Current Theme Song (aka what's playing on my ipod right now): Aisling Song by Bruno Coulais [The Secret of Kells soundtrack].
The
idea of Monday's Muse is to introduce you to unknown, forgotten, or
overlooked fiction that has been lost from regular radar. I am
WriterGirl. I am in the business of saving lives, one book at a time.
What
I do is go to one of several places, narrow it down to a YA field and
type in a random word, any word that comes to mind. I then take a
sampling of some I have never heard of before, or only vaguely heard of
(and hopefully you as well). No infringement is intended for any
description I take for the books. It's purely for promotional reasons. I
will try and cover as many genres as possible that are fitting for the
random word. Simple but it really uncovers some incredible gems. I will
be doing this every other Monday. If there are any words you want to
prompt me with, go ahead and fire away.
Today's random word:
Books that read like fairy tales
The Treasure at the Heard of the Tanglewood by Meredith Anne Pierce.
The scent of sorcery is sharp and sweet, like basil, and Hannah knows it
well. She hears the voices ofthe magpie, the badger, and the three
foxlets who follow her, but she does not know anything of her past, or
why the townsfolk fear her even as they come for her charms and cures,
or why the wizard deep in theTanglewood demands, each month, a draught
made from the leaves and flowers that blossom in her hair. When a
beauteous young knight comes on a quest, searching for his queen's
greatest treasure, Hannah pins a lily from her hair to his breast and
hopes he will survive. She names him Foxkith and later finds him
wounded, but the wizard turns him to a fox before her eyes, and robs him
of speech. Then Hannah leaves the place she knows, with her companion
animals, in search of what will bring her Foxkith back to her. It's hard
for her to notice that once she leaves Tanglewood, lush greenery
springs up from what falls from her hair, then the gold of summer, and
the russet of harvest, as she travels the land and brings the seasons
back. Finely wrought and passionately imagined, it's a tapestry of words
to hold the author's themes: the awakening of desire; the longing to
know one's origins and one's place; the cherishing and defense of loved
ones. A treasure indeed. --Kirkus Reviews (April 1,
2001).
Holes by Louis Sachar.
Stanley Yelnats IV has been wrongly accused of stealing a famous
baseball player's valued sneakers and is sent to Camp Green Lake, a
juvenile detention home where the boys dig holes, five feet deep by five
feet across, in the miserable Texas heat. It's just one more piece of
bad luck that's befallen Stanley's family for generations as a result of
the infamous curse of Madame Zeroni. Overweight Stanley, his hands
bloodied from digging, figures that at the end of his sentence, he'll
"...either be in great physical condition or else dead." Overcome by the
useless work and his own feelings of futility, fellow inmate Zero runs
away into the arid, desolate surroundings and Stanley, acting on
impulse, embarks on a risky mission to save him. He unwittingly lays
Madame Zeroni's curse to rest, finds buried treasure, survives
yellow-spotted lizards, and gains wisdom and inner strength from the
quirky turns of fate. In the almost mystical progress of their ascent of
the rock edifice known as "Big Thumb," they discover their own
invaluable worth and unwavering friendship. Each of the boys is painted
as a distinct individual through Sachar's deftly chosen words. The
author's ability to knit Stanley and Zero's compelling story in and out
of a history of intriguing ancestors is captivating. Stanley's wit,
integrity, faith, and wistful innocence will charm readers. A multitude
of colorful characters coupled with the skillful braiding of ethnic
folklore, American legend, and contemporary issues is a brilliant
achievement. --Alison Follos, North Country School, Lake Placid, NY, School Library Journal.
Chime by Franny Billingsley.
"I've confessed to everything and I'd like to be hanged. Now, if you
please." From those arresting first lines to the very last word, readers
will find themselves enthralled by 17-year-old Briony as she spins a
tale of guilt, mystery, betrayal and, above all, love. Briony lives at
the literal end of the line in the Swampsea with her developmentally
delayed twin sister, Rose, and her clergyman father (her beloved
Stepmother has recently died of arsenic poisoning—a suicide?). Mr.
