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Block The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold

Dokey Golden

George Princess of the Midnight Ball

Haddix Just Ella

Hale Enna Burning

Hale The Goose Girl

Hale River Secrets

Harrison The Princess and the Hound

Hawes Black Pearls: A Faerie Strand

Lo Ash

McKinley Rose Daughter

McKinley Spindle’s End

Napoli Beast

Napoli Bound

Napoli Crazy Jack

Napoli The Magic Circle

Napoli Spinners

Napoli Zel

Pattou East

Pike Wings

Tomlinson Aurelie

Yolen Briar Rose

This month’s Book: A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce

This is a wonderful retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale, which I'm sure most of you are familiar with (you know, the weird little man promises to spin a roomful of straw into gold in exchange for something which will be named at a later time, and the poor deluded girl agrees, never dreaming that what she will have to give up is her child. Or... she could guess the little man's name and be released from her bargain). So when I started reading this book, I didn't think there would be much suspense, what with knowing how the story ends and all. But the way the author tells the story is so intricate and the characters so engaging, that you never really see what's coming (although there were times when I wanted to shout at her, "No, he's going to take your baby!") The story reads like historical fiction --Charlotte Miller's father has passed away unexpectedly, and now she is in charge of the family's woolen mill, on which the entire town depends for their income, and which has been plagued by bad luck as long as anyone can remember. She has her younger sister to help, and a previously unknown uncle shows up to "help" them, although it turns out he has nefarious plans of his own. A banker that her father had secretly taken out a loan from turns out to be an unlikely ally, and in fact, he and Charlotte fall in love. But as things spin out of control at the mill, Charlotte refuses his help. Did I mention that her sister became so desperate that she followed some ancient instructions to summon fairy help and conjured up a strange little man (remember that from the fairy tale?) who agrees to spin a roomful of straw into gold in exchange for a cheap ring that Charlotte received from her mother. The money from the gold thread saves the mill, temporarily, but of course their involvement with the little man, Jack Spinner, almost ruins them. Instead of guessing his name, Charlotte has to figure out what Jack Spinner's history is in order to remove the curse from the mill. I can't say enough about what a great book this is. It's a very accurate portrayal of the industrial revolution and the magical part of the story is really pretty minor (although the plot hinges on it), so even if you don't usually like fantasy, it's a great read.

Review of Eli the Good by Silas House

There is so much sadness in this book. The first paragraph kind of tells it all:

“That was the summer of the bicentennial, when all these things happened: my sister, Josie, began to hate our country and slapped my mother’s face; my wild aunt, Nell, moved in with us, bringing along all five thousand or so of her records and a green record player that ran on batteries; my father started going back to Vietnam in his dreams, and I saw him cry; my mother did the Twist in front of the whole town and nearly lost us all. I was ten years old, and I did something unforgivable.”

Whew. The story lives up to all of that, too. In fact, there’s even more sadness. Eli’s best friend, Edie, is abandoned by her mother, and has to live with her alcoholic father. Eli finds out (by eavesdropping, which he indulges in whenever possible) that the reason his Aunt Nell moved in with them is because she has cancer. His mother and Nell are very close, but Eli's father and Nell --not so much. While Eli’s father was off fighting in Vietnam, Nell was protesting the war, and because of one very famous photograph, everyone in the country knows her, which Eli's father takes as a personal affront. Eli watches everything, and, despite the closeness of Eli’s family, he doesn’t really feel taken care of by anyone. He’s never forgiven his mother for something he overheard her say to his father once, “I love you too much. More than anything. More than anybody.” Eli’s great sadness is that he feels his mother doesn’t love him or his sister as much as she loves their father. The writing in the book is so beautiful, and it really captures the essence of the time (1976). Review by Stacy Church

Review of Wings by Aprilynne Pike

I have to say that despite what might be the most outlandish concept for a plot in the history of literature (ok, that’s overstating it a bit), this book is actually pretty good. Laurel is just starting to attend the local high school after being homeschooled all her life. She’s not happy, but things haven’t gone too badly on her first day –she’s made some friends, she’s not too far behind the other kids in her classes, and she even gets a cute guy named David to eat his lunch outside with her. But then she feels a strange lump in between her shoulder blades. For some reason, she doesn’t tell her parents, even though every day it gets bigger and bigger. Finally, one day it opens up into a huge….flower. That’s right, flower. She still doesn’t tell her parents. She binds the petals down and wears loose clothes. Wait, it gets even weirder. She goes back to visit her old house with her parents, and when she goes into the woods for a walk, she’s approached by a strange-looking green boy, who tells her that she’s a faerie, and that faeries are not animals/humans, they are plants. So if you’re willing to suspend disbelief long enough to accept that Laurel never noticed she doesn’t have a heart beat, or blood in her veins, and never thought it was that unusual that she doesn’t eat food except for canned peaches, you will enjoy this book. It has an exciting ending that involves trolls, Laurel and David being weighted down and thrown in the river, saving Laurel’s dad (who was poisoned by the trolls), and Laurel telling her parents the truth about her faerieness. Oh, and by the way, one of the pieces of information that the green boy passed on to Laurel is that, for faeries, pollination is for procreation, sex is just for fun. Review by Stacy Church

