prick her finger on a spindle when she is 16, and she and everyone in the castle will sleep for a hundred years, until she's woken by her true love's kiss.

The morning of Rosalin's birthday arrives.  Briony hurries to her room, to offer such emotional support as Rosalin's willing to take.  And then...Briony wakes up in a strange room she's never seen before, with no memory of how she got there.  There she sees a mysterious old woman, and a spinning wheel.  The old woman won't give her any straight answers about what's happening, but only cryptic and ominous hints that all is not well.  

And indeed, Rosalin has been kissed awake by a boy who says he's a prince, and everyone has woken up, but the wall of thorns around the castle is still there.  The curse, it appears, hasn't been entirely broken.  There's still a snarl of fairy magic, malevolent thorns trying to take over the castle, and unhappy residents.  Prince Varian is no help (he's a fairly useless prince), and Rosalin is preoccupied by having been woken up by her true love to figure out what's happening and do something about it.  But Briony and a new friend Edwin, a boy who deliberately snuck into the castle just before the curse day came, are determined to break the curse once and for all.

It's a lovely fantasy mystery! Lots of twisty clues, things that aren't what they seem, and much uncertainty about who to trust!  It's not perfect--I wondered how one character, supposedly trapped by the enchanted sleep, still knew about the technological progress made by the outside world (the sleep lasted rather more than 100 years....).  And I didn't like how Rosalin's relationship with Briony was mostly one of putting her down (though it was clear they loved each other).   

Still, Briony was a great strong, smart and stubborn protagonist, and it was easy, and fun, the cheer for her!  Especially since the challenging circumstances of being stuck inside a castle that no longer had a kingdom (because time had marched on outside), whose population no longer lived to serve (because why should they?), and a new best friend who was a commoner, forcer her to think hard thoughts about princess-ness.  And so in the end this was one I enjoyed lots, though didn't quite love (mainly because Rosalin was such a pill....).

In short, a fun and fascinating twist on a familiar story.

The Clockwork Crow, by Catherine Fisher

The Clockwork Crow, by Catherine Fisher, is the sort of mg fantasy I think I love best!  The lucky folks in the UK got to read this in October of 2018; it will be published here in the US on September 8, 2020 (Walker Books).  It's the story of an orphaned Victorian girl, sent one cold winter to live with the godfather she's never met, in a big old house in Wales, who finds not the warm welcome she'd hoped for, but a perilous, fantastical mystery!

Seren Rhys is travelling alone to her new home when a very perturbed  man hands her a package.   "If They get me, whatever happens, don't leave it here alone. Promise me?" And then he is gone, and she is left not knowing what to do.  The train carries her on, and he does not return, and so she keeps hold of it.  So when she arrives, she finds she has come with a clockwork crow, in pieces.

Her godfather and his wife aren't home.  Nor is Tomos, their son, who has been missing a year and a day, and is a subject not to be spoken of.  Instead, there's an unfriendly housekeeper, lots of unused rooms, and no answers about what happened to the boy,  Gradually Seren unravels the story of his disappearance.  And when she reassembles the clockwork crow, and finds that he is a creature with his own thoughts, considerable knowledge, and a rather acerbic personality, she gains a companion in figuring out how to find the lost boy again.

So, in a strong echo of Tam Lin, Seren and the crow venture down below the house to a place that shouldn't be there to bring Tomos back from those who have stolen him away.

What a magical, cold and snowy and mysterious story!  This is an outstanding addition to the "plucky orphans braving the magic of the fair folk" subgenre of children's fantasy, and I loved every minute of it!  The old, snow-bound house, the unravelling of the mysteries, and the journey into the land of Them, full of deception and trickery, would have been enough, but the clockwork crow made it even better.  He is a wonderful character, providing not only comic relief but a mystery of his own, one that's not totally resolved here.  And he manages to overcome his egotistical self-interest to rise to the occasion when Seren needs him most, adding considerably to his likeability quotient.

The story ends with Tomos and his parents all home again, and a wonderful Christmas (I'm so happy to have a new addition to my "mg fantasy Christmas" reading--The Dark is Rising and Greenglass House being the only two reliably read every year...). But this is just the first book in the series, so the happy ending is undercut by ominous whispers of danger to come....I might have to order the next two books from the UK!

