Category: Reviews

Book Review: Harry Kitten and Tucker Mouse

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews3 Comments

As far as I know, my book today is pretty obscure–but you may have heard of its more famous literary sibling, The Cricket in Times Square.  George Selden wrote seven books about Chester Cricket and his friends, and Harry Kitten and Tucker Mouse serves as a prequel to Cricket.

The book opens with a very young Tucker Mouse lost on the streets of New York–so young that he hasn’t even chosen a name for himself yet.  When he bumps into a tabby kitten, he’s ready to fight…because that’s what cats and mice do.  But Harry Kitten offers him a crust of sandwich instead, and the two become fast friends.  Together, they roam New York looking for a home, from the basement of the Empire State Building to manicured Gramercy Park.  But nowhere feels right until they find the bustle of the Times Square Subway Station.

This is an utterly charming series.  Chester Cricket doesn’t appear in this story, but I love Harry and Tucker.  Harry is always so calm, so reasonable, while Tucker is dramatic, anxious and avaricious–and usually the source of humor.  They’re one of my favorite literary friendships, all the more so because it’s between two traditional enemy species.  And their quest for a place to belong is perfectly familiar for humans too. Continue reading “Book Review: Harry Kitten and Tucker Mouse” →

Book Review: The Animal Family

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews1 Comment

In another read for the Once Upon a Time challenge, I picked up The Animal Family by Randall Jarrell, illustrated by Maurice Sendak.  It’s an old book and a Newbery Honor, but I’d never heard of it until recently.  It’s a short book, fable-like and charming.

The story centers around a hunter who lives all alone beside the shore–until one day he hears a mermaid singing.  He coaxes her ashore by singing back.  She learns his language and eventually comes to live with him.  Together, they find and adopt three orphans: a bear, a lynx and a human boy.

This is a sweet little story about family and home, and very different people (creatures) coming to understand and accept each other.  What might be most surprising is what doesn’t happen–the mermaid never becomes human.  She comes onto land to live with a human man, and certainly she and her life change, but she doesn’t give up who she is.  In fact, the book largely slides right over the practical problems of a mermaid on land, which in some ways is slightly bothersome (I mean, how does she even get around?) but I think is worth it in the end. Continue reading “Book Review: The Animal Family” →

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: Dearest (Woodcutter Sisters series)

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult1 Comment

I picked up Dearest by Alethea Kontis very soon after it came out—then kept renewing my library copy, waiting for the Once Upon a Time challenge to begin. This is the third book in the Woodcutter Sisters series, with its seven sisters named for the days of the week.

This book’s heroine is Friday, whose chief talents are sewing and loving others. Friday is staying at her sister-queen’s castle, helping with refugees and tending herds of children in the wake of the magical flood that swept the kingdom near the end of the last book. Friday meets a mute kitchen maid with a strange connection to seven swans—who turn out to be enchanted princes. Friday swiftly falls for one of them, and sets about trying to help the princes and their sister break their curse.

If you know fairy tales, then you know this is a retelling of “The Seven Swans,” with a sister who must weave shirts to free her cursed brothers. Dearest embroiders (ahem) some extra elements on, weaving Friday into the story as a helpful friend and introducing two villainous magicians and their decidedly spooky assassin. Continue reading “Book Review: Dearest (Woodcutter Sisters series)” →

Book Review: Seventeen Against the Dealer (Tillerman Cycle)

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Young Adult3 Comments

I finished out my reread of the Tillerman Cycle by Cynthia Voigt with the final book, Seventeen Against the Dealer.  I’ve loved revisiting the Tillerman family, getting inside each of their heads (as Voigt does so well!) and watching them navigate and struggle with goals, identities and connections.

This last book brings us back into the point of view of Dicey, lead character of the first two books.  At twenty-one, Dicey has dropped out of college to start her own boat-building business.  With her usual fierce pride and independence, she’s determined to make her own way with her business, accepting no help and incurring no debts.  She faces setback after setback, and her solution is always to work harder…so hard that she doesn’t notice the people she’s pulling away from in the process.  The title is metaphorical, about making a risky bet in Black Jack, reflected in the book by the gambles Dicey makes throughout as she struggles toward her goal.

This final book wraps back to the beginning in a nice way by putting the focus on Dicey again (which it hasn’t been for four books).  It also continues the theme of the Tillerman tendency to keep oneself apart–needing no one and relying on no one.  That was part of Dicey’s character in her earlier two books, and we saw the quality taken to an extreme with Bullet in the fourth book, The Runner.  In this book Dicey seems on a path to be like Bullet, so self-reliant that she’s cutting off all other ties.  This is a satisfying ending to the series in part because Dicey (and her grandmother) ultimately learns something about needing other people–not giving up her strength or will but realizing that she doesn’t have to do everything alone. Continue reading “Book Review: Seventeen Against the Dealer (Tillerman Cycle)” →