Nightbird by Alice Hoffman

Twig isn't allowed to have friends.  She can't invite any over to her house.  Then they might find out the secret.  A witch placed a curse on Twig's family two hundred years ago.  The curse effects the men of Twig's family.  No one must find out about her brother.  But this summer strange things are happening.  There are rumors of a monster in Twig's town of Sidwell.  A family moves back to town with an ancient connection to Twig's.  The time has come to break the curse.

This was a lovely, strange, little fairy tail.  It's a slim book, and honestly there wasn't a whole lot of character development going on, which added to the fairy tale feel of it.  We don't really get to know any of these people very well.

Twig's older brother, James, is not suppose to leave the house.  No one in town even knows the Twig has a brother.  She isn't allowed to get close to anyone.  Accepting an invitation would eventually mean inviting someone to her home, and that is not allowed.  Twig's mother, a baker, keeps to herself as well, even though she grew up in Sidwell and at one point had many friends.  When Twig's family returned to Sidwell after both children being born and living in New York, they returned after dark and without Twig's father.  Twig doesn't know much about her father.  But she can guess the reason why he left.

Twig's isolated world is shaken when Julie and her family move into the abandoned Mourning Dove Cottage.  Julie's family is warm and welcoming and open, and Julie seems to like Twig right away.  But then Twig's mother forbids her from having any contact with the family.  They are related to Agnes Early, the Witch of Sidwell who had cursed the family two hundred years ago.

For the first time, Twig disobeys her mother.  She and Julie become friends.  James is also disobeying his mother.  He leaves the house at night.  It is during one of these evenings that he is seen by Julia's older sister Agate.  The two fall in love.

It seems that a tragic destiny is going to repeat itself.  But then Twig, Julie, James and Agate decide to try and break the curse.

We really don't know very much about James, and even less about Agate.  Just that she's beautiful and makes her own clothes.  There are a few other characters, mysterious Collie and Dr. Shelton, both who have large impacts but we really don't know much about.  Twig's father appears, with a reason for his long absence which, I just didn't buy.  Maybe he stayed away out of respect for his wife's wishes.  But you'd think he's still want to see his kids.

It's a nice, quick fairy tale.  Romance and drama and friendship and a happy ending.

Nightbird comes out February 26, 2015.

A Tale Dark & Grimm by Adam Gidwitz

Think you know how fairy tales go?  You're wrong.  Hansel and Gretel run away from home to escape their child-killing parents.  Their journeys lead them though many a violent Grimm fairy tale as they struggle for survival and safety.

This was great.  I can see why the series is so popular.  Adam Gidwitz frankly acknowledges that kids love a little bit of horror.  And he gives it them in spades.  I remember reading the real Grimm fairy tales as a kid.  They are seriously dark.  Nothing like the Disney-fied versions.  Gidwitz uses the characters of Hansel and Gretel to wander through this fairy tale world, becoming part of lesser know Grimm fairy tales such as Faithful Johannes, The Seven Swallows, and A Smile as Red as Blood.

The scary parts are not skipped over.  So that means we have cannibalism, heads being hacked off, souls being ripped out through people's throats, and parent's gambling their children away to the devil and dooming them to hell.  The thread that follows Hansel and Gretel through the story is their sad search for some parents who aren't completely horrible.  Who won't do things like cut their heads off or try to eat them.  A lot harder to find than it should be.

Hansel and Gretel start off as foolish, greedy children, and their trials cause them to grow and change and they are not the same people at the end of the story they were at the beginning.  So not only do we get some great gore, the retelling of classic fairy tales most people have never heard of, but also so great coming-into-their-own story and a steadfast brother-sister relationship.

This series is certainly not for everyone.  Not all kids want to read about scary, gory things.  So fair warning!  This is for kids who like a little bit of horror.

If kids love this (and many will) maybe you can even them to read the original Grimm stories!