But on the other hand, I didn't notice any glaring American English changes, and I like the US cover  better, so I might wait and get the matched US set...here's the UK cover, also attractive, but not as closely tied to the story:

Just as an aside:  in the publisher's description, it says- "Evoking the classic fantasy adventures of Joan Aiken..." and I guess Aiken has become shorthand for saying "this book has at least one orphan and lots of snow and is set one to three centuries ago and really strange things happen."  Turns out it didn't evoke anything else Aiken-esque for me.  It all made sense, for one thing, and  has magic in a classic fantasy sense (the Fair Folk as antagonists), which you don't actually see in Aiken (except in her Armitage family stories).  Which isn't to disparage Aiken, but it made me stop and ponder, and wonder if invoking Aiken actually entice people to try books...since I'll read anything with orphan(s), snow, and strange things, it works for me.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Heart of the Moors, by Holly Black, a Disney Maleficent novel

Heart of the Moors, by Holly Black (middle grade, October, 2029, Disney), lay far to long in my house unread, through no fault of its own.  I wanted to read it, and was very happy to win it in a giveway a while back, but it just didn't happen until this weekend.  And it made for good weekend reading!

This book takes place in between the two Maleficent movies, and if you haven't seen them, but only the original animated Sleeping Beauty movie, it will be a bit jarring.  Aurora is now queen of both the human and the fey lands of the Moors, determined to stablish peace between the two.  Maleficent is still fiercely protective of her, and Prince Philip is still at court, falling more in love with Aurora every day.  Also at court are power-hungrey, greedy men who want to use Aurora for their own ends, and it's they, not Maleficent, who are the unscrupulous bad guys (although Maleficent' s scruples aren't really the strongest, she's on the good side here).

Aurora is new to all the business of running a kingdom, and her leadership skills lag a bit behind her goodness of heart.  She's also new to falling in love, and is terrified when she realizes that's what's happening to her.  It's the same sort of terror she feels before falling asleep, one of the traumas of the past--true love when horribly wrong for Maleficent.

But Aurora, with help from both humans and the Fair Folk, is able to chart a course to a happier future for both her two kingdoms, and herself.

This is a book for 9-12 year olds, so though there is romance, with a thoughtful questioning of what true love is, and though there is violence, there's nothing I saw that I'd flag as inappropriate for young readers.  What I think this book really is good for is to be a gateway into YA fantasy, which is full to the gills with books about young women (and some young men) become rulers without being ready for the job.  So a great one for tweens!

I enjoyed it but not remarkably so, as my mind has already been trained to a higher level of court intrigue in my fantasy reading.  I did enjoy the tension of Maleficent's character, and appreciated the friendship that's the basis for the romance; for one thing, Philip's aware that he couldn't have given the kiss of true love to Aurora because of not knowing her.

I think fans of the movies will enjoy the book more than me; I haven't seen them.  (I also think that if I hadn't been distracted by my brain pushing forward the moors in the Wayward Children series every time I read "the Moors" the reading experience would have been smoother....probably the same thing would happen to me if I re-read Wuthering Heights, which might actually be  reason to do so--that whole tortured story taking place in McGuire's world would be much more interesting...)

Mulan: Before the Sword, by Grace Lin

Grace Lin's Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is a beloved classic, a story of a brave girl on a heroic quest that's sign-posted by stories.  Mulan: Before the Sword, her newest middle grade novel (Disney-Hyperion Februaru 2020), is another adventure in China of long ago, with another brave girl, on an adventure full of mythology and story and magical danger that is just as enchanting!

Mulan, clumsy and awkward, knows she's not a model daughter, like her sister Xia. But this hasn't made them any less fond of each other.  And so when Xia is bitten by a venomous spider, Mulan is willing to do whatever it takes to save her.  The Jade Rabbit of the Moon, the great healer of the immortals, just so happens to be in the nearby village in the guise of a man*, but the spider's poison is so strong that even he cannot save Xia without certain ingredients, including a flower that grows in the garden of the Queen Mother of the West.  But before the Rabbit can make the journey, two foxes (one white and one red) attack him, and he is poisoned by their bites, and cannot travel in his usual celestial way.  Mulan has a beautiful black horse, though, and volunteers to ride to the Queen Mother's garden with him.

