I've been wanting to read this book for a while. I saw it at the bookstore and, after reading the back, instantly added the book to my to-read list. It took me a while to get to it, unfortunately. But, I finally did and what a treat! The book is written by the charming E.D. Baker of The Frog Princess fame. I always like a good take on the Brier Rose tale and this one was fantastic.
The story is as follows, Princess Annabelle (Annie) is gifted with a resistance to magic on her christening day. This gift forces Annie to grow up in a rather lonesome way as most people around are afraid to be near her for fearing of losing their magically bestowed beauty. But, when Annie's sister, Princess Gwen pricks her finger and brings the whole castle to an enchanted sleep, it's up to Annie to save the day. As she travels with a guard, Liam, to find the prince to break the spell, Annie meets a whole cast of familiar characters and magical folk.
I loved the premise of this book. The idea of a magic-resistant adventuress traveling through a land packed with magic was very entertaining. And I thoroughly enjoyed Baker's twist on old tales, such as Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, and the Princess and the Pea. I also really appreciated the inclusion of Snow White and Rose Red, which is, to my mind, a sadly neglected fairy tale.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants a fun romp through fairy tales. Baker's humor and masterful storytelling bring a fresh and charming take on a well known tale.
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A blog reviewing and discussing children's books; old and new, out-of-print and fresh-off-the-press.
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Is it appropriate to just hop right into a review after taking a break for almost a year? Eh, sure.
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It has been far too long since a review has been posted on this blog and that, sad to say, is entirely my fault. I completely dropped the ball when it was my turn to review. I shall endeavor to do better next time. In the meantime, here's a review!
My sister gave me The Shadow Thieves by Anne Ursu for Christmas. Well, when I read it, I wondered (as I often do) why it had taken me so long to read it. The book is utterly delightful!
The book tells the story of middle-schooler Charlotte Mielswetzski (pronounced Meals-wet-ski) and her cousin Zee who find themselves knee-deep in mythological mayhem when they discover that someone is stealing the shadows of the all of the local children. As they are the heroes of our story, they decide to do something about it and, before long, find themselves on an unusual adventure into the Underworld.
The book is laugh-out-loud hilarious from start to finish. Ursu's quips and sarcasm bring a fun and wacky element to the mythological world that is very enjoyable. There are some pretty creepy moments that would be a lot creepier if they weren't coated with Ursu's fresh sense of humor. Both of her main characters are unique and completely likeable. I've read several mythologically-inspired books lately and I especially like Ursu's take on the myths and the characters.
Which Greek god do you wish were immortalized more often in fiction?
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This absurdly cold weather has made me alternately long for stories of heat and sun for contrast and those in frigid settings, possibly to make the weather seem less wearying and more romantic. So I reread Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow - a perfectly freezing tale that fits the cold mood.
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Happy February everyone!
Today I'm going to review The Runaway Dragon by Kate Coombs, a sequel to The Runaway Princess. Now, it's a fact universally acknowledged that sequels sometimes fall short of their predecessors (maybe even most of the time - but that's a matter of opinion). Sequels run the risk of changing the characters' personalities too much, changing the mood from the first book. If an author writes a really wonderful book, we wish she would write a sequel so that we can get more of these wonderful characters and this wonderful world she's created; yet, when sequels are written, we hold them up to a magnifying glass and compare and contrast. It's a tricky line to toe.
Anyway, all of this to say that Coombs's sequel to The Runaway Princess was absolutely delightful. I was laughing out loud for a majority of the book (which was slightly embarrassing as I was reading it at work!). The characters were just as great as they were the first time around - and we get more of them too! My favorite character is Lex and I was very happy to see more of him in this book.
The story line picks up where the first one left off. Meg's been receiving all of those wonderful lessons she was promised, Cam has his own section of the garden, and Laddy is contentedly lodged with Cam's sister. Unfortunately. Meg really only enjoys a few of her new lessons, Cam's love for his gardens has strained the friendship a tad, and Laddy isn't quite content living on a farm. When Laddy flies away from home, Meg persuades her father to let her go on a quest to find him - and the adventure wouldn't be complete if all of her friends didn't join in! The quest is so much fun - there's an evil sorceress, a princess named Spinach who was trapped in a tower, a giant family, and a magical forest! I have to say that Coombs has done it again with this book... and when I say, "it," I mean another memorable, laugh-out-loud, adventure that breaks all of the rules! Coombs's rule-breaking brilliance is what made me so adore her first book and I was very pleased to see her back in full swing for the second one. I can't wait to read more! Maybe we'll be lucky enough to get a third adventure soon?
