Castle Waiting

Castle Waiting
Author: Linda Medley
Publisher: Fantagraphics
ISBN-10: 1560977477
ISBN-13: 978-1560977476

This wonderful graphic novel brings together the first twelve issues of the Eisner Award winning comic. It opens with Brambly Hedge, a tale of a Sleeping Beauty with a twist. After Sleeping Beauty leaves with the prince the castle is left waiting. Her three ladies in waiting stay there and open it to people in need. The castle is infested with hobgoblins and is a little beat up but it welcomes the needy with open arms.
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Among its inhabitants are a pregnant woman on the run, Sir Destrier, a horse-headed knight who wants a place to rest between adventures; and Sister Peace, a bearded nun with a wild past. The women of the castle seem to love telling the stories of their lives and it is these stories that are the meat of Castle Waiting.

Linda Medley has created a masterpiece of fantasy, fairytale and just plain good storytelling. Castle Waiting is light-hearted, fun and different. The stories within stories are wonderful and the characters are multi-faceted and interesting. For me, Jain’s story was the most interesting. Jain was the pregnant woman on the run from an abusive nobleman husband and her tale was riveting and so different from the typical fairy tale.

The artwork is as light-hearted and fun as the story. The bearded nuns are a riot and really made me smile. Through the whole book with the intersecting stories is a thread of kindness and caring that really makes me smile. I love that Sleeping Beauty’s left behind castle is used to help those in need. I love the fact the women who remain have so much love to give to those who show up at the castle door and are willing to share whatever they have. I would have loved this book anyway but that just made it so much more special. Highly recommended.

Bella at Midnight

Bella at Midnight
Author: Diane Stanley
Illustrator: Bagram Ibatoulline
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0060775734
ISBN-13: 978-0060775735

I always love it when some clever author takes an old fairytale and slaps it onto the potter’s wheel of their imagination till it becomes something wonderfully new and fresh with the shimmering strands of the old story glistening through it. I am always in awe when it works as beautifully as Bella at Midnight. Diane Stanley has taken Cinderella and created something entirely new and fascinating. I found myself caught up in every word of her story till I emerged breathless at the end.

Bella at Midnight is the story of Bella, a golden haired girl who’s mother dies in childbirth. Her intense and a little nutty knight of a father is so angry that she (as he sees it) caused her mother’s death that he has her aunt take the child away to be fostered. She is taken to another town and given to a peasant to be wet nursed alongside a prince named Julian. They grow up together and become great friends till the day that Julian treats her badly and breaks her heart. That very day, he is sent away as a hostage to a neighboring kingdom as insurance that the peace treaty is not violated.

In the meantime, Bella who has loved her life with the peasants is all of a sudden taken away to live with her crazy father and his new wife and daughters. She is miserable in the loveless and cold home of her father. While living in her father’s house, Bella hears of a plot to violate the treaty and ultimately put Julian in danger of death so being the brave girl she is, she sets off to save him.

The writing is stellar and the story is great. I loved that the heart of the story is honesty, loyalty and love. Bella is a wonderful character and readers are going to love both her and Julian. I loved that in this book, the fair maiden sets off to save the prince instead of vice versa. Bella at Midnight does old fairytales proud while bringing them a more modern sensibility and giving women their due strength while keeping them womanly.

Mira, Mirror

Mira, Mirror
Author: Mette Ivie Harrison
Publisher: Penguin Puffin
ISBN-10: 0142406430
ISBN-13: 978-0142406434

Mirror, mirror on the wall
Who’s the fairest one of all?

Whatever happened to the magic mirror when the wicked queen in Snow White died? What actually was the magic mirror? Where did that wicked queen come from?

Mira, Mirror answers all that and more in this dark and interesting modern fairy tale that has very little to do with Snow White.

Mira, the poor daughter of a peasant is sold by her mother to a witch who requires an apprentice. Affection starved, she bonds quickly, desperately with the other apprentice, a beautiful dark haired girl who has her own nefarious plans and becomes Mira’s adopted sister.

The beautiful girl befriends Mira and shares her magic with her, but it is a dark and scary magic wrought from the killing of little animals. As the adopted sister grows more and more beautiful with the magic she steals by killing, her purpose becomes clear. She will become a queen at any cost. One day she tricks Mira into holding a mirror for her and Mira feels herself change to glass and wood.

