Category: Juvenile

Book Review: The Fairy’s Return and Other Princess Tales by Gail Carson Levine

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews1 Comment

I’m a huge fan of Gail Carson Levine’s Ella Enchanted, and I consider her clever twists on fairy tales to be literary ancestors of my own writing.  Among my favorites of her books are The Princess Tales, six very short novels, which I bought combined into one (400-page) volume, The Fairy’s Return and Other Princess Tales.  I reread these before the Once Upon a Time Challenge began, but it’s still an appropriate time for a review!

Set in the Kingdom of Biddle, each story riffs on at least one fairy tale, but always with Levine’s gift for bringing a practical eye to silly situations.  The stories are loosely connected, but all stand on their own too.  I thought I’d take this story by story…

“The Fairy’s Mistake” – The fairy Levana is just trying to follow tradition when she enchants kind Rosella to produce jewels every time she speaks–and when she enchants Rosella’s nasty sister Myrtle to spew toads and bugs with every word.  But it all goes wrong when Rosella is carried off by a prince who doesn’t care if she exhausts herself speaking as long as he gets the jewels, and Myrtle uses her new powers to blackmail the villagers and get everything she wants! Continue reading “Book Review: The Fairy’s Return and Other Princess Tales by Gail Carson Levine” →

Book Review: Smek for President

On By cherylmahoneyIn Juvenile, Reviews, Science Fiction1 Comment

I reread The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex recently, which is so delightful and funny and surprisingly meaningful.  It made me very excited to jump into the recently-published sequel, Smek for President.  Which was a bit less meaningful, but still funny and delightful.

The sequel picks up two years after the first book.  The world has settled back into normalcy after being invaded by aliens (twice) and Gratuity “Tip” Tucci is trying to get used to being a normal kid again, after being on her own for six months when her mother was abducted, and then saving the world.  J.Lo (the alien Boov, not the singer), who Tip met and befriended in the first book, is living with Tip and her mother but trying to cope with being the only alien left among all these humans.  Worse, the other Boovs blame J.Lo for accidentally summoning enemy aliens, who ultimately led to their loss of control over the Earth.

Tip and J.Lo set off together to the new Boov world, one of the moons of Saturn.  J.Lo wants to set his case before the great Boov leader Smek, and Tip wants to rebel against her mother.  They find the Boovs engaged in their first presidential election, and more interested in arresting J.Lo than in hearing his story.  Hijinks, naturally, ensue. Continue reading “Book Review: Smek for President” →

Book Review: Brian’s Winter

On By cherylmahoneyIn Juvenile, Reviews2 Comments

After I finished Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, I decided to go on to another reread of the sequel, Brian’s Winter, which in some ways reads like the second half of the story—and in other ways is unfortunately not as strong.

Paulsen decided to do something I don’t think I’ve seen another author do—he wrote a sequel based on an alternate ending of his first book! Hatchet ends with Brian’s rescue during the fall, but Paulsen decided to return to the story, imagining that the rescue didn’t occur, and tell the story of how Brian would have survived the winter.

That pretty well captures the plot—Brian learns new survival skills and adapts with the challenges of hunting and staying warm in a snowy Canadian winter. The book is interesting for what it is…but it’s not very much. The trouble, oddly, is that too much character growth happened in the first book. Brian’s adaptation to life in the wilderness is the strength of Hatchet. The sequel opens with that character growth largely complete, and there isn’t much more growth for Brian to do in this book. Continue reading “Book Review: Brian’s Winter” →

Book Review: The Witch of Blackbird Pond

On By cherylmahoneyIn Historical Fiction, Juvenile, Reviews3 Comments

I seem to be starting my year of rereading with classic children’s books.  Along with Little House in the Big Woods, I also read another book about simple living in the woods: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare.

Set a couple hundred years before Wilder’s book, in 1687, the book focuses on Kit Tyler, who leaves her comfortable life in Barbados when her grandfather dies and goes to live with her only relatives, in Connecticut.  Used to luxury, fine clothes, and books (!), Kit struggles to find her place in the severe, hard-working Puritan community.  She doesn’t know how to do any work and the neighbors look askance at her high spirits.  Then one day she meets Hannah, who lives apart out in the meadow.  A kind, elderly woman, Hannah is a Quaker and therefore an outcast.  The rumors of her being a witch seem like nonsense–until an illness sweeps through the community and people look for someone to blame. Continue reading “Book Review: The Witch of Blackbird Pond” →

Book Review: Little House In the Big Woods

On By cherylmahoneyIn Historical Fiction, Juvenile, Reviews5 Comments

I’m starting my year of re-reading well, with a beloved childhood book I haven’t read in…15 years?  18?  I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books, but somehow they have not been ones I revisited as I got older–until now, as I just listened to the audiobook of Little House in the Big Woods.

I’m betting most of you know the basic concept here (and there isn’t much of a place).  Five-year-old Laura lives in a little log cabin in the Big Woods, with Ma and Pa, older sister Mary, and baby Carrie.  The book follows them through a year, talking about daily life and about events like Christmas, harvest and a trip into town.

There’s a lovely charm and sweetness to this book.  Maybe it’s only that I know Wilder was writing about her own childhood, but I very much can feel a warmth and love within the book for the characters and for the time–not so much the historical era, but the era within Wilder’s life.  On this read, I think that warmth was my favorite part, and it’s something I doubt I could have articulated last time I read this book, though I think I felt it then too. Continue reading “Book Review: Little House In the Big Woods” →