Any other sequels that you loved just as much as the original?
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Happy 2010, Readers! I hope you've had a wonderful holiday season and received many books as gifts. I was lucky enough to receive this marvelous read by the terrific Patricia Wrede and thought it would be a great book to kick off a new year of reviews.
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Hello everybody! Long time, no see! Actually, in my case, it's a bit of case of never-seen. You see, this is my sister's blog and she cordially invited me to join in the fun! I think I should preface this review with a loving nod to my sister's flawless taste in books. Practically everything I've read was recommended by her (often on this blog!). She's been recommending books to me for a while now but I rather think that this one, Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, can be seen as the first in a long line of good recommendations. So, without further ado...
Howl's Moving Castle is about a young girl, Sophie, who is the oldest in her family and, therefore, believes she will inherit all of the misfortune. And when an insulting discussion with the Witch of the Waste results with Sophie's transformation into a 90-year-old woman, she believes she has merely received her lot in life. After this transformation, Sophie sets out to seek her fortune and rid herself of the spell. She journeys to the floating castle of the wizard Howl, strikes a bargain with his fire demon, and takes up permanent residence. And, as is customary in Diana Wynne Jones's books, hilarity and charm ensue.
Upon reading this book, it quickly became one of my all-time favorites and Jones instantly became a favorite author. I love her humor and her characters are simply delightful. Sophie's confidence and wry humor are disarmingly fun in a main character. The vain and wacky Howl is hilarious, frustrating, and charming all at once. I only added this book to my private collection three years ago and the binder is already well bent with multiple re-readings!
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Alright, this book, in some ways, doesn't need to be reviewed; it's a mainstay in a children's literature bookshelf. However, if you're like me, then you haven't read the book for years and have vague memories of the story mixed with images from film/t.v. of varying qualities. So, to do the book justice, I reread it.
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Like many books I review, I'll read a mention of the book from some lucky bookseller who has an advanced copy. I'll get excited about the book, rush to my neighborhood bookstore or library and then realize the book doesn't come out for several months. Sigh.
Princess Ben was one of these books so I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived at my library. And promptly settled down to read it...
Princess Ben is about a young free-spirited and slightly overindulged princess, who after her doting parents are tragically murdered, is left to the devices and education of her cruel aunt. Her aunt, Queen Sophia, becomes more frantic about the quest to cultivate Princess Ben with hopes for making her marriage material when the neighboring kingdom (the chief suspect in the parents' deaths) begins to put pressure to overtake the kingdom. After one particularly bad interaction between the Queen Sophia and Princess Ben, she is shut up in a cell behind her aunt's room. However, the room holds an unexpected escape by way of a secret passageway that leads to a mysterious magical room...
Princess Ben started off with a bit of an angsty feel and, when coupled with the tragic circumstances, I steeled myself for a typical tortured heroine fairy tale. However, by the Part Two of the book, I realized that this story was far from the typical fairy tale! For start, the heroine isn't a delicate golden-haired beauty or even a feisty brunette beauty. She's a sulky, strong-willed girl with a voracious appetite. Her maturing and growth throughout the book is only one of many; it amazed me that characters that I made immediate judgments about (oh, she's the villain, he's the love interest) would change through the story as the narrator, the irrepressible Princess Ben, changed. Catherine Gilbert Murdock's clever interweaving of fairy tale references only add to the cleverness of the story rather than serve as distraction.
This story was deeper than the average "fairytale retelling" genre and delivered humor, adventure, and dare I say it, a valuable moral.
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I was so excited when I first heard about the release of The Dragonfly Pool; I completely adore Eva Ibbotson and the story sounded perfect.
And, of course, it was.
