The To-Read Pile
Since I work at a bookstore I end up with a slightly larger to-read pile than I think the average reader has, but feel free to disagree with me. It’s dangerously easy for me to add books to my list and to my actual pile because of ARCs. ARC stands for Advance Reading Copy. They’re also sometimes known as galleys. These precious little gems are shipped to us several months before the actual book comes out and so they’re here, in my hands, early, and for free. How am I supposed to resist that? I end up taking books that I have only the vaguest interest in because… FREE!
Unfortunately, many of them end up languishing on my shelf at work. Or the three other shelves I’ve appropriated to accommodate my growing collection. Some of them actually make it to my house! Where I have shelves, tables, dressers, desks, and occasionally beds full of unread books. Then, there are the digital ARCs. I can be even more extravagant with those, because they don’t take up any room. The downside to these is that they expire either after a set time (usually 60 days) or once the book is released. I object to this because with print ARCs I can keep them forever, so why can’t I keep the ones that actually cost the publisher less money to produce? However, at the end of the day, FREE BOOKS! I’ll take them however you want to give them to me. And take them, and take them, and take them!
But that’s not all! There are plenty of books that never get ARCs made, or others that I’m not lucky enough to get my hands on. Then there are the older books that I missed when they came out originally. So I’ve got a plethora of finished copies of books sitting at home. (Books I pick up at conventions fall into this category as well.) So, I thought today I’d give you a little insight into which books I have awaiting me.
Already Released:
The Black Prism by Brent Weeks
Mary Robinette Kowal recommended this one to me (actually, a bunch of these are going to be her ‘fault’) when she was here in September. It is a brick of an epic fantasy and she assured me that when I finished it I would thank her. I can’t remember all the amazing things she said about it, just that it all sounded very relevant to my interests. I’m sure that if you hit her up over on Twitter she’ll be happy to give you her recommendation spiel. It’s on my nightstand waiting for me, patiently. It knows I’ll come for it soon. I actually thought about taking it on the plane with me to DisneyWorld, but weight was a major concern because I refuse to check luggage. I’m looking forward to telling Mary that she was right as soon as I make time to read it. (published by Orbit)
Dying is my Business by Nicholas Kaufmann
This one is Mary’s fault too. She has a segment over on her blog called My Favorite Bit wherein she has authors visit and discuss their favorite bit about their most recent work. She had Kaufmann on in October and I was very interested.
It’s a book about a guy who can’t die. Well… he can. But he wakes up again a few minutes later. But without his memory. And someone else has died in his place. Unfortunately, since he works for a crime boss in Brooklyn this happens more often than might seem ideal.
Yeah, that sounds awesome! Also, Kaufmann was on Sword & Laser and seemed really nice, which actually does bump his book up higher on my list because I’m judge-y like that. If you’re an ass I don’t really want to read your book anymore. If, on the other hand, you’re super awesome (like Paul Cornell) I will suddenly become a major fangirl where your work is concerned.
(published by St. Martin’s Griffin)
She Who Waits by Daniel Polansky
This one actually just got added to my list yesterday because it arrived in the mail. Also, I’m cheating a bit because it’s a British import. Daniel (we’ve interacted on Facebook, I think that gives me permission to use his first name. Also, he told me I was his new best friend!)
She Who Waits is the third book in the series that started off with Lowtown (The Straight Razor Cure in the UK). I love that book. I sell the snot out of that book at the store. I also had to import the next two (Tomorrow the Killing is book 2) because they aren’t out in the US and there’s not release date that I can find. This makes me sad. Very, very sad. Because I love Daniel’s writing and I’d like to share it with all of my customers. But not my copies. I imported those for me.
(published by Hodder & Stoughton)
Books that Aren’t Out Yet
The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley
This is the 6th book in the Flavia de Luce series by awesome author Alan Bradley. He’s really nice (I got to interview him once for work, so I can say that), which helps with my whole I’m-obsessed-with-these-books thing. The books are about an 11-year-old chemistry prodigy in England in the early 1950’s. She has a bicycle named Gladys, evils sisters, and a philatelist for a father, which is often more of a trial than it should be. All of the books are delightful, and I’m very grateful to my awesome Random House sales rep for getting me a copy of the forthcoming book!