Princeless Book One: Save Yourself by Jeremy Whitley, art by M. Goodwin

Like her older sisters, when she turns 16 Adrienne is placed in a tower guarded by a dragon and forced to wait to be rescued by a prince.  But when Adrienne discovers a sword hidden under her bed, she decides to change her own story.  Teaming up with her guardian dragon, Sparky, Adrienne escapes from her tower and sets off to free her sisters.

This was awesome.  In all different ways.  First of all, people of color! Yay!  A whole family of Black princesses! Bedelia, who befriends Adrienne and joins her on her adventure, is white, as is the pathetic prince who tried to rescue Adrienne and ended up running from the dragon.  So far there haven't been any characters of color beside Adrienne and her family, but I have high hopes.

Next, seriously kick ass female characters.  We have Adrienne and Bedelia, who are both doing something that is not typical for woman and have gotten tired of hiding it.  Adrienne has decided she's not going to wait around to be rescued for her life to start, and does it herself.  Bedelia is a blacksmith, but has been letting everyone think that it's her father that does the work, because who would buy armor from a girl?  Bedelia make Adrienne some amazing armor, and then joins her on her quest.

When Adrienne first comes into Bedelia's shop and asks to see the armor, Bedelia shows her the "Women Warrior Collection," which is made up of the stereotypical bikini tops and bottoms.  Clearly harkens back to Xena and Wonder Woman.  Adrienne wonders why armor for woman couldn't be like armor for men, only fit for a woman.  The Woman Warrior armor is so revealing, it would be easy to get killed.  Bedelia thinks about this, agrees, and proceeds to make not a costume, but armor for a warrior women.  Thank you, Jeremy Whitley, you are awesome.

On top of this, it's a good story.  Sparky burns down Adrienne's tower, so her parents think she's dead and have sent knights out to kill the dragon.  Adrienne first heads back to her father's castle to get her little sister, only to discover she's already been taken away somewhere.  Adrienne's brother, Devin, is at odds with his father, who does not think he is fit to be king.  Devin is the only one who knows Adrienne is really alive.  When this first book ends, Adrienne and Bedelia are headed off to rescue Adrienne's sister Angelica.

For the most part the layout was typical comic layout of mostly regularly panels.  It did break of out of this at times, in particular when there was fight scenes, which made these scenes especially striking.  I liked the art, it fit well with the fantasy story.  In terms of representations of woman, the female characters seen so far all pretty much have the same body type - slim, even Bedelia, who's part dwarf and super strong.  Hey, you can't have everything.

Overall, awesome!

Waiting on Wednesday: Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine to spotlight an upcoming release that we're excited about. This week I'm waiting on Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson.

The Bluebeard fairy tale retold. . . .

When seventeen-year-old Sophia Petheram’s beloved father dies, she receives an unexpected letter. An invitation—on fine ivory paper, in bold black handwriting—from the mysterious Monsieur Bernard de Cressac, her godfather. With no money and fewer options, Sophie accepts, leaving her humble childhood home for the astonishingly lavish Wyndriven Abbey, in the heart of Mississippi.

Sophie has always longed for a comfortable life, and she finds herself both attracted to and shocked by the charm and easy manners of her overgenerous guardian. But as she begins to piece together the mystery of his past, it’s as if, thread by thread, a silken net is tightening around her. And as she gathers stories and catches whispers of his former wives—all with hair as red as her own—in the forgotten corners of the abbey, Sophie knows she’s trapped in the passion and danger of de Cressac’s intoxicating world.

Glowing strands of romance, mystery, and suspense are woven into this breathtaking debut—a thrilling retelling of the “Bluebeard” fairy tale. (Summary from Amazon)

I know, I know. I'm obsessed with retold fairy tales. But they're so good! Or at least this one sounds quite awesome. Lots of intrigue and suspense! Huzzah!

Strands of Bronze and Gold comes out Mar. 15.