The Dragonfly Pool begins in pre-WWII London where feisty Tally has to leave her beloved doctor father, and the danger of the city, for a progressive boarding school in southern England. Despite missing home, she soon has friends and mentors that help her feel at home and she is renewed with a sense of purpose. After seeing a special on Bergania's king bravely defying Hitler, Tally is inspired to visit and when she hears of an international dance festival taking place there, she rallies her classmates to participate. Of course, things don't go as planned: there is an assassination, a prince on the lam, two hideous henchman, a rare Outer Mongolian pedestal dog, among many other things.
I think that if I could have written a novel as a child, I would have wanted to write just like Ms. Ibbotson. She has marvelous lead characters- definitely not cookie-cutter heros and heroines- some are spirited, some are shy but all are completely three-dimensional. Her villains are delightfully abhorrent and usually quite repulsive (one villain kept a picture of Hitler in a locket, another collected rare glass eyeballs). Her plots are usually outlandish and difficult to summarize (as I proved by my above paragraph) but, when reading, are easy to follow. Her books move at a perfect pace and always have just the ending one wants. The Dragonfly Pool was classic Ibbotson but classic Ibbotson with a cherry on top. It was one of those read-straight-through-the-night-until-I-finish books. Loved it.
What authors write the way you, as a child, wanted books to be written?
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I have been quite swamped with work and other distractions. I promise to begin again in April with fresh reviews. Thank you for reading!
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I was suffering from a rather nasty bout with the flu when a kind friend brought home Masterpiece to distract me from my ills. I doubt he could have chosen a better book to take me away from my troubles completely! A beetle, Martin, and his family, live under the sink in the Pompaday's house. Although the beetles like the son James, quiet and lonely, they don't care much for the rest of his family (made up of his pushy mother, complaining stepfather and messy baby brother). After James has a disappointing birthday (ruined by his mother inviting the sons of potential clients to his party rather than any of his friends), Martin paints him a tiny landscape using the pen and ink set James' father gave him. The painting bears an uncanny resemblance to the work of Albrecht Dürer. James is well aware that Martin, his new friend, is the true artist but all the adults around him assume that the painting was done by James himself. When several people who work at the museum see the painting, they enlist James (and inadvertently Martin) to help them catch an art thief. I knew I would love this story, having loved Shakespeare's Secret so well. Elise Broach's characters are just so marvelous! Martin and his family, in particular, were refreshingly well-adjusted as a contrast to James' dysfunctional one. There is even a bit of wise philosophy spoken by Martin's mother that I found quite inspiring (pg. 171). The mystery, while quite complicated in parts (it took me forever to boil the book down to a one paragraph summary!), was fast-paced and exciting all while gently displaying the delightful characters. The illustrations of Kelly Murphy added perfectly to the story of quiet friendship and intricate mystery. Somehow, like Master Dürer himself, Ms. Broach was able to create a masterpiece with tiny details and warm, enduring images. I also loved that Dürer was the featured artist in this book! I thought he was an unorthodox choice; most books would feature an artist along the lines of Da Vinci or Michelangelo. I would love to see a book that incorporates the art of one of my favorite artists maybe Alphonse Mucha or Maxfield Parrish. What do you think? Any artists, obscure or known, you would like to see in the plot of a book?
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Yes, yes, I realize that this book won numerous awards last year so this review is a bit behind the times. But the book was recently recommended to me by a very enthusiastic 12-year-old so I had to pick it up...
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I am a sucker for a good title; so when I saw Roxie and the Hooligans by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, I was absolutely constrained to read it.
Roxie Warbler looks forward to every visit from her famous explorer uncle, Uncle Dangerfoot. She sits attentively while he tells her family stories about the latest adventures that he and his employer, Lord Thistlebottom, have experienced. Roxie hangs on his every word as well as the words of Lord Thistlebottom's Book of Pitfalls and How to Survive Them. However, there is nothing in either her favorite book or her favorite uncle's stories to guide her through her bully problem at school. Helvitia's Hooligans have chosen Roxie, with her large, round ears, as their victim of the year. Roxie is embarrassed to talk to her parents about it because, as a niece of such a great adventurer, she ought to be able to figure out how to escape them. One morning, as the Hooligans try their latest bit of meanness on Roxie, she and the Hooligans end up in the dumpster. And as fate would have it, the dumpster is promptly picked up and dumped into the nearby ocean. After Roxie and Helvitia's Hooligans swim to a conveniently located desert island, the survival tips Roxie has learned come in handy as she tries to band together with the Hooligans, forage for supplies and outwit two dastardly thieves hiding out on the island with them.