(Pub Date: January 14, 2014, published by Delacourte Press)
Alien Research by Gini Koch
This time it’s my amazing sales rep from Penguin who got me an early copy of a book! I love Gini Koch’s Kitty Katt series of sci-fi adventure. I’ve talked about a few of the books on the blog before; they’re fun, light reads that never take themselves too seriously, but still have important themes and rocking adventure. Also, not that it truly matters, but I really love the cover on this one.
(Pub Date: December 3, 2013, Publisher DAW)
Empress of the Night by Eva Stachniack
I just picked this one up at the bookstore today. It’s a novel of Catherine the Great. I was a Russian Lit & Culture major. Yeah, I don’t feel that I need to explain this one too much. I missed the first book in the series, The Winter Palace, and I’ll probably go back and pick it up if I like this one. I’m conversant with the life of Catherine, so I don’t feel the need to read the books in order. Also, I’m lazy.
(Pub Date: March 25, 2014, published by Bantam)
That’s just a fraction of the books I’ve got around here to read, but those are some of the ones at the top of my list. What’s on your To-Read list?
Author Intro – Ted Naifeh
Ted Naifeh is one of my favorite people working in comics. I discovered him back in 2001 when he was illustrating Gloomcookie for Slave Labor Graphics. I loved his style, but he only worked on the first six issues and then I didn’t see him for a while. Of course, in that time I also graduated from college, moved back home, and started grad school, so I wasn’t looking all that hard.
Then, in 2003 a friend who was working at a comic shop recommended Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things by Ted Naifeh. I bought it sight unseen, which I don’t actually do with comics very often. And I loved it. I loved it extra special good. Courtney is a weird child and her overly perfect parents don’t especially want to deal with her. So, they send her to live with her Uncle Aloysius in his strange, old house, which is in a very strange town. Before long, she discovers that there are things that go bump in the night, and most of them are her new neighbors. Courtney gets herself involved with the night things, which is never a very safe thing to do. The first book is poignant and beautifully illustrated. There are several Courtney books and one of my most treasured possessions is the original of a page from Courtney Crumrin and the Coven of Mystics. A friend picked it up for me at DragonCon one year and I’ve collected original Ted Naifeh art ever since.
Next, comes Polly and the Pirates, which I absolutely adore. It’s a little bit A Little Princess meets Sinbad the Sailor. Polly is at a very proper girls’ boarding school when she finds out that her long-lost mother just might have been a pirate queen. No one could be expected to sit around and learn embroidery under those circumstances! Polly, very sensibly, strikes off on an adventure with her mother’s old crew.
At the first DragonCon I attended while Ted Naifeh was a guest I commissioned a black and white convention sketch of Polly. Last year I got another one in color. I think she’s rather splendid, don’t you?
The final Ted Naifeh project I want to talk about is a collaboration he did with Holly Black. The Good Neighbors series is urban fantasy at its peak. The three books, Kin, Kith, and Kind are all illustrated novels about a young woman named Rue Silver. Her mother has disappeared and her father has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Rue is torn, she doesn’t want to believe the worst about her father, but she knows he has secrets. What she discovers is bigger than she ever expected.
Her mother isn’t human. Instead, she is the daughter of the Faerie King and a broken promise has dragged her mother back from the mortal realm into the faerie realm. It has also left an opening for her grandfather to invade the mortal realm and try to make it his own. The setting gets increasingly surreal throughout the series as the town is increasingly subsumed by the supernatural. Rue is the only one with the power and the freedom to stand against her grandfather, but does she want to?
I have the final inked version of this amazing splash page from Kind – 
So, to summarize, Ted Naifeh is an amazing artist (clearly), and I love his work. I would strongly encourage you to check him out!
What to Read #5
Today my recommendation is going to take a slightly darker turn. Well, not that Pride of Baghdad wasn’t a little bit dark, but this is darker even than that. 
My recommendation this week is I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells. Despite the books he writes, Dan is a very nice guy and close personal person-I-met-at-a-convention-one-time. Also, I got him carrot cake when he came to do a signing at my bookstore, so I think we’re pretty close. And I’ve promised to make him a bacon pecan pie if he ever makes it back down this way. (I buy love with baked goods, what can I say. Would you like a pie? Lemon squares? I can make you cookies! Please love me.)
But enough about me, let’s talk about John Wayne Cleaver. He’s just your average, young, high school student who happens to fit the psychological profile of a sociopath. He has rules that he lives by so that he won’t turn into a serial killer.