Mira is now a mirror and forced to do her sisters bidding for years as she hangs trapped in the old witch’s ramshackle cottage. One day the sister queen never comes back and Mira is left hanging (literally) for 100 years until a peasant girl named Ivana finds her.

Determined to free herself, Mira convinces Ivana to take her with her as she escapes from an arranged marriage. This flight leads her right into Talia who has her own escape to make. She and Ivana switch places with Mira’s magic and things get really interesting. Their adventures take them through another fairy tale loosely based on Beauty and the Beast.

Mira, Mirror is an interesting and dark take on the two fairy tales. It is narrated by Mira who is a pretty complex character. The strong and determined women characters make the story very interesting and layered. These are girls who forge their own way and change their expected roles in unexpected ways.

The story shows how true friendship, love and respect can transcend even the darkest of souls and change lives. It shows that you can become something else if you try hard enough. Another thing I loved about it was that it shows that beauty isn’t superficial, it comes from within. I think that Mira, Mirror is an excellent book with strong role models.

Book description from the publisher:

Two sisters. One a witch and a queen. The other transformed by her sister's touch into a mirror—a mirror with voice and memory and magic, but no power to transform herself back to the girl she once was. And then, mysteriously, the queen disappears and another girl finds the mirror. This girl has troubles of her own, but she is also a means to escape and soon the girl and the mirror are on their way to find the magic that will bring both pain and hope to both of them. Mette Harrison's mesmerizing voice spins a breathtaking tale of love, lies, and redemption.

The Summer King

The Summer King
Author: O.R. Melling
Publisher: Amulet Books
ISBN-10: 0810959690
ISBN-13: 978-0810959699

The Summer King is a haunting, absorbing and lavishly told tale set both in present day Ireland and the world of Fairy.

Laurel, an 18 year old girl who is grieving the death of her twin sister Honor, returns to Ireland and the scene of her twin’s death to try and find out who killed her sister. While the devastated family thinks it was an accident, Laurel, armed with her sister’s puzzling journals believes her sister was led into something unsavory. She finds odd references of little people, in particular one little man and other more disturbing entries. She’s also starting to be plagued with dreams.

Upon arrival in Ireland, Laurel finds her old boyfriend Ian Grey with whom she was with the day her sister died still nursing hurt that she had left him, blamed him for her not being there to save her sister. These young people have lots of angst and passion to work out and that alone could fill a book.

But wait. There’s the small matter of a cluricaun, something like a leprechaun but a little darker. This little guy reminds me of a small Bacchus, always toting around his poteen and pissing drunk when he’s not lying through his teeth. There are ravens that turn to warriors, scary sea fairies called the boctogai, a wild Irish pirate named Grace O’Malley, eagles that talk and worlds within worlds.

There is also the possibility that Laurel’s sister isn’t dead but sleeping somewhere in Fairy and if Laurel can complete the quest of freeing the Summer King, then her sister will be freed. The quest isn’t all that it seems though and neither is Ireland, the Summer King himself, Laurel’s grandparents or Ian who may just have the darkest secret of all.

I loved The Summer King and was completely swept away by it. I discovered that it is the sequel to Hunter’s Moon which I haven’t read (now I will). It stands as a single novel though. You really don’t need to read Hunter’s Moon although you, like me after reading this, will most probably want to read it and everything else Melling writes. The Summer King is romance, magic, mystery, betrayal, legend, lore, history and simply marvelous, engaging storytelling. It’s wonderful.

Twice Upon a Time #1: Rapunzel, The One with All the Hair

Twice Upon A Time #1
Rapunzel: The One with All the Hair
Author: Wendy Mass
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN-10: 0439796563
ISBN-13: 978-0439796569

Book DescriptionRapunzel is having the ultimate bad day. She's been stolen from home by an evil witch, locked in an incredibly high tower, and doesn't even have a decent brush for her hair. Prince Benjamin is in a pretty uncomfortable situation himself. His father wants him to be more kingly, his mother wants him to never leave her sight, and his cousin wants to get him into as much trouble as possible. Plus, there's the little matter of prearranged marriages. . . . Both Rapunzel and Prince Benjamin are trapped . . . in very different ways. It's only when their paths cross that things change.