This book was exhilarating! My only disappointment was that it was such a quick read because I thoroughly enjoyed it. The little survival tips were fun and watching Roxie carry them out made them even more so. I loved watching the attitudes of the Hooligans change as Roxie gradually became their fearless leader. And I liked the very gentle explanation of why the Hooligans were the way they were and Roxie's realization of how much better her life was. Above all, her refusal to panic in the face of anything was quite inspiring.
What a deliciously fun book!
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Penderwicks-lovers: don't despair as you wait for book 3! This lovely out-of-print gem will tide you over with its funny, charming and everyday slice-of-life stories.
Family Grandstand centers on the Ridgeways, Susan, George and Irene (called "Dumpling" because of her "roundness in the middle"). It's football season in Midwest City and, seeing as their father is a professor at the university and they live in a house that overlooks the football field by means of a tower, the three are very involved in the excitement of it all. From the first game of the season to homecoming, a lot else happens at the Ridgeway household including Susan learning how to deal with babysitting the Terrible Torrences, George adopting an immensely oversized dog and five very discontented turtles for his birthday, and Dumpling trying very, very hard to be very, very good after misunderstanding an overheard conversation. All this is told with Carol Ryrie Brink's brand of dry humor and gentle literary slapstick.
I have been reading Ms. Brink's books since I was little, and this one, as well as the second in the series, Family Sabbatical, are among my favorites. Her characters are completely three-dimensional and entirely identifiable. I know there are plenty of children's book readers who don't like "old-timey" books and I imagine that they would probably categorize this book in that group. But I guess I'd use the clichéd word "timeless" for this book; it's proven to be that for me!
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I recently realized that the two books I just reviewed (and loved) were both illustrated by Drazen Kozjan. Coincidence? I think not.
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When I started this blog, I made a decision to write reviews only of books that I love for two reasons: one, because I don't want to spend any more time focusing on a book that I didn't care for in the first place, and two, because I know that I've read negative reviews of books I love and it really, really bothers me! And I can only imagine that it would be infinitely more bothersome if the author himself read the negative review.
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I've been trying to blog about once a month but having just read Granny Torelli Makes Soup (and loved it), plus this is, conveniently, almost smack dab in the middle of the month, I'm going to try to blog twice a month. Just so I can write about this wonderful book.
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It seems perhaps redundant to write a review about a series that has been on the bestseller lists for a while. However, I was so thoroughly enthralled by the series that I can't help but write an entry for the latest books to completely eat up hours of my day!
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When I began this blog, my intention was to review not only new releases, but also some favorites that have been out for years- even out-of-print titles- to bring awareness to the marvelous books that nobody talks about. However, I've been mostly reviewing more recently released books because there have been so many great ones released. So, in time for summer, I'm reviewing a great summer read that was released years ago but is still completely wonderful!
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Have you ever read a book where you actually sighed aloud with utter satisfaction? The Penderwicks on Gardam Street was such a book. Reminding me of my very favorite authors- Enright, Eager, Estes, Brink-while filled with completely unique characters, The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, was both familiar and fresh.
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A brief history of my reading Linda Urban's A Crooked Kind of Perfect: I had prepared myself not to like the book; I'm not a big fan of drama in kids' literature and the content lent itself to drama (mother works all the time, father has OCD, she's an outcast at school) so I feared that the book would take itself too seriously. But one of my favorite bloggers, ShelfTalker, raved about it so much that I grudgingly checked it out of the library.
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Okay, I just finished this book and I loved it! Iris, Messenger, by Sarah Deming, tells the story of a middle schooler named Iris Greenwold who lives with her mother in Middleville, Pennsylvania. Iris, like many other protagonists, hates going to school and really doesn't have any friends but she loves daydreaming and does her best to just get through the day avoiding detentions. Which she is not very good at.
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I love this book! So incredible. The lass is such a cool character - I love her spunk and determination. I also thought the twist with the prince bridegrooms thing was really fascinating.
The cold weather makes me want to snuggle in my bed with some hot tea and something romantic. I've lately picked up an old favorite because it never fails to make me happy when I read it. Great review!