Don’t mess with animals.
No watching people for too long.
If he feels like hurting someone he has to pay them a compliment.
It’s already hard enough to be a teenager, but imagine being a teenager with these kinds of rules, self-imposed, for the good of everyone around you. Now, imagine that an active serial killer starts operating in your town. That’s exactly what happens to John. He’s the only one that can really get inside the killer’s head, but to do that, he has to tap into the dark parts of himself that he’s tried to suppress for so long.
Now, let’s up the ante a little further. (This could be considered a spoiler!)
What if the killer wasn’t entirely human?
I Am Not a Serial Killer is the first of three books in the John Wayne Cleaver series. Each book is special and wonderful and creepy and horrible and I love them. There is part of a chapter in Book 2 that I can’t read. But it’s consistent with the story, so I’m also not mad about it. I adore these books, which may make me seem a little… off. But I’m not! I promise. Want a cookie?
Some people may also say that this is very Dexter-like. Yeah, I guess… Except at the same time – no, not really at all. Dexter is an active serial killer who has picked a type of victim that his artificial conscience has deemed it acceptable to kill. John is a young man trying desperately not to kill anyone. He doesn’t want to give into his darkness while Dexter revels in it. So, while there is a superficial resemblance I can overwhelmingly recommend I Am Not a Serial Killer whereas I didn’t love Dexter.
Review: Fortunately, the Milk
Fortunately, the Milk US Hardcover – Illustrated by Skottie Young
is a new-ish book by Neil Gaiman. It takes about thirty minutes to read (maybe less, but I as laughing a great deal), and is absolutely worth your time, no matter how old you are.
The story is about a father. Just your average father, who has two children and a wife. His wife has gone out-of-town for work leaving the father and two children at home with many nutritious meals prepared, a fully stocked kitchen, and nothing to worry about. Except, they all discover that they have run out of milk. Now, the children could find something else to put on their cereal, but the father… The father, you see, likes to have milk in his tea. So he goes out to the store to get some.
UK Hardcover – Illustrated by Chris Riddell
If you are anything like me, or the children in this book, you have a good idea what might happen next. My mother, you see, was very easily distracted while in shops, or talking to people. I was forgotten in parking lots, school carpool lines, and piano lessons more than a few times. The parking lots weren’t too bad, I usually had a book or three with me and made her leave me the keys so I could run the air conditioner after an hour or so. The piano lesson and the carpool line were a bit embarrassing though. These children are very lucky, their father has left them at home where all of their things are while he goes to the store to get some milk.
When he returns hours later he has an unbelievable story to tell about what happened to him after he bought the milk. I don’t want to tell you about it, because it is too unbelievable. But, I will confirm that as the cover shows, there is a dinosaur involved. And a hot air balloon. But, fortunately, the milk was safe the whole time!
No milk was harmed in the creation of this blog.
Donna Andrews
It’s cold outside, even here in Alabama, so I want to talk about cozy mysteries today. These are the kind of books you can read while you’re curled up with a cup of tea and an animal companion of your choice. (For the record, mine is a cat, but that is because my present dog is a bit too big to curl up with. She tends to knock me out of the chair when we try it.) I’ve discussed one of my favorite cozy mystery authors, Nancy Atherton, in a previous post, and I’m sure you all know my love for the 20th century British Crime Queens. Today, I’d like to talk about Donna Andrews and her Meg Langslow series.
Meg is an artisan blacksmith in semi-rural Virginia. She has a giant, ridiculous family including her father (retired doctor with a passion for murder mysteries), her mother (frustrated interior designer and all-round classy lady), her younger brother (general mess for a few books and then accidental highly successful computer game designer), and a slew of aunts, uncles, and cousins including Cousin Horace (crime scene technician who manages his social anxiety by wearing a gorilla suit). Meg never really wants to get involved in crimes, but she’s the best organizer in the family and when something as disruptive as a murder occurs she’s just naturally drawn to come in and tidy things up.
