If you are looking for a middle grade fantasy that feels fairytale-ish, without in fact being a fairy tale or inspired by one, try
The Other Side of Luck, by Ginger Johnson (Bloomsbury, August 10 2021). This quality made it a nice change from the wild magical rampaging of my recent middle grade fantasy reading.
Julien has been raised outside the city, following in his father's footsteps as a gatherer of wild plants. Una has been raised in luxury at the city's heart, the daughter of its Magister. But after Una's mother died, her father ignored her, whereas Julien's father, though growing old and unwell, has raised him with tremendous love and care from the time he was a baby, when his own mother died.
Una's father has ordered a particular, very rare plant brought to him, one that Julian's father has the best chance of finding; this would mean relief from poverty, and a chance for his health to recover. When a jealous rival has him arrested for floral malfeasance involving a misidentified poisonous plant, Julien sets out to try to save him from jail. At the same time, Una meets her mother's brother, who she never knew existed, and decides she'd rather live with her mother's far-away family than stay in her father's city, where she feels unwanted.
The paths of the two children cross out in the hills away from the city, and together they try to find the plant. Julien wants it to help his father, and Una wants it because she's been told it was her mother's favorite. Maybe, if she can smell its scent, it will refresh her memories of her mother....
But Una's uncle isn't what he seems, and bandits, treacherous terrain, and the unscrupulous rival complicate their quest. When they do succeed, the ending isn't at all what they expected....
I will now try to define what I felt was fairytale-ish about this story, in list form because that's what I'm in the mood for.
-- There's a dream-like quality to their quest. It's not our world, but somewhere far away and with different plants, and with a smidge of background magic.
-- The two kids each have a gift that crosses the line into magic. Julian can hear plants, and tells them apart by the way they sound. Una has a sense of smell that is likewise more acute than possible. Their gifts help them on their quest.
-- Another help comes from an old lady, such as is often found in fairy tales, selling "the soup of life" to the people of the city. Though at first it seemed like just really good soup, it actually is magical.
--and finally, the way the story unfolded, with two kids in distress setting off away from home to find the rare and precious thing that could help them, keeping going despite the dangers, is obviously fairy tale.
Where it departs from fairytale-ness is in the sadness of the two kids; a real, deep, aching grief that gives the book lots of heart, without weighing down the reader overmuch.
So I enjoyed the reading of this; I was on a train, and it was a good train book, I think (airplanes call for gripping excitement, which has to be really gripping to distract from the trapped, horrible tedium of a long flight, but trains, swishing down their tracks outside reality in a gentler way than airplanes, and with opportunities to walk restlessly up and down when the mood strikes, are more amenable to milder sorts of stories). It's not one I quite loved, though; mainly because I wasn't entirely convinced by the set-up and the ending. The ending especially felt unearned and not like the ending to the journey the kids had been on.
But in any event, the writing is lovely! It's a good one for a dreamy 9 or 10 year old reader (if the cover appeals, the book will too), and, for me, at least, it was a refreshing palate cleanser (which feels like a not nice thing to call a book, but I mean it kindly).
disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher
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