Snow Whyte and the Queen of Mayhem by Melissa Lemon

 In this retelling of Snow White, we get the story from an unusual source: the magic mirror.  Not long after Princess Katiyana is born, her mother, the queen, does everything in her power to cause her death.  The king flees the kingdom with Katiyana, placing her into the safety of an uncle, before dying himself.  Katiyana grows up with no idea she is a princess, or that the queen still seeks her and wishes for her death.

The fact that in this story the evil queen in not Katiyana's stepmother, but her actual mother gives a darker feeling to everything.  The queen doesn't desire Katiyana's death because she's afraid that someone is more beautiful than she, but because she is really and truly evil.  She has a dictator-like control over her kingdom, having people killed at the least cause.  Because she is capable of magic, no one dares to oppose her.  And if someone does, the magic mirror has the ability to show exactly who is plotting.

The queen learned her magic from a wizard who she seduced, and who she then traps in the magic mirror.  The queen thought she was able to put a spell on the mirror so the wizard would never be able to escape and never be able to lie.  Only one part of that spell worked.  The wizard does not always show the queen exactly what she wants to see, and in his own time, constantly keeps an eye on Kat, and watches her grow up.

While I liked the premise of the story, I found Kat's story kind of forced.  Probably because Melissa Lemon felt like she need to make it fit into the Snow White parameters.  I think it could have been a more engaging story if it wasn't trying to be a retelling of Snow White.  Really, aside from the dwarfs, it wasn't all that much like it.  And the dwarfs were the part that felt forced, as did the spell that the wizard put on Kat that she became like ice whenever danger was near.

Kat really didn't have much of a role in the story.  She's at her uncle's, then she leaves after her uncle becomes a drunk and abusive.  She is in love with a boy who promises to come back for her, but then disappears.  She's taken in by the dwarfs and lives with them for a while, while the boy that the queen sent to kill her tries to get into her good races for his own personal gain.

There was a nice moment when Kat finally stops letting people make decisions for her and tells the boy she doesn't really like but has been tolerating because she's sad where he can shove it.

So while I liked the idea of this story a lot, I found it a little slow.  The political side of things and what was happening in the kingdoms was much more interesting, but there wasn't a lot of that.

The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer

The past year has become harder for twelve year old twins Alex and Connor. Their father died a year ago, and they no longer have the support they need at home. No one to talk to about Alex's inability to make friends because of her intelligence, no one to tell stories to Connor about his disheartening school performance, no one to help their mother pay bills so she must sell their house and constantly work. The twins' only bright spot is when they're grandmother unexpectedly shows up at their doorstep for their birthday, giving them a family heirloom book which turns out to be a magical portal into a land of fairytales. As Alex and Connor race around the kingdoms trying to gather the different pieces for a spell which may or may not work, they meet all of the characters of the fairytales that their father read to them in happier times, they also discover a little bit more about each other along the way.

The biggest draw for most people about this book is probably the fact that it was written by one of the actors from the show Glee. You might remember from my post about Chris Colfer that he didn't want his first book to be a biography, he wanted it to be about a story he'd grown up telling himself. I think this is admirable.

Chris Colfer takes a lot of the classics and gives them a tweak. He gives Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White, Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Goldilocks, continued stories that seem plausible, and while they still have a happily ever after the still have ongoing tribulations that the must overcome (my favorite being Red Riding Hood as a rather delusional airhead ruling as the only elected Queen). There isn't a lot of depth to Chris Colfer's world-building, but I guess that's not really why you would read it. It's mostly interesting because of the interactions the twins have with the fairytales and how the stories have continued. Chris Colfer has done a nice job of staying true to the classic tales of Grimm and Andersen and not incorporating the Disney-fication aspects of them.

Alex and Connor themselves are pretty solidly written, they both have traits that change and grow during their time in the Land of Stories. They balance each other nicely with their ideas and desires, and their more annoying personality flaws are tolerable given their circumstances. The story itself was