My favorite thing about these books is the humor. Andrews manages to capture a particular stereotypical version of rural southern life without being insulting. No, a community like Caerphilly probably doesn’t exist, but I’d totally like to take a vacation there anyway. It’s not like Jessica Fletcher’s Cabot Cove, Maine was entirely factual either. But that’s not the point. We like to read about towns where people all know each other and get into everyone else’s business. It’s escapist reading, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
The other, undeniable thing about the books is that they’ve got bird related puns as the title, at least after the first two. Yes, the puns are bad. But they’re also brilliant. You know exactly what kind of book you’re getting when you pick up something called Revenge of the Wrought Iron-Flamingos, or Duck the Halls. There are a total of sixteen Meg Langslow books available at the moment. My personal favorites are Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon and We’ll Always Have Parrots (which has the distinction of being one of two books I’m aware of that have murders at sci-fi conventions. The other is Sharon McCrumb’s Bimbos of the Death Sun).
What type of book do you like to curl up with?
What to Read #4
Today I want to recommend one of my favorite middle grade series – the Theodosia Throckmorton series by R.L. LaFevers.
Theodosia is a young girl in Victorian London. Her father runs the Museum of Legends and Antiquities while her mother goes on acquisition trips to find more artifacts to display. She also has a brother, who is a pill, and a grandmother, who is a terror. Fine, ok. All of this sounds lovely. But why is it special? I’m so glad you asked.
Theodosia can see magic, specifically dark magic. As you can imagine, in a museum of legends and antiquities many of the displays are cursed. Theodosia has a responsibility to public safety to diffuse as many of the curses as possible, before bedtime. All of this is further complicated in the first book when her mother arrives home, triumphant, with the Heart of Egypt, a beautiful scarab amulet.
Needless to say, the amulet is of great interest to a number of not so benevolent parties and Theo seems to be the only one who has noticed. Countless other young heroes and heroines have faced the question of “how do you save the world when you’ve got a strict bedtime?” Theodosia takes her place a midst other great characters like Matilda, Harry Potter, Enola Holmes, or the children of The Egypt Game as one of the great personalities of children’s literature. I highly recommend this series, especially if you have any interest in Egyptology.
NaNoWriMo
Most of you probably know what NaNoWriMo is, but for those who don’t, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. The idea is to start a novel on the 1st of November and write everyday. The end goal is to have 50,000 words and a finished novel. I participated last year and “won” for the first time in my three attempts. I totaled out at around 51,000 words on the 28th of November. I also wrote all of that on my iPad, because I was between computers at the time. That was… interesting.
We had a NaNo write-in today at the book store. I was working, so I wasn’t able to participate, but I did try to get a little bit written in between customers. My trip to Disneyworld put me a little bit behind, but that’s ok. I’m working on a novel with a partner this year, so I’m not as worried about wordcount. I just want to make sure I write some every day. Last year’s novel is still in progress. It needs a great deal of work. However, in the meantime, the boy-nugget and I have written a novel together (he is the aforementioned writing partner for my NaNo project).
In case anyone is curious, last year’s project is a zombie novel. I love zombies. This year’s book is a sequel to the novel the boy-nugget and I wrote, which is pure space opera. Think Firefly meets Farscape. We’re pretty pleased with Book One and excited to get to work on Book Two. I think NaNo is incredibly valuable. I am a writer. I’m not published (hopefully, there’s a ‘yet’ on that), but that isn’t really important right now. I want to write even if it’s only ever for me. I have stories to tell and I’m going to tell them. Maybe, if I’m lucky, someone will pay me for them someday. But, it’s so easy to get tangled up in my own head and get too frustrated to let the stories out. The word count goal with NaNo makes you just sit down and write. There isn’t time to worry about every sentence, you just have to write. That can get the bones of your story down on paper, or on the screen depending on your preference. You can always edit material that you’ve gotten down, but you can’t do anything with the words that are still locked up in your head.
Here are the things I find essential to writing:
a beverage of some sort, usually hot tea (vanilla chai with honey or Lady Grey with milk for preference)
some sort of background noise – sometimes it’s music, but sometimes I’ll even put in an audiobook that I’m super familiar with and just let it run
an electronic writing device – either my laptop if I’m home or the iPad and my keyboard if I’m out and about. Strangely, I found Whole Foods an great place to write last year.
And here’s a random picture of me with a Troll from Epcot
And that’s pretty much it. I’m competitive too, so I like having NaNo friends that I can compete against. Last year I was pitting myself against everyone in the Birmingham group, Tom Merritt, and Veronica Belmont. Of course, none of them were competing against me. It’s sort of like John Scalzi is Brandon Sanderson’s nemesis, but Sanderson isn’t Scalzi’s… It’s a thing.