Rapunzel, The One with All the Hair is a fun take on an old fairy tale. Told in alternating chapters by both Rapunzel and Prince Benjamin, it is funny, witty and intelligent. I loved that it gave a refreshing modern view on this classic tale. I loved that it showed how much Rapunzel loved and missed her parents while being locked away in that tower. She really cares about her parents and is willing to battle her way out of that tower to get back to them. This Rapunzel is feisty!

The other thing I loved about the story is having the Prince’s side in all this. In fairy tales you never get the Prince’s side. He just shows up gives the obligatory kiss, hacks through brambles or climbs a tower and boom – happily ever after. That’s always bothered me. The story is all about the princess, then here comes Prince Charming, whom we know nothing about, has no personality, he saves her and suddenly, she’s complete. ARGH! It drives me crazy and I love fairy tales! This story gives Prince Charming not only a name, but a personality. We get to know Benjamin and we actually care about him, root for him. Prince Charming has become a person.

This book is highly recommended. I think girls, especially in the 9-13 age range are going to love it because it’s modern, funny and light hearted. It gives a strong message that girls are just as intelligent and strong as boys, sometimes more so in different ways. It tells girls not to just wait around for Prince Charming to save you, save yourself. It really packs a punch in a backpacked sized paperback.

Birdwing

Birdwing
Author: Rafe Martin
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
ISBN-10: 0439211670
ISBN-13: 978-0439211673

“It was on the last day of the six years during which she was not to speak or laugh if she hoped to free her brothers from enchantment, that her own sentence was to be carried out. Five of the six shirts were done, but the last and littlest was still missing its left sleeve. As they led her to the stake and the fire was about to be lit, she looked up and saw six swans flying through the sky. Her heart leapt with joy at the sight of them. The swans touched the ground before her and with lowered necks walked forward. Quickly she threw the shirts over each of them. At once their swans’ skins fell off and there, once again, stood her own brothers, strong and handsome. Only the youngest and the littlest lacked a left arm, and in its place there remained a swan’s wing.”
The Six Swans
The Brothers Grimm

The Six Swans was one of my favorite tales when I was a little girl but I always wondered what happened to the last and littlest prince with his swan’s wing for an arm. Now I know.

Rafe Martin has done a marvelous thing with his Birdwing. He’s told the story of Ardwin Birdwing, the littlest prince, the one with the wing. Birdwing is a fantastic and magical coming of age story.

Ardwin is home now, back in the palace with his father the king and learning to live with his wing. The thing is sometimes the wing has a mind of its own. It wants to soar, to fly through the skies again and sometimes, so does Ardwin. He alone of the brothers looks back fondly of the time when they were swans. He can also understand the language of animals and this gives him a great sensitivity.

The people of the town and palace aren’t all so comfortable having a prince around with a swan’s wing for an arm. He’s called Prince Freak by some and feels isolated. Determined not to let his disability keep him from doing princely things, Ardwin becomes skilled with weapons, bow and arrow, spear and sword. He wins friends too, loyal ones like Stephen and Skye. The story could just end there and it would still be wonderful.

However, there is unrest in the kingdom. The neighboring mad king is pushing for an alliance by marrying Ardwin off to his widowed daughter Alisoun. He sends emissaries with a mechanical golden arm and Ardwin, fearing that his father means to cut his wing off and attach the arm to him, flees with his friends. He is determined to find the swans and himself. The adventure that follows is a wild and unexpected one and one sure to enchant you.

Rafe Martin’s characters are rich and well developed and I fell in love with this book and with Ardwin. He is an amazingly complex person and so interesting that I hung on every word. I could see this book becoming a full length animated feature film and I sure hope someone options it. It’s simply amazing. I think we'll be hearing great things of Rafe Martin.

Pirate Treasure Map

Pirate Treasure Map: A Fairytale Adventure
Author: Colin Hawkins
Illustrator: Jaqui Hawkins
ISBN 13: 978-0763632052
Publisher: Candlewick Press

This book is FUN! Jack Hubbard, son of the Mother Hubbard of nursery rhyme fame along with his dog Patch hops aboard the ship Goosey Gander with his uncle Cap‘n Horatio Hubbard to help him find a lost treasure in a far away land. The book is filled with references to nursery rhyme characters and places. Jack runs into the Owl and the Pussycat, the Crooked Man, Hansel and Gretel and many others on his quest to find the treasure. There’s also a lovely treasure map tucked neatly into Cap’n Hubbard’s hat that a child can pull out and follow along with all the places that Jack visits. I love how the nursery rhymes and fairytale places got woven into the story.