And so they set off, but the white fox is no ordinary creature.  The reader learns about her twisted past and twisted schemes in the present both from the stories Rabbit tells as they travel, and through chapters from the perspective of the red fox, who is the white fox's unwilling servant.  The white fox, for reasons rooted in her dark past, wants Mulan's sister to die, and throws magical obstacles and dangers in the way of Mulan and the Rabbit.

Though in many ways it's a harrowing journey, and the White Fox is a conniving and sadistic antagonist, when I reached the end and considered it as a whole, it seemed to me a joyful book.  All the characters from the side stories are slotted into place, her sister is saved, the grown-up characters (Rabbit and another helpful divinity) are both supportive in a really nice way, and Mulan realizes that she has a great purpose in life.  I was a tad worried about this being a Disney tie-in, but Grace Lin has done a wonderful job making a new and heart-warming story.

Highly recommended!  I even enjoyed it more than the Mountain Meets the Moon books, although I did miss the beautiful illustrations in those books.

*because Mulan meets the Rabbit as a man, she genders them as "he", though they also can appear as as a woman; Rabbit does not object to this, and so I will also use "he/him."

The Dragon Thief, by Zetta Elliott

In Dragons in a Bag (link to my review), Zetta Elliott introduced a  young boy named Jaxon, who was given a job to do by a magical old woman, Ma.  He had to return three baby dragons to the world of magic.  It didn't go as planned, not that Jaxon knew enough about what was going on to really "plan" anything, but he did his best.  It wasn't enough.  One of the babies was stolen by Kavita, the little sister of his best friend, Vik.

The Dragon Thief  (Random House, Oct 22 1019) picks up the story right where we left it.  Jaxon is worried about Ma, who has fallen into a strange sleep, and he's desperate to get the baby dragon to the magical world.  Kavita is worried about the baby dragon, which grows at an alarming rate when it gets fed.  When she realizes she can't keep it safe, her old aunty who lives with her family decides to help her get it home.

So on the one hand we have Jaxon and Vik, racing to find Kavita while figuring out how they can manage to open a door to the other realm, and on the other we have Kavita, an increasingly large dragonet, and her aunty on a journey to the same goal....

Jaxon's well aware he needs help, so when a mysterious man named Blue, covered with tattoos, offers assistance, Jaxon things this might be what he needs.  But the man is a trickster, with an agenda of his own...and the fate of the little dragon hangs (very tensly) in the balance!  (Blue's motivations and actions are ambiguous; I love a nice ambiguous "bad" guy, and I hope we meet him again in a future book so we can see if his point of view is in fact at all valid....)

It's a great story for younger middle grade readers (8-10 year olds).  There's a nice serving of ordinary story, including Jaxon and Vic becoming friends with a boy they'd steered clear of because of being intimidated by his large size, and Kavita finding out about her auntie's past in India (which offers an eye-opening bit of history).  The kids are very real characters, and one can easily imagine hanging out with them.  But the ordinary doesn't stay that way for long, as the boundaries between the magical and the real world collide, with the kids right smack in the middle of it!

It's lots of  fun, and I enjoyed it even more than I did book 1.  The only thing I can think of that would have made it even better would have been more dragon page time!

disclaimer:  the publisher sent review copies for Kidlitcon Providence 2019 last March, which came to my house, so of course I treated myself to one of the copies...and though I didn't get it read in time to pass on to another Kidlitcon attendee, I did find it a good home with a kid who loved it.

A Curse so Dark and Lonely, by Brigid Kemmerer

I love reimaginings of Beauty and the Beast; it's always so fun to see what different twists each author brings to the story!  And so it was with great pleasure that I devoured A Curse so Dark and Lonely, by Brigid Kemmerer (Bloomsbury YA, January 29, 2019), because her twists are great fun and add considerably to the basic story.