Here are some resources I have found useful or inspiring during my NaNo journeys:
Writing Excuses podcast
Mary Robinette Kowal’s blog
John Scalzi’s blog
Pinterest
Twitter
Note: those last two can also become dangerous distractions, but you probably knew that already.
Are any of you writers? What do you write? Do you blog, write novels, non-fiction, poetry, plays? Do you journal? I’m curious.
Fairy Tales, Part 2
We’ve covered some of my favorite children’s fairy tales, now let’s talk about those meant for older folks. This is where things really get good; retellings, modern fairy tales, urban fantasy – it’s all up for grabs.
Beauty by Robin McKinley
Beauty is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast that came out originally in 1978. I read this edition, which was published in 1985. 
Newer editions are geared more toward the YA market, with Beauty looking about 14, which I find mildly disturbing since she gets married in the end.
Robin McKinley has a lyrical writing style and an exceptional grasp of description. Reading this book always felt to me like looking into Aladdin’s cave. Everywhere I turned there was some new amazing thing to catch my attention. I also liked that this Beauty wasn’t beautiful. She was too thin, too awkward. She grows into her name by force of character rather than by gift of genetics. I was an awkward looking dumpling of a child, so I appreciated that.
As an interesting aside, McKinley didn’t feel like she was finished with the Beauty and the Beast story so in 1997 she wrote another version called Rose Daughter. This version is set in a world much more steeped in magic. Beauty and her sisters take magic lessons and so the notion of an enchanted castle is not, perhaps so startling. I like both books, but my loyalty lies with the one I read first, Beauty.
Another author who is well-known for her fairy tale retellings is Mercedes Lackey. I’ve discussed her Elemental Masters series before. All of the stories are re-told fairy tales. I’ve got a list at the link above, so I won’t reiterate it here. My two favorites are actually the first two in the series – The Fire Rose, which is another Beauty and the Beast tale set in turn of the 20th century San Francisco, and The Serpent’s Tale, which is a 
Snow White retelling set in Victorian London. I especially like this book because the protagonist is a half-English, half-Indian female doctor and the dwarves are replaced by her animal companions who also reflect certain Indian gods. This story just works for me, maybe because Lackey is thinking outside the box. Sadly, most of the others in the series are a little more prosaic, but still, on the whole, well written.
Stardust by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess
I’m going to insist on the illustrated version of this one. I know, it comes in a non-illustrated paperback that is less expensive, but… it’s not right. The book was originally designed as a novel with full illustrations and that’s the only way I can really stand it. Because it was illustrated originally Gaiman doesn’t bother to describe most of the visuals. Some people prefer it that way, so they can use their imaginations, but I like to see the pretty pictures.
Tristan is a little bit hopeless. In an effort to impress his lady-love he makes a rash promise to bring her a shooting star that has fallen on the far side of the Wall. The Wall has always surrounded the village of Wall, which is, itself, a normal, English, Victorian village. But, on the other side of the Wall is the realms of Faerie. When he tracks down the star he finds that instead of being a lump of celestial rock it is actually a woman named Yvaine. Tristan captures her and the two start a trek across the kingdom back to the Wall, but there are huge dangers along the way, including a witch named Lamia who wants Yvaine for her own dark reasons.
Indexing by Seanan McGuire is another amazing new fairy tale. The elevator pitch for it is Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D meets the Brothers Grimm. The ATI Managemnt Bureau works very hard to keep the story from intruding into the real world. Its agents are those who have survived brushes with the story. Agent Marchen is a Snow White in abeyance. Sloane is a Wicked Stepsister who has kept her story from going active somehow, but she has a disturbing appreciation for goth clothing and poisons, which aren’t good signs. Each story is registered on the Aarne-Thompson Index, which is a real thing. Each story has variations and consequences. A rogue Cinderella could snap and kill her step-sisters over, and over, and over again. An uncontained Goldilocks will call bears to her if she doesn’t go to them. A Pied Piper would be lucky if all she calls with her music is rats. And a Peter Pan is going to try to fly even though the story doesn’t actually give him the power. It’s up to Agent Marchen and her team to find, identify, and stop the incursions before too many people get hurt.
