Penguin, 2015
Let me begin by saying if you LOVE horror fiction, you MUST pick up this amazing story collection! Written by some well-known YA authors (think Carrie Ryan and Jonathan Maberry to name a few), the stories compiled with make you cringe while you keep reading story after story to see what terror the next tale holds.
April Genevieve Tucholke put together an amazing compilation with the idea of writing a new story from classic ones not only from books, but also from movies and television as well. Each author, at the end of their dark tale, lets the readers know what inspired them to create their short story.
But it's the short stories which are downright horror(ibly) amazing. There are fourteen short stories altogether, but here's a quick rundown of my favorites:
The Birds of Azalea Street by Nova Ren Suma: Three girls, all friends, think they know about the creepy guy who lives next door. Leonard may have the neighborhood fooled with his kindness and baked goods, but the girls get creeped out every time he looks at them. And one night, Leonard brings a beautiful girl home and Tasha, Katie-Marie and Paisley see him sneak her in but they never see her again, except a few times through windows. Something's not right, and they're about to find out how not right the situation becomes...
In the Forest Dark and Deep by Carrie Ryan: Cassidy has seen him in the forest since she was seven years old. It all began when she discovered a most beautiful spot in the woods with a table in the clearing. Perfect for tea parties! But she felt someone watching her and out stepped the March Hare, the size of a man, dressed like a man, but not a man at all. She knew he was watching her, but was it for good or evil? Now at seventeen, she goes back to the woods but it's not longer tea she brings with her. Cassidy thought the horrible tea party she became a part of was in the past, but then she sees the shadow of the March Hare again...
Sleepless by Jay Kristoff: Justin is in love, even though he's never met her. He doesn't even know her real name, just her online one: 2muchcoff33_girl. Neither of them sleep very well and their online conversations go from cameraderie to flirting to beginning to actually want to meet each other. Of course, there are barriers Justin will have to overcome, like his overprotective mother, who constantly reminds him of how evil girls are. But it doesn't matter. He knows she was fated for him. He's taken his time wooing his last three girl friends, even if the relationships didn't work out, and he's willing to try again with 2muchcoff33_girl because he knows she's different and they'll work things out....
Stitches by A.G. Howard: Sage, Clover and Oakley lost their Ma, the gentle one. Now all they're left with is Pa, who drinks to much, disappears too long, and hits too hard. They live in the middle of nowhere with very little but themselves until they meet The Collector and he changes their world. Pa got in trouble in town and The Collector came to help. He wants to make Pa a better person, and for each visit he makes to the house, the children begin to see a definite difference in Pa. He's kinder, gentler, not prone to drink. But when Clover finally finds out the horrible truth about why, she's intent on revenge and goes to seek The Collector to exact it...
A summary of this story collection is best summed up by April Genevieve Tucholke's dedication,
"For everyone who read Stephen King
when they were way too young."
Recommended upper HS and beyond
Since finding out I was pregnant back in May, I've been constantly on the lookout for great books to add to my new little one's enormous bookcase. I have some favorites of course, but I wanted a collection of stories that not only had nice illustrations, but also contained specific stories I knew and loved as a child. I want to use the book as a connector between my child and myself and finding the right story collection just wasn't happening.
When this one came in my mailbox a few weeks ago, I was instantly taken by the cover. It looked old. Not old as in "dated and ugly," but old as in "from my childhood." Definitely a good thing! No bright, splashy colors, just a cool design depicting Jack from "Jack and the Beanstalk."
I was THRILLED to find a listing of some of my favorite stories, including "The Three Billy Goats Gruff," "The Story of Chicken-Licken," and "The Ugly Duckling." The stories are pretty much as I remember them, though some changes may have been made...it's been quite awhile since I've actually read a lot of them, but for the most part they were just as I wanted.
Just a quick side note. One of my favorite childhood memories is of my mom reading me "The Story of Chicken-Licken." Not sure when the silly name...which I love...turned into "Chicken Little," but I was really excited to see the original name.
The illustrations are excellent! Not too modern and fitting of some of the darker stories. I mean...the troll in "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" is supposed to be scary...not cute, as is the wolf from "The Three Little Pigs." Yes, they might be a might evil looking for sensitive children, but I think they fit in with the stories perfectly.
I can see myself giving this book as a baby shower gift, birthday gift, Baptism gift, etc. It's a book to grow with a child and be shared within a family. I'm so excited to have one in time for Baby Snow to arrive and I know his daddy and I will love reading him the stories as he gets older.