"Beauty" is Harper, a girl from our world, with a family in trouble, cerebral palsy, and a very strong will.  "Beast" is Rhen,, who lives in a castle haunted by the curse of a nasty enchantress, with his faithful Commander of Guards, Grey, his only companion.  The breaking of the curse requires the usual love between Beauty and Beast, but in this retelling, Rhen is only a beast for part of each season of the curse, and reverts to human back at the beginning of a new season, over and over again.  Grey can pass into our world, from whence he has brought many young women, hoping one will break the curse.  Harper wasn't a girl he intended to bring back, but when she witnessed what looked to her like a girl being kidnapped, she intervened...and got taken instead.

Harper is determined get home....and smart enough to realize how impossible that is pretty quickly.  Rhen (still human) and Grey and Harper, alone in the castle with Harper gradually picking up the clues that things are terribly awry, makes for good reading all by itself (they are all interesting characters, hiding things from each other and themselves), but this is just the introduction.

Where this retelling really broke the mold, and I loved it for doing so, was acknowledging that there's a world outside the cursed castle.  Rhen is the prince of his country, and his people have been suffering, and though he took action at the beginning to try to ameliorate things by closing the boarder, an enemy invasion is imminent.  The closed boarders and lack of cohesive government have caused more mundane problems as well, and Rhen has thought there was nothing he could do about any of it and so he didn't bother trying.

Harper blazes through this misconception like a meteor.  For instance, if your castle produces magic food every day, you feed it to the starving masses.  And her fresh perspective works wonders in Rhen.  His brain, frozen by the bloody horror of his situation, starts to think of the bigger political picture, and what he can and cannot do, and the story become one not just of fairy tale romance, but of Political Machinations/Desperate Schemes, during which romance may (or may not) be happening.
Viz the romance--this isn't actually a love story, though there's enough tension and maybe love in the future not do disappoint the romantic.   I appreciated that Harper, who is in fact a kidnapping victim, doesn't start swooning right and left over either of the two handsome men she is stuck with.  Instead, she thinks about them, finding things to question, and things to admire, in both. And she brings hope to both that there might be an end to the curse....as all three of them do some hard thinking about what they are responsible for, and what they aren't, and what they can do with the choices they have been given.

So lots of interesting twisting of the parent story (there are more that I didn't mention) make this a fabulous read for fairy tale fans, fans of desperate political/military maneuvering, and fans of slow burning trust into (?) love in the future.  Harper is perhaps a bit too good to be true, but her strengths and smarts allow her to play her role convincingly.  The author worked hard to make this a realistic portrayal of someone with CP, and there are things that are hard for her to do as a result (dancing, for instance), but her CP doesn't define her, or keep her from accomplishing what she sets out to do.  Thinking about this, I'm very glad that she struggled with knife throwing (one way to pass the time in an enchanted castle where you are being held against your will), because it kept her from being too perfect (she never does get really good at knife throwing).

If Harper is maybe too good to be true, the evil fairy character is too one-dimensionally bad to be true.  Her motivations are petty (at least, that is how they are presented to the reader) and she's sadistic with no clear point to it all (she reminded me of the evil computer overlord in "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream").  Maybe there is more to her that we didn't get to see here, but it may also be that she's just a really villainous person because that's how she rolls.  I like my villains to have, if not possible redemption arcs, at least a backstory that's not petty....so I'll hope for the former.

It's a long book, almost 500 pages, but the twists keep adding interest, and keep coming, so it didn't feel dragged out.  Most of the story is set in the magic world, but toward the end Washington D.C., and new characters, come into it, bringing fresh energy to the story (and a sweet gay couple). Give yourself a nice long weekend to read it in, and then join me in waiting for the next book (at least one sequel has been promised).

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Snow and Rose, by Emily Winfield Martin

Most middle grade fairy tale retellings use the "original" story as a springboard for wild leaps of imagination, which is just fine and results in some darn good books.  Snow and Rose, by Emily Winfield Martin  (Random House Oct 2017), on the other hand, is a lovely and rare example of a retelling for middle grade readers that fills in the blanks of a story so organically that you can hardly see the joins.

