Enchantment

by Orson Scott Card.

This was an amazing book for me to read. I love fantasy, and I love the way that Orson Scott Card's brain works. Yes, it was published in 1999 but sometimes I'm a little slow to jump on the wagon okay? Okay.

Essentially what he has done is to gather all the versions of several fairytales/folk stories and combine them all into one big novel. You'll no doubt recognize Sleeping Beauty, but I loved recognizing little bits of Andrew Lang's compilations along with tales from the Grimm Brothers, not to mention quirky and not-so-popular characters from old tales as well. The research he had to have done gathering all the versions of these stories to write this book just overwhelms me. He did a phenomenal job.

The story starts during the Cold War, or just as it was beginning, in the Soviet Union. It follows the thoughts and actions of Ivan, a child whose parents decide to convert to Judaism in order to obtain visas to leave the Soviet Union since they believe the time for free travel is going to be limited or cut off entirely (and of course they were right). They end up coming to America to raise Ivan in the land of opportunity, and that is pretty much all I can tell you without spoiling the book. Granted, all that I've told you happens in the first 5 chapters so please know that I haven't given anything away, this story is amazing, and I ended up staying up until 3am to finish the book like a teenager because I was so enthralled.

Coraline

by Neil GaimanI haven't seen the movie on purpose, because I wanted to read the book first. Its a really quick read, I think it took me about 3 hours to finish it front to back.

I would recommend this book to mothers, and mature children. As in children who are older than 9 years old. I think children younger than 9 might get nightmares from this book. There isn't anything specifically graphic or violent in it, but its the idea of what is presented that I can see young children taking and letting their imagination run wild with in a really not-good way. That being said, I enjoyed it! I probably won't ever buy this book, but I will recommend my own kids read it when they're old enough to understand it.

Gaiman has written a dark fairytale that centers on a little girl named Coraline. She and her parents move into a new flat, which is essentially an old house subdivided into 4 apartments. 1 apartment is empty, and Coraline discovers a key that opens a door connecting her unit to the vacant one. Surprisingly, the other quirky tenants of the house warn her about danger, and she has some dreams that provide warning or insight to the situation as well. When Coraline's parents go missing it is up to her to not only find them and bring them back to the real world safely, but to rescue other children who have gone missing many years before.

River Secrets

By Shannon Hale.

Like Enna Burning before it, River Secrets picks up right where its predecessor novel leaves off. Therefore, to get into it you've really got to read the first two books in this Bayern trilogy.

Can I just say, to get it out in the open, that reading River Secrets made me kind of angry? It is such a good book---and it just brought to my mind The Blue Sword and The Hero And the Crown by Robin McKinley, and made me so angry she never wrote a 3rd Damar novel! It would have been wonderful! Shannon Hale has managed to write 3 really great books, all centering around the country of Bayern, all told from different perspectives and involving different adventures and twists and turns....and Robin McKinley could have done this with Damar and she ended up going a whole different direction. Makes me, as a reader, feel snubbed. And I know RM published those 2 novels almost 20 years ago, but reading a really great "third novel" just brought out all these repressed feelings of what might have been. Sigh.

ANYWAY: River Secrets is told from the point of view of Razo, another friend of Isi and Enna. Kind of fun to read about Bayern and Bayern traditions from a male perspective this time. Razo and many others of the soldiers belonging to the king's personal guard, Bayern's Own, accompany an ambassador to the capital city of Tira, in an effort to establish good relations between the two countries. However, a lot of people are still upset about the war which recently ended, and seem to stop at nothing when it comes to stirring up conflict, false accusations, and potential uprisings. Razo has to solve a few mysteries in order to ensure a 2nd war isn't begun.

These Bayern books are truly enjoyable. Go read them now if you haven't already!!

Enna Burning

by Shannon Hale.

After I read The Goose Girl, a lot of people told me I absolutely had to read Enna Burning. It took me a while to get a chance to check it out of the library because our library seems to have it on constant hold-status even though it was published in 2004.....but I finally got my hands on it.

What can I say? Enna Burning was in fact really good! I wouldn't recommend reading it unless you have read The Goose Girl though, because the story picks up a few months after The Goose Girl ends, only this time it is told from the perspective of Enna, Isi's friend who was a fellow animal-keeper in The Goose Girl.

Enna is hilarious. The things she says just make me laugh out loud. If you've read The Goose Girl, you'll remember that Isi learns the language of animals. Well, this story is about Enna learning the language of fire. It turns out she's quite good at controlling heat and pulling or pushing it away, but the story really pivots on whether the fire will eventually consume her since fire is an all-consuming force. Take into consideration that Tira, the nation to the east of Bayern has declared war on Bayern and is trying to take over the country and you've got a great fanciful read that really has an ending the reader doesn't expect. Good read.

Princess Academy

by Shannon Hale.
As one of my friends put it, when she recommended this to me, "Princess Academy will delight your brain."


She was right. This book was absolutely delightful in every sense of the word. Its got all the trappings of a fairy tale princess story with a good dose of Woman Power. I couldn't recommend it enough, whether you are ten, twenty, or seventy. And I've got to say, I had no idea how this story would end. It isn't predictable at all.

Miri is a girl who has always felt out of place in her village, high in the mountains. Everyone in the village works in the quarry to mine linderstone to barter with the traders, but her father won't let her take one step in the quarry without any explanation. One day the king's messenger arrives to tell the villagers that the king's priests have divined that the next princess will come from their village. As a result, all girls of a certain age must attend a princess academy, effective immediately.

This is quite daunting, because the villagers know nothing of outsiders, let alone how to read, write, or any of the custums of the rest of the country. Miri looks at the princess academy as a chance for her to actually be good at something, and a means of proving her worth. Miri learns a lot at the princess academy; perhaps most importantly how to be brave in the face of danger.