Review of Chasing the Bear, a Young Spenser Novel by Robert B. Parker

If you haven’t read any of Robert Parker’s Spenser novels, you might be confused by the chapters of this book that are set in the present day, where Spenser is talking to his girlfriend Susan, and being prodded by her to recall episodes from his childhood.  But you certainly don’t have to have read the Spenser books to appreciate the great stories that he tells.  Spenser grew up in a completely male household.  When his mother died, his father’s two brothers moved in to share the parenting duties, so Spenser grows up being taught to think for himself, to cook, and how to throw a mean right hook.  When Spenser’s best friend, Jeannie, drives by in a car driven by her mean, drunken father, and mouths “Help” at him out the window, he knows he has to go after her.  He’s scared, but he knows that if he goes to get help he’ll lose them, so he follows them to the jetty, and then out onto the river in a rowboat, with only his dog Pearl for help.  It’s an exciting story, and my favorite one.  Throughout the book, Spenser tells Susan that he spent his life looking for his one and only love, and she is it.  The book is truly an adventure book for boys, but it doesn’t hurt to hear such a heartfelt message from so tough a guy.  Review by Stacy Church

Review of Once Was Lost by Sara Zarr

This is a book about a young woman questioning her faith --and she has good reason to question it.  Her father is the pastor in a small town with one post office, one hardware store, only one restaurant that’s open on Sundays, but seven churches.  Even though everyone knows pretty much everything about everyone else, something no one seems to know is that Sam’s mother is a drunk.  Then Sam’s mom is in rehab, court-ordered after a drunken-driving accident, and Sam is left alone with her father, who seems to have infinite time for his parishioners’ problems, but no time for his own daughter or to visit his wife in rehab. The author describes Sam’s disillusionment perfectly when giving Sam’s reaction to a poster in the youth group room that shows a bunch of happy, multicultural-looking teens and the slogan: Community Happens! “I stared at that poster and pictured myself in it, smiling, knee-to-knee with the other youth group kids, who would be my best friends…Because, as we’re reminded all the time at church, community happens through sharing…I believed in  the theory, and expected that once I hit high school my life would be filled with all this understanding and friendship and spiritual bonding, and my faith would come alive, just like the poster promised.  It hasn’t really happened that way.”  Then, as if things couldn’t get any worse, a 13-year-old member of the youth group, Jody, disappears.  Sam’s lack of faith intensifies, and it’s clear that part of the problem is her lack of faith in her own father. As he’s getting ready to leave to visit the family of the missing girl, this is how Sam sees him: “He was strangely calm-looking, his tan face smooth, his hair in place, jaw set. It dawned on me that in a way he’s been prepping for a tragedy like this all his life; he’s like an actor getting his ultimate role.  For someone whose career is believing in God and convincing other people to, this is exactly the kind of thing that would give him a chance to really prove that everything he’s been saying is true.”  I absolutely love this book.  It’s a perfect combination of characters, setting and plot.  Review by Stacy Church

Review of The Death Collector by Justin Richards

What could possibly be scary about an elderly man coming home for tea? Oh yeah, it’s because the man coming home for tea is dead –“Four days after his own funeral, Albert Wilkes came home for tea.” The dog certainly knows there’s something wrong.  He yelps and backs away from the nightmarish figure, but can’t escape being dragged out of the house for his daily walk.  Then there’s Eddie Hopkins lurking about trying to find a likely mark for his pick-pocketing skills, who sees the old man and his dog. “…as he passed, Eddie caught a whiff of him…Eddie could almost taste the smell that was coming off the old man.  A cloying, slightly sweet smell that spoke of decay and neglect.  A graveyard stench.”  The atmosphere in this book is great, and the characters are fun, even if they are a bit typical –the young thief with his own code of honor, the strong young woman who’s smarter and braver than most of the men in her life, and the naive but sincere young man who’s instantly smitten with said young woman.  Anyway, there’s quite a lot of adventure to the story, a bit too much for my taste in the second half of the book.  It seems like one chase is barely over before the bad guys have set upon the trio again.  There is a lot of ingenuity to the monsters constructed by the industrialist Augustus Lorimore in his quest to take over the world and readers who don’t like a dull moment will probably find the amount of action just right for them.  Review by Stacy Church