Snow White and Rose Red was a favorite of mine--it's about two girls who live with their mother and periodically meet and rescue a grumpy dwarf and a bear who's really a transformed prince becomes their friend...and really there's so much wild imaging going on here that it doesn't need much more!  So Emily Martin doesn't leap with it; instead she gives the girls a backstory of wealth, and then sends them out to live a meager life in the forest, with a father who is missing, and a community of others doing the best they can in the forest to befriend, and warn, and share...And she gives the strange little man a power and point that drives the plot of the story instead of dropping into it and then poofing away.  And adding to the Realness of the story, Snow and Rose are fine characters and good sisters, with distinct personalities and strengths.

As is the case with the original, at first the happenings seem random, but as you read along, you, and the sisters, find that things are more interconnected than they seem.  There is a mystery the girls must unravel...before they, like the bear, are enchanted...

Adding to the enchantment of the story are beautiful illustrations, mostly grey with just touches of read, both double page spreads and chapter decorations.  They are illustrations that make you feel like you are reading a book that matters and has the weight of magic, without being so rich in their own right that they distract.

It's been a while since I read this (I got a review copy from the publisher for the Cybils Awards last fall), so I looked to see if I said anything on Goodreads, and I (usefully, for a wonder) did:

a very nice retelling of the fairy tale; stuck close to the original, but added characterization and details about the world of forest and cottage that made it pleasing reading.

Which reminds me that if you like stories of moving into cottages, a genre that I myself  like lots, this is a good one!

My Rotten Stepbrother Ruined Cinderella, by Jerry Mahoney

My Rotten Stepbrother Ruined Cinderella, by Jerry Mahoney (Capstone, August 2017) is a fun one for younger middle grade readers (9-10 year olds) who enjoy a fun fractured fairy tale.

Maddie is a big fan of Cinderella, and she's proud of the diorama she made of the story for school.  But her stepbrother Holden is not impressed with either, and points out the many logical flaws in the story; for instance, surely Cinderella isn't the only girl with that particular shoe size!  And soon Maddie's diorama has changed to something not in the real story, and all the book versions have gone horribly wrong too.  Holden's logic has broken Cinderella, and her happy ending is no more!

Holden and Maddie magically enter the story (not of their own volition; it just happens), and once there Madddie's determined to set things right.  Holden, though, is an uncertain ally at best, because he's more interested in things making sense, which isn't so useful when dealing with fairy tales. But the two of them manage to start tidying things up, starting with the stepsister who's now going to marry the prince; this wasn't her idea (she'd rather go to art school).  The stepmother is the villain of the piece, and getting her out of the way of Cinderella's happily ever after  turns out to be rather a tricky job. But once Cinderella and her stepsisters (one of whom is now Maddie, disguised by enchantment) put their past behind them and start working as a team, and once Holden and Maddie do the same, things fall into place.

It's a lot of fun, and interesting to visit a well known story through Holden's fresh, critical eyes.  The author also adds a rational explanation for the vexing question of why the prince needed the shoe fitting to recognize his true love again--he has face blindness.  The resulting story is quite a bit more interesting than the original, although happy ever after is once again achieved (I found myself cheering more enthusiastically from the emancipated stepsister, now free to pursue her own dreams, than I did for Cinderella, who's romance still remains founded on the flimsy foundation of insta love...).

There are many bits of very kid friendly humor, and the illustrations entertain as well. It's the sort of book you can start reading aloud to kids even younger than 9, and then leave lying around as bait for independent reading.  Kids who enjoy this sort of disrupted fairy tale will then be happy to read the other books in the series, in which Holden ruins other stories in similar fashion.  It is also a good teaching tool about thinking critically about plot, and learning to recognize plot holes; Holden makes many valid points!

disclaimer: review copy received from the author

The Raven and the Reindeer, by T. Kingfisher

The Raven and the Reindeer, by T. Kingfisher (Red Wombat Tea Co., Feb. 2016), is a retelling of Hans Christian Anderson's "The Snow Queen," and if you have read any other of T. Kingfisher's books (she's also Ursula Vernon) you can imagine that it is a very nice read indeed, and perfect for reading on a cold day under lots of blankets in front of the fire.  I'm going to spoil a major plot point in the next few paragraphs, but it's one that needs spoiling to help some readers who will love the book to find it!

So "The Snow Queen" is the one about the boy who gets the shard of ice stuck in his eye, and is swept off by the beautiful Snow Queen, and the girl who sets off to find her playmate/love and bring him home.  Kingfisher sticks closely to the events in the original story, but twists them to make something new.

