Category: Fairy Tale

The Lie Tree, Francis Hardinge

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I am coming to adore Frances Hardinge! I've only read this and Cuckoo Song to be fair, but there's something about her imagination and her writing which chimes with me: dark, intensely personal, yet somehow mythic at the same time. She captures a sense of wonder,  of terror, of awe which is simultaneously so childlike… Continue reading The Lie Tree, Francis Hardinge

Cuckoo Song, Frances Hardinge 

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  This is a remarkable novel. Of the three CILIP Carnegie nominees I've read, this is my clear front runner. And I'm saying that having read Patrick Ness! Before I review it, however, I'm going to play a game with my sixteen year-old stepson, whose birthday it is today. Despite his protestations, he is going… Continue reading Cuckoo Song, Frances Hardinge 

Tinder, Sally Gardner

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This is the first of my reviews of this year's CILIP Carnegie Medal nominees. Well, my second. Patrick Ness' More Than This I read back in August - see here for my review - six months before the shortlist was announced. And to be honest, it will take some beating!Anyway, this is my first knowing CILIP Carnegie read. And… Continue reading Tinder, Sally Gardner

The Long War, Stephen Baxter, Terry Pratchett

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I do not like wars. If you cast your eyes over my posts, I think the only war related entries you'll find are books I've had to teach: Strange Meeting by Susan Hill. I groan audibly when the kids try to put on war films. Much to their annoyance! So The Long War... I was… Continue reading The Long War, Stephen Baxter, Terry Pratchett

Roof Toppers, Katherine Rundell

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It's that time of year again: the Carnegie Medal Shortlist is announced! Much joy! Genuine excitement! Much fretting over how to juggle reading the Shortlist with doing work, marking, planning ... and, this year, entertaining the baby! And Roof Toppers was a lovely way to start the Shortlist ... Which I finished today by reading… Continue reading Roof Toppers, Katherine Rundell

The Golem and the Djinni, Helene Wecker

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There are some books - most books probably - which I read, finish and review pretty much straight away. They are like those meals which are fine, tasty and enjoyable but which you move on from. Some, however - stretching the metaphor perhaps to breaking point - I like to savour more, to digest, before… Continue reading The Golem and the Djinni, Helene Wecker

The Ocean At The End Of The Lane, Neil Gaiman

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There is only really one word to describe this book. Perfect. Absolutely and undoubtedly, a perfect book. Powerful, moving, honest. A true book. A summary of the plot here will not serve to convey its power. Go out and read this book. In my own small way, however, here goes. The adult narrator returns to… Continue reading The Ocean At The End Of The Lane, Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman and mothers

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What is it with Neil Gaiman and mothers? I am in the midst of listening to the wonderful The Ocean at the End of the Lane - personally, I think that this book is going to be a clear favourite from Gaiman who is already one of my favourite authors! - read by Gaiman himself.… Continue reading Neil Gaiman and mothers

The Tiger’s Bride, Angela Carter

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Continuing through The Bloody Chamber, we come upon The Tiger's Bride, a second re-imagining of the Beauty and The Beast fairytale. Here, we are even further away from the traditional or Disneyfied incarnations of the story and it strikes the reader as a much darker tale than The Courtship of Mr Lyon with which it… Continue reading The Tiger’s Bride, Angela Carter

The Courtship of Mr Lyon, Angela Carter

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Beauty and the Beast has to be one of my favourite fairy tales! Ever! It's a deliciously evocative tale exploring the male and the female and, even in the Disney film version, Beauty is a strikingly self-assured and confidant woman. Carter's version is very pared down: there is very little detail of anything except for… Continue reading The Courtship of Mr Lyon, Angela Carter

The Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter

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Angela Carter is just bloody brilliant! I mean bloody brilliant! Being just a man, lacking in x-chromosomes, I'm sure I'm missing much of her political feminist subtlety but as a writer she blows me away! The balance she holds between the real, the fantastical and the macabre is fantastic. Take this first eponymous tale in… Continue reading The Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter

Midwinterblood, Marcus Sedgwick

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This is my second foray into Marcus Sedgwick's writing: White Crow, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal a couple of years ago was the other. And this is by far superior, more beautiful, more powerful, more poignant. This book is shortlisted for the Cilip Carnegie 2013 and tells the tales of Eric and Merle. Tales. Tales… Continue reading Midwinterblood, Marcus Sedgwick

The Girl With Glass Feet, Ali Shaw

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There are some books that revel in plot, action and events. Other books - perhaps quieter books - are content to develop narrative: characters and settings, relationships and language. This book by Ali Shaw is very clearly and very effectively one of the latter: little really happens, but so much is created. Lets take the… Continue reading The Girl With Glass Feet, Ali Shaw