The illustrations are fun too. The colors are bright and exciting, the faces are comical and fun. The whole book just makes me smile. It’s fun, fun, fun and little boys and girls are going to love it. My grandkids just laugh and laugh every time I read it. It’s fast become a family favorite with us. It reminds me of those old after school fractured fairytales.

About the AuthorColin and Jacqui Hawkins, creators of FAIRYTALE NEWS, are one of the most prolific and successful author-illustrator partnerships in the world of children's books. They live in Cork, Ireland.

Enchantment

Enchantment is the story of a modern day Jewish Ukranian boy who stumbles upon a sleeping young woman covered by a lake of leaves while on an extended visit to a cousin’s farm. The boy ends up leaving to America with his parents, his father a professor of some note and his mother, a mysterious and loving woman.

The boy grows to manhood in America, a scholar like his father with a love of running. He loves running and while his parents find it strange, he finds it suits him and joins track and field. He is haunted though by his dreams of the young woman sleeping in the forest and embarks on a trip back to the Ukraine to work on his thesis of folk tales.

He returns to his cousin’s farm and one day goes to where he believes he dreamed the young beauty sleeping in the forest. To his surprise he finds her and battles a bear to get to her. It is Sleeping Beauty and he wakes her with a kiss and a promise of marriage even though he is engaged and has left his fiancée behind in America.

What follows is a remarkable tale in which Ivan and his princess travel back in time to old Russia and battle Baba Yaga herself. It is a charming and stunning re-telling of an old fairy tale. I was completely entranced by this spell binding tale and quite surprised even though I am a long time fan of Orson Scott Card. I encourage everyone to read this incredible tale which mixes magic, time travel, folk tales and modernity. If you’re a fan of Orson Scott Card you’ll love it and if you’ve never read him, this is the book to start with.

The Sisters Grimm

This book, the first in a new series by Michael Buckley is a humorous tale of fairy tale detectives. It is the story of two orphaned sisters, Sabrina and Daphne who after a series of bad foster parents end up being taken to live with the grandmother they never knew they had Relda Grimm.

Grandma Relda lives in a strange town and an even stranger house. Little by little, the sisters find that their grandmother is a fairy tale detective, dedicated to tracking down the perpetrators of strange and unusual crimes. Sabrina and Daphne learn that they are descended from the Brothers Grimm whose fairy tales were actually histories to help themselves and future generations learn about fairy tale creatures for their altruistic purposes.

Many adventures happen in this strange town and Sabrina and Daphne are pulled right into the midst of it all. As they begin to trust Relda and meet some very strange creatures along the way, they find theirselves drawn into the solving of a big mystery and in danger. They learn of the race of Everafters, fairy tale creatures now living in this little town in New York state and bound never to leave by an old ancestor of the Grimms.

It is a refreshing new fairy tale, filled with fun, humor and growing pains. I look forward to reading the next in the series.

The Witch's Boy

Oh, what a refreshing and unbelievable fairy tale this is! The book begins with a witch who finds a child in a basket outside her home with a child so ugly his mother has abandoned it with only a note that says “a devil’s child for the devil’s wife.” The note hurts the witch; she is misunderstood but fancies she will keep the child. She does so against the advice of her familiar and gets a bear to be the boy’s nanny and an enslaved and conniving djinn to be the boy’s tutor.

Lump, as the boy is called grows up not realizing he is ugly. The witch has little time for him and his bear nanny raises him as she would a cub. Eventually, Lump is exposed to cruelty and the realization of his ugliness.

Lump eventually finds his way into the world, always wearing a mask to hide his face and the ugliness he is so sensitive about. He overcomes bitterness and hurt, makes friends and enemies and finds himself. He fights battles both in the world and within his own heart to find self-worth, love and happiness.

Mr. Gruber weaves a fine tale, tying in old and familiar fairy tales into this one with a twist. His insight into parents and their children, the misunderstandings and the hurt they unknowingly bestow on each other is amazingly accurate. He exposes prejudice and fear, love and forgiveness with a skilled hand. His fantasy world is just wondrous and his tale that much more so. I hope to read more in this genre from Mr. Gruber, as this was one of the most brilliantly written stories I’ve ever had the pleasure to read.