Kay and Gerta grow up together in a northern land where Christianity and old stories and magical beings coexist,  She loves him, but he's not a great friend to her, though she tells herself he is.  The reader quickly comes not to care all that much for Kay; Gerta clearly deserves someone who values her more.  But when Kay is kidnapped (and the arrival o.f the Snow Queen is gloriously descriptive, with her sleigh drawn by flying white otters (!)) Gerta sets off to find him because she is a good, loyal person.  Along the way she befriends a raven with whom she can communicate, which ends up sprinkling humor into the story, and she finds herself in the home of a group of brigands.  The bandit girl, Janna, keeps her from being harmed, and kisses her.

And then Janna sets of with Gerta, who has been given a magical reindeer skin that transforms her into a reindeer herself, to the stronghold of the Snow Queen, to rescue Kay.  And they rescue Kay in an exciting interesting rescue that was good fun to read, making good use of all the disparate things that Greta learned in her journey.

But back to Janna and Gerta.  I was taken aback by that sudden first kiss.  I had nothing against the idea of a Janna/Greta relationship, but the fact remained that Janna had power of life and death over Greta at that point, and she didn't ask before kissing her, rather passionately.  If it had been a young man doing that it would have bothered me a lot, and it bothered me as it was.   But fortunately, after the initial shock ,Greta lets herself acknowledge that she returns Janna's attraction, and things develop between them at a measured pace during the course of their adventure together (making it less an insta love thing than I'd worried it was at first).  It is a rather nice romance, when all is said and done, and Kay basically gets dropped of at home like a parcel of laundry at the end and Janna and Greta set off together for new adventures.

Throughout the story, the power of old women. and the stories and knowledge they keep, is essential to the success of Gerta's mission.  Her strength as a heroine is her persistence, which is close to being an innate goodness--she recognizes what must be done and does it, and she needs the spark of external wisdom and magic the four old women she meets can contribute (even though one of them is horrible, and one imprisons her) to make things work.  And likewise, she needs the spark of Janna's kiss to start really shaking her free of Kay.  I'm still a little worried that's she's not entirely grown into her own self by the end of the book, but she's still young....

Short answer--lots of twists and additions to the original story, and beautiful descriptions, make this a very fun fairy tale retelling.  I would have liked it to push a bit harder at characterization and thematic depth, but it is entertaining as all get out as is!

The Wolf Hour, by Sara Lewis Holmes, with a rather different sort of interview

The Wolf Hour, by Sara Lewis Holmes (Arthur A. Levine, middle grade, Sept. 2017), is a lovely book for those who like to venture into the dark woods of stories made horribly real (and who don't mind spiders, because there are lots of spiders....)

Magia has lived all life at the edge of a vast Polish forest, the Puszcza, a dark and magical place.  Her father is a woodcutter, and Magia wants to follow in his footsteps, though he warns her against this because those steps lead into the heart of the forest.   And in the Puszcza stories have become real, played out over and over again, with deadly consequences.  When Magia is forced to follow into the forest, she finds herself caught in the web of an evil enchantment that threatens not just her own future but that of her whole family.  With young girls vanishing into the forest, and her father lost there as well,  accusations of witchcraft leveled at her, and her mother and siblings fallen into a magical sleep, Magia must find the strength to confront the woman controlling the threads of the stories and break those threads once and for all.  Her only ally is a wolf, Martin, who fell afoul of his own story when he failed to grasp that he was supposed to be eating the three little pigs (he'd rather be snug in a good library reading, as is the case with so many of us....). But Magia, with her red hood, is bound by her own story to be a wolf-killer....

It is a haunting story, that leads the reader along with Magia into a web of alternate realities.  It not a fairy tell retelling, but more a twisting and re-use of familiar stories, used to excellent effect to create the challenges that lie within the Puszcza.  The occasionally intrusion of the narrator (which I sometimes find annoying, but didn't here) worked to great effect, keeping readers thinking and aware of Stories and Storytelling.  