Buy from IndieBoundBuy from Powells
Michael Hague's Treasured ClassicsMichael Hague133 pagesPicture Book Collection9780911949043October 2011Review copy provided by publisherI am an affiliate of both IndieBound and Powells and will receive a small percentage of the purchase price.
Lips Touch: Three Times
by Laini Taylor. Illustrated by Jim Di Bartolo. Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic. October 2009. Reviewed from ARC; ARC from BEA.
The Plot: Three stories that hinge on a kiss. In Goblin Fruit, Kizzy wants to be someone different, somewhere different, she wants to be kissed; In Spicy Little Curses Such As These, Ana wants to be loved and accepted; and in Hatchling, Esme is haunted by memories that are not her own.
The Good: In Goblin Fruit, Kizzy is a girl who should know better. Her people are well aware that goblins are real, even though they live in the modern world and Kizzy knows that ghosts are real. Kizzy wants -- wants what? She wants. And the new boy in school, who is so fine, who seems to want her, may be the answer to her prayers. Taylor takes Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market a step further in time. Fruit out of season may be a clue that the goblin is tempting you; but there are more temptations than fruit.
Ana is cursed at her christening in Spicy Little Curses Such As These. In this twist of Sleeping Beauty, her curse is to kill. Any who hears her voice will die. She is blessed with self-control to never utter a sound. James falls in love with Ana, Ana with James. The battle fields of the Great War taught him to be rational and not believe in miracles and magic. He doesn't believe in curses and wishes she would talk. And instead of the reader being rational and believing as James does, we see what he doesn't. A world where an old lady engages in dangerous trades to save children from Hell and Ana's voice is the price paid.
In Hatchling, Esme has been raised in London by an eccentric mother. Her mother's oddness suddenly makes sense, or at least seems less odd, when Esme awakes to find that instead of two brown eyes she has one brown, one blue. Wolves are hunting them and Esme remembers things she know never happened. At least, never happened to her. Including a kiss. Who is Esme? What secrets does she hold?
I love the twists to tales that Taylor gives; taking Goblin Market to modern times. Creating a Sleeping Beauty who can kill with a whisper -- or a shout. And lastly, a story that seems to be about Esme -- until we find out there is more to Esme than meets the eye.
I kept turning down pages to mark language and phrases:
"The goblins want girls who dream so hard about being pretty their yearning leaves a palpable trial, a scent goblins can follow like sharks on a soft bloom of blood. The girls with hungry eyes who pray each night to wake up as someone else. Urgent, unkissed, wishful girls."
"She wanted to climb out of her life as if it were a seashell she could abandon on a shore and walk away from, barefoot."
"Kizzy felt, for an instant, as if her blood fizzed inside her like champagne."
"Once, he might have believed [his survival] to be the work of Providence, but it seemed to him now that to thank God for his life would be to suggest God had shrugged off all the others, flicked them away like cigarette butts by the thousands, and that seemed like abominable conceit."
Since this an ARC, it didn't have the complete art work. The cover gives a taste. While these are tales about being kissed, or wanting kisses, or the price of kissing, it is not a "romance", per se, though I would give it to people looking for stories about love. Since it's not a traditional romance, then, it doesn't have a traditional romance cover. Rather, the girl you see is one who looks haunted and who will haunt you. Two colors: red and blue. Blue eyes that are striking -- almost disturbing. Otherwordly. And of course the lips are red -- but not smiling. Full, kissable lips -- but not smiling, not inviting, not happy. This is the face of a girl turning into a woman, haunted, haunting, striking, inviting you in yet keeping you at arm's length.
The sketch art for the first story is supplied, relating in pictures the story of Rossetti's Goblin Wood and ending with a portrait of Kizzy. Loved it; and I cannot wait to see the finished book.
What links these stories? Teen girls on a brink -- on a brink of something else, something more.
© Elizabeth Burns of A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
.jpeg?picon=3015)
.jpg?picon=107)
Ooh, that sounds really good.
You need to stop reviewing things I like. My already out of control request list gets even longer every time I come here! ;)
We're on the same reading kick I see - first "Ash" and now "Lips Touch". It's going in my Oct column also and I just posted on it - I have links to Laini's blog where she posted some of the final art for the book. GORGEOUS!
I've been wanting to read this since I first saw the preview Laini gave of the artwork, but this review makes me want to read it even more. Thanks for posting!