Clayborne, an engineer, who has been sent to drain the swamp so the
railroad can go through, and his son, Eldric, who sports "a long,
curling lion's smile," have just moved into the parsonage. The Boggy Mun
of the swamp doesn't care to be drained, though, and he will exact his
revenge. Billingsley takes the time to develop a layered narrative
adorned with linguistic filigree—she is one of the great prose stylists
of the field, moving from one sparklingly unexpected image to the next
and salting her story with quicksilver dialogue. She sets the tale in a
gently alternate turn-of-the-20th-century England in which Mr. Darwin,
Dr. Freud, witches and the Old Ones coexist. Briony, hugely likable
despite her dismal self-hatred, is devilishly smart and funny, and
readers will root for her with every turn of the page. Delicious. --Kirkus Reviews (January 15, 2011).
The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff.
In this grim debut novel, the Doyles hide the terrible secret that
16-year-old Mackie is a changeling who was swapped for their real son
when he was a baby. In their town of Gentry, there is an unspoken
acknowledgment that a child is stolen every seven years in an uneasy
bargain for the town's prosperity. Mackie's struggles to go unnoticed
are made more difficult by his severe allergies to iron and other metal,
his inability to set foot on consecrated ground such as his minister
father's church, and his tendency to become severely ill around blood.
Now he is dying. When a classmate's baby sister is abducted and a
Replacement left in her place, Mackie is reluctantly drawn into the
age-old rift between the Morrigan and the Lady, sisters who lead the two
changeling clans who live underneath Gentry. Mackie agrees to help the
Morrigan maintain the unwitting townspeople's goodwill in exchange for a
drug he needs to survive. Meanwhile, he and his friends plot to rescue
Tate's stolen sister from the Lady. Yovanoff's innovative plot draws on
the changeling legends from Western European folklore. She does an
excellent job of creating and sustaining a mood of fear, hopelessness,
and misery throughout the novel, something that is lightened only
occasionally by Mackie's dry humor and the easy charm of his friend
Roswell. The novel ends with a glimmer of hope, though the grisly and
disturbing images throughout may overshadow the more positive ending.
Still, teens who enjoy horror and dark fantasy novels will no doubt
flock to the shelves for Mackie's story.—Leah J. Sparks, formerly at
Bowie Public Library, MD, School Library Journal, (vol 56, issue 12, pg. 132. December 1, 2010).
The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab.
This highly atmospheric debut crackles with tension and has a shivery
horror tang.Lexi's late father taught her that witches are as good, bad
and various as humans, so she trusts thewitch sisters who live at the
edge of her village; unlike most of the sullenly insular villagers, she
doesn't blame a lurking stranger when children start disappearing. Each
night, a village child hears the wind singing a tune and climbs out the
window to play on the moor, vanishing before morning. Early on, the text
is highly descriptive of the setting, dedicating almost too many words
to the heathery moor hills and the wind that "sang me lullabies.
Lilting, humming, high-pitched things, filling the space around me so
that even when all seemed quiet, it wasn't." Soon, however, the wind and
moor descriptions become retroactively crucial, weaving themselves into
the content of the plot. As a mob mentality unfolds in the village,
tracker Lexi works harder and harder to defend the stranger and find the
children. Part mourning and healing tale, part restless ghost story,
the strengths here are Lexi's sophisticated characterization (strong,
sad, fiercely protective) and the extraordinary sense of place.Set in an
undefined past, this will appeal to fans of literarily haunting vibes
and romance; readers who love it will go on to Wuthering
Heights.--Kirkus Reviews (June 15, 2011).
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff.
This riveting first novel paints a frighteningly realistic picture of a
world war breaking out in the 21st century. Told from the point of view
of 15-year-old Manhattan native Daisy, the novel follows her arrival and
her stay with cousins on a remote farm in England. Soon after Daisy
settles into their farmhouse, her Aunt Penn becomes stranded in Oslo and
terrorists invade and occupy England. Daisy's candid, intelligent
narrative draws readers into her very private world, which appears
almost utopian at first with no adult supervision (especially by
contrast with her home life with her widowed father and his new wife).
The heroine finds herself falling in love with cousin Edmond, and the
author credibly creates a world in which social taboos are temporarily
erased. When soldiers usurp the farm, they send the girls off separately
from the boys, and Daisy becomes determined to keep herself and her
youngest cousin, Piper, alive. Like the ripple effects of paranoia and
panic in society, the changes within Daisy do not occur all at once, but
they have dramatic effects. In the span of a few months, she goes from a
self-centered, disgruntled teen to a courageous survivor motivated by
love and compassion.How she comes to understand the effects the war has
had on others provides the greatest evidence of her growth, as well as
her motivation to get through to those who seem lost to war's
consequences. Teens may feel that they have experienced a war themselves
as they vicariously witness Daisy's worst nightmares. Like the heroine,
readers will emerge from the rubble much shaken, a little wiser and
with perhaps a greater sense of humanity. --Publishers Weekly (vol 251, issue 27, pg. 56. July 5, 2004).
Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Engdahl.
The Federation Anthropological Service would never officially have
allowed Elana to be on this mission to the medieval planet Andrecia. If
Youngling peoples found out that a supremely advanced and enlightened
society like the Federation existed, it would irreparably damage their
evolution. Stowing away aboard her father's ship, Elana suddenly becomes
the key to a dangerous plan to turn back the invasion of Andrecia by an
aggressive, space faring Youngling civilization. How can she possibly
help the Andrecians who still believe in magic and superstition, against
a force armed with advanced technology, without revealing her alien
powers? Apprentice Medical Officer Jarel wishes that the planet the
Imperial Exploration Corps have chosen to colonize didn't have a
"humanoid" population already living on it. The invaders don't consider
the Andrecians to be human and Jarel has seen the atrocious treatment
the natives get from his people. How can he make a difference, when he
alone regrets the destruction that is people bring? Georyn, the youngest
son of a poor Andrecian woodcutter, knows only that there is a terrible
dragon on the other side of the enchanted forest, and he is prepared to
do whatever it takes to defeat it. In his mind, Elana is the
Enchantress from the Stars who has come to test him, to prove he is
worthy of defeating the dragon and its powerful minions. Despite both
Elana's and Jarel's inner turmoil, Georyn's burden is by far the
heaviest. Ultimately, he must pit his innocent faith in the magic of his
Enchantress from the Stars against foes who have come from a world
beyond his comprehension.
A Posse of Princesses by Sherwood Smith.
Rhis, princess of a small kingdom, is invited along with all the
other princesses in her part of the world to the coming of age party of
the Crown Prince of Vesarja, which is the central and most important
kingdom. When Iardith, the prettiest and most perfect of all the
princesses, is abducted, Rhis and her friends go to the rescue.
What happens to Rhis and her posse has unexpected results not only for
the princesses, but for the princes who chase after them. Everyone
learns a lot about friendship and hate, politics and laughter, romantic
ballads and sleeping in the dirt with nothing but a sword for company.
But most of all they learn about the many meanings of love.
Alphabet of Dreams by Susan Fletcher.
Fletcher's inward-looking tale recreates the arduous journey of the
Three Wise Men, as seen by a teenager in double disguise. After three
years of hiding from the Persian king's soldiers by pretending to be
both a boy and a beggar, Mitra, child of a rebellious noble, is swept up
by the Magi along with her little brother Babak, who has begun to
experience dreams that actually become reality. Impelled by the strange
triple conjunction of two planets in the sky, the priests journey across
the harsh desert toward distant Jerusalem. On the way, Mitra's dreamof
being restored to her previous lofty state runs into one snag after
another as Babak's health begins to fail, the hunt for her and her
brother comes closer and her efforts to hide her sex are complicated by
new, strange feelings for two young men she encounters. Fletcher focuses
more on emotional than physical landscapes, pushing the historical
setting well into the background; Mitra gets nary a glimpse of the baby
Jesus, and though she's able to give advance warning of the slaughter of
the innocents, that too is left offstage. Still, by the end she has
given over her childhood, along with its fantasies, and found a true
home. Absorbing. --Kirkus Reviews (August 1, 2006).
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the
day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to take part in an adventure from which he may never return.
The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson.
Ibbotson's multi-stranded story begins in England at the start of World
War II and ends six years later. Twelve-year-old Tally, a thoughtful and
outspoken child, deeply loved by her widowed father and two maiden
aunts, receives a scholarship to Delderton, a progressive boarding
school. While at the cinema, Tally sees a newsreel about the small
country of Bergania, whose King refuses to bend to Hitler's demands, so
when Delderton is invited to Bergania for a dance festival Tally insists
they attend. In Bergania the children witness the King's assassination.
Horrified, Tally and her classmates help Karil, Bergania's young
prince, escape from the now Nazi-occupied country to England. The
third-person narration shifts among Tally, Karil and other key
characters as they cope with the hardships of war. The book, based on
the author's own childhood experiences, is a romantic tale of
friendship, loyalty and heroism, and her fans will not be disappointed. --Kirkus Reviews (August 1, 2008).
Mirrow Sword and Shadow Prince by Noriko Ogiwara.
Oguna is an orphan with a secret even he doesn’t know—he’s a prince and
heir to a terrible power. His best friend Toko is a member of the
Tachibana clan and a potential high priestess able to tame that
power...or destroy it.
Song of the Sparrow by Lisa Anne Sandell.
After her mother's murder, Elaine lives with her father and brothers in a
British military camp during the time ofthe Saxon invasions and makes
herself useful by mixing potions to cure all manner of ills. As in
Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott," she falls in love with Lancelot, but
when Gwynivere, King Arthur's betrothed and the daughter of a
much-needed ally, arrives, she, too, is enchanted by the beloved knight.
Disgusted by Elaine's unmaidenly ways, Gwynivere spurns the girl,
overcoming her haughty selfishness only when Elaine's life and Arthur's
legions are threatened. The two then work together to help save the
army—and the country—from destruction. In this verse novel of flowing,
readable prose, Sandell successfully interweaves familiar medieval
tales, keeping well-known characters and plot details but reenvisioning
the denouement. Descriptive language abounds, and while the vocabulary
is sophisticated, most meanings can be gleaned fairly easily from
context. The protagonist is fully developed; other characters, however,
are less well defined. Both Gwynivere and Lancelot, for instance, have
too-rapid changes of heart, and the nicely sewed-up romance between
Elaine and Tristan seems a bit pat after the many twists and turns of
their earlier emotional travails. Although this reimagining follows the
current trend of interjecting strong female characters into classic
tales, some might argue that it stretches believability a bit too far to
suggest that the Round Table couldn't have survived without Elaine's
selflessness. Nevertheless, the adventure and romance will keep many
female readers thoroughly captivated.—Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, LaSalle
Academy, Providence, RI, School Library Journal, vol 53, issue 8, pg. 125. August 1, 2007).
The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer.
Readers will want to sail through these nearly 500 pages to find out
what happens to young Jack and his sister, Lucy, kidnapped from their
homeland by a Viking crew led by Olaf One-Brow. The two then travel
across thesea where Ivar the Boneless, king ofthe Northmen, reigns with
his half-troll wife, Queen Frith. The Bard, who fled from Queen Frith
and has taken refuge on the boy's small island ("Nowhere in the nine
worlds is safe for me as long as she is abroad," the Bard explains)
takes in 12-year-old Jack as an apprentice. The old man manages to teach
Jack some magic and some ofthe complex history ofthe Northmen and their
enemies, the Jotuns or trolls, before Olaf and his men invade. The book
brims with delectable details. Ivar the Boneless, for instance, "wears a
cloak made from the beards of his defeated enemies" and Queen Frith's
beauty dissolves when Jack begins to sing a tribute to her ("Her
features rippled and twisted like the beasts carved on the walls"). Her
rage at reverting back to her troll-like appearance prompts Jack's quest
to seek Mimir's Well, in the heart of Jotunheim (troll country) in
order to reverse the spell and save his sister, whom Queen Frith
threatens to sacrifice if her beauty is not restored. Plotting and
incidental players such as dragons and giant spiders in Jotunheim take
precedence over character development here. But if the relationships are
not as fully fleshed out as in Farmer's previous books, fans of Viking
and adventure tales will still be up late nights to discover Jack's
fate. --Publishers Weekly (vol 251, issue 29, pg. 162. July 19, 2004).
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.
When Death tells a story, you pay attention. Liesel Meminger is a young
girl growing up outside of Munich in Nazi Germany, and Death tells her
story as "an attempt—a flying jump of an attempt—to prove to me that
you, and your human existence, are worth it." When her foster father
helps her learn to read and she discovers the power of words, Liesel
begins stealing books from Nazi book burnings and the mayor's wife's
library. As she becomes a better reader, she becomes a writer, writing a
book about her life in such a miserable time. Liesel's experiences move
Death to say, "I am haunted by humans." How could the human race be "so
ugly and so glorious" at the same time? This big, expansive novel is a
leisurely working out of fate, of seemingly chance encounters and events
that ultimately touch, like dominoes as they collide. The writing is
elegant, philosophical and moving. Even at its length, it's a work to
read slowly and savor. Beautiful and important. --Kirkus
Reviews (January 15, 2006).