Magia is one of the most lonely heroines I've read this year, and it was easy to sympathize and mentally encourage her as she pressed onward.  Not only does she have fight an evil, magical antagonist, she has to resist the expectations of ordinary human folk, making her very relatable.  Martin the wolf, with his penchant for a good book, and failed efforts to break the story of the three little pigs (not because he knew that's what he was doing, but because he simply was not interested in being a vicious killer), is one of my favorite wolf characters ever, and possibly even more relatable!  His efforts to communicate with the pigs never work; he never found the right words to get them to listen (which was, within the framework of the story they're trapped in, not possible in any event, but I felt for him as he tried his best).

The Wolf Hour doesn't fit neatly into standard "this is a middle grade" book categorization (for ages 9-12) , though that's where I'd put it.  It really is an all ages book, one that encourages and rewards thoughtful reading. When I enjoy a book, I generally don't think about it much, but I found myself doing so here, and it enhanced my pleasure and let me relate in a deeper way to Magia as we both tried to unravel the enchantments of the forest.  In fact, I was thinking so much that I actually underlined bits of the book that struck me as breadcrumbs on the trail into the story and dogeared the pages to come back to.  (I was reading an ARC.  I would never do this to a finished copy).

I then offered some of these passages to Sara Lewis Holmes for her thoughts on them!

And so, a rather different sort of interview:

"You must learn the paths of the forest, and how to find the direction of the sun when there's no light overhead.  You must be so certain of your true story that you always end up where you want to be."

Tata gives Magia this advice early in the novel, and I know he believes it, and is trying to pass on his wisdom to her.  Ironically, though, it’s Tata who ends up where he doesn’t want to be and Magia who has to straighten out the “true story.” 

In writing The Wolf Hour, I was interested in how stories both fool and guide us. Other people love to plug us into their narratives, and assign us roles to play. That’s why Magia’s path to her “true story” is so twisty and difficult—-because she’s fighting against the world’s notion of who she should be… or not be. And I wanted readers to know that twisty and difficult is okay.

"Better she'd not come back, then," Pani Wolburska said, her voice breathless.  "Some lost things should stay lost.”

Oh, this is a hard one.  I had to include this awful line because this is what some people believe about some human beings.  That you can lose your way so badly that you can never come home.  But I don’t believe that. (Even my wolves can be heroes.) 

Of course, it helps to have friends who will believe the best of you, instead of the worst, as Pani Wolburska does. And to have wise books and kind teachers, too—-and yet, those things are often “lost” in budgets. Honestly, I think the only thing that deserves to stay lost is that sixth grade picture of me in a Bay City Rollers costume. 

"A wolf is everything we give it to swallow.  We kill it and it comes back. We fight it and it never dies.  We humans write stories to kill it, to defeat it. to boil it alive, to slice open its bell, but none of that works."

Her voice grew teeth.

"Because you can't truly kill a wolf.  He's the wildness without which the world would be a pale shadow of itself.  He makes us feel alive.  He reminds us of the magic in our tame and failing human bones!"

One of the irritating things about my antagonist, Miss Grand, is that she often tells the truth about the world: that it is hard; that people will take things from you; that Story is the way to fight back.  And here, too, she is right about Wolves—-that we invest them with wily power, and then try with all our might to kill them so that we can be safe. 

And yet—-is being safe the only thing to strive for? What about being fully alive? What about finding the magic in our own bones? What about being brave and finding our own way? 

I believe wildness is necessary in my own life—-I love being outdoors whenever I can—- and I know it’s necessary in my creative life, too—-for I can’t write true story without being somewhat uncivilized. By that, I mean:  I don’t always get out of my pajamas when I should.  I don’t always write drafts that make sense the first time, or the third time, or the fifth. (Ask my editor!)  And I don’t always let my antagonists lie. Even if I wish a wolf would just gobble her up. 

(Back to me, Charlotte)

Thank you Sara, both for expanding on the quotations and for writing this lovely, magical book!

This post is part of a blog tour for The Wolf Hour, the first stop is here at Finding Wonderland, where you'll find an interview and a review, and here's another review at By Singing Light.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Hunted, by Meagan Spooner

I don't have all that much to say about Hunted, by Meagan Spooner, other than that if you were someone who read and reread Beauty, by Robin McKinley back until you almost knew it by heart, and if you desperately wished you hadn't ever read it so that you could have the pleasure of reading it for the first time again, try Hunted. 