The last book I want to talk about is Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman. This book has several classic elements of urban fantasy – the unknown magical world that exists alongside our own, the danger hidden in the fairy tale tropes. But there’s also something very special. I think that something probably comes from Newman’s own voice, which is fresh and wonderful, while still being a little bit dark and creepy.
The story is split between Cathy, the rebellious daughter of the Fae-touched aristocracy, and Max, an Arbiter from Aquae Sulis (the magical realm) who has stumbled on an unthinkable level of corruption within his own organization. Cathy and Max may hold the keys to each others’ problem, but in a world where nothing is as it seems and your own family will betray you without a thought can they afford to trust each other?
There are tons of other amazing fairy tale-style books out there. Which ones have I missed?
What to Read #3
We’re going to take a turn toward something a little different today; a graphic novel. Today’s recommended reading is Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughn, illustrated by Niko Henrichon, with lettering by Todd Klein.
This book is about the escape of a pride of lions from the Baghdad Zoo, which was damaged by an American bombing raid in 2003. This actually happened. Just so you know up front, it didn’t end well for the lions. In the real world, that’s pretty much the only way it can go. The lions were scared and starving. There was no one to take care of them even if they had been humanely caught. But… Here’s the thing, I cried at the end of 300 (the comic, not the overly-oiled film). I want things to end well, even when I know they can’t. That they didn’t. I wanted these lions to make it. Here’s a story NPR did about the lions and the graphic novel when it came out in 2008.
The graphic novel is told from the perspective of the lions and each individual in the pride comes to represent a different viewpoint on the Iraq war. The book has a bias, but it’s not one I found overly overt or preachy. The art is beautiful, and I found the story profoundly moving.
Fairy Tales, Part 1
Hi Everyone! So, I’m not at home right now. I am, in fact, at Disneyworld! I’ll be here all week, but you’ll still get your regular three posts, never fear. But, since I’m here at Disney, I thought I would talk about the Magic Kingdom’s stock in trade, the fairytale.
There are as many kinds of fairytale as there are people to tell them, but I’d like to look at a few of my favorites, both the picture book variety, and those meant for adults.
Kinuko Craft is possibly my favorite fairytale illustrator. I was fortunate enough to see some of her original pieces at DragonCon years ago and they’re stunning. She’s done illustrations for several beautiful fairytale books and also does the cover illustrations for many of Tanith Lee and Patricia McKillip’s novels.
Some of my favorite Craft illustrations are Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, and Baba Yaga.
All of her work is beautiful and I have a poster of The Tower at Stony Wood cover in my study at home. I love Lady of Shallot renditions, and this is one of my two favorites. The other is the William Holman Hart rendition in the Hartford Museum. The detail that is in both paintings is astonishing!
Illustrations are the primary things that draw me to fairytale picture books. Roberto Innocenti’s Cinderella is another one that is just beautiful, although increasingly hard to find these days. This version is a sort of Downton Abbey Cinderella, set in the 1920’s with big cars and luxurious furs. I also just adore the period, so anything with drop waists and cloche hats has me from the get-go.
Then, there are the twists on fairy tales. The Paperbag Princess by Robert Munsch is a classic that I read when I was small. The princess is engaged, but her fiance is prince-napped by a dragon. The princess uses her wits to outsmart the dragon and rescue the prince, but he’s not too pleased with her un-princessly demeanor, so it ends without a wedding. This was probably the first story I ever read where Happily Ever After didn’t necessitate riding off into the sunset with the handsome prince.
The Duchess of Whimsy by Randal de Seve is another modern fairytale that has a huge place in my heart. The illustrations are achingly beautiful and the story is about finding common ground. The Duchess is beautiful and whimsical while the Earl of Norm is… not. But, through the magic of grilled cheese sandwiches the two find that they actually have something in common. Plus, she’s roller skating with tiny birds holding up her gown, how is that not the best thing ever?
The last book I want to talk about today is Princess Hyacinth by Florence Parry Heide. On its surface this book is very similar to The Light Princess, but Hyacinth wasn’t cursed to lose her gravity, she’s just always floated. Her parents weigh her down with heavy robes and crowns to keep her grounded, but the princess longs to be free of the headaches and the earth. Finally, after an escape attempt involving a balloon, a young man comes up with a solution and the princess can enjoy her unique ability in safety.
On Friday we’ll discuss fairy tales for adults, but in the meantime, what are some of your favorite fairy tales or illustrators?
Medusa's Library 