That being said, it's not a copy, but it's own retelling. Hunted sets Beauty and the Beast in the woods of late medieval (?) Russia, and Beauty here is a smart, skilled huntress (though she also likes books lots); she's a self-reliant person full of wanting for more than a safe life, married inside walls. It's somewhat grittier than the McKinley version, and less pure wish fulfillment, with more discomfort and pain involved, both emotional and physical.  And in Hunted we also get glimpses from the Beast's own point of view, which makes for interesting reading!  Plus there's a whole magical world just beyond, or inside, or alongside, the snowy woods.

All this was very good, but what made it a personal joy to read is that it also works into the story one of my own most favorite fairy tales--the one where the firebird is stealing the golden apples, and the youngest brother kills the fox when the fox asks him to.  It gives a whole rich additional layer to the story that I enjoyed lots!

So yes, I recommend it! 

The Winged Girl of Knossos, by Erick Berry

Thanks to Betsy at Fuse #8 who has been mentioning it as a favorite for years* The Winged Girl of Knossos was for many years a title I looked for in used bookstores....I never found it, and since it was long out of print, I wondered if I'd ever get the chance to read it.  Now it is back in print (Paul Dry Books July 2, 2017), and I have read it, and I have found it good.

Inas is the daughter of the great Cretan inventor Daedalus.  She fills her life with daring adventure, free diving down to harvest sponges for fun, taking part in the bull dances, which involve doing dangerous gymnastics with a live bull.  And she is the test piolet for her father's most recent project--gliders.  Gliding practice has to be done in secret, because it smacks of sorcery to ordinary creatures, but Inas relishes her chances to soar like a bird (before crashing....).

When a young Greek, Theseus, arrives at the court of King Minos as tribute for the bull dancing, she becomes involved in the most serious adventure of her life.  Princess Ariadne enlists her in a plan to help Theseus escape...and that sets in motion a chain of events that ends in Inas and her father having to flee Crete to save their own lives (and yes, the gliders come into the story, taking the place of the wax wings Daedalus built for Icarus in the original story).

Inas is a young heroine to cheer for, with her indefatigable energy and her plucky determination.  She's not the most introspective or thoughtful heroine going, though, and I enjoyed, but didn't much emotionally connect with, her adventures.  The action is brisk, the Cretan setting fascinating, and it is fascinating as well to see a familiar myth told from a brand new perspective.  It's a great story for middle grade readers who love myth-infused adventures (though the gods themselves aren't players in the story).  Don't expect any fantasy elements; there is nothing here that couldn't be real.  But if you are looking for an adventurous vacation in ancient Crete, this is the book for you!

Erick Berry was a pseudonym of Allena Champlin Best; she was an illustrator as well as a writer, and her original illustrations, based on the actual art of the Minoans, adds lots to the atmosphere in my opinion, which being that of an archaeologist, tends towards appreciation of illustrations based on the originals....

*I poked around to see if I could find the earliest recommendation from Betsy I could.  The earliest link, from this post at A Chair a Fireplace and a Teacozy back in 2007 when there was a weekly (?) round-up of overlooked books in the Kidlitosphere no longer works, but I found this quote from 2008 preserved at the much loved and deeply mourned blog Collecting Children's Books:

“This is only a mystery in the sense that I can't figure out why it isn't available or in print. The Newbery Honor winner The Winged Girl of Knossos by Erick Berry is perhaps one of the best American children's books out there. Try finding it sometime, though. Rare doesn't even begin to describe it. If you do get a chance to read it, it's pip. I believe it won the honor in 1929. Fingers crossed that it gets its due someday.”

The Collecting Children's Books post adds to Betsy's endorsement, and is interesting reading in its own right!  Peter, the blogger whose site it was, mentions that were "overtly offensive racial references" in the original, but I did not come across any that registered in my read, so they seem to have been removed.

Final answer: I don't really think this is one of the best American children's books there is, but it's a good, quick read, and the right kids (interested in archaeological mysteries, liking stories of physical pursuits of an adventurous kind, liking brave girls to cheer for)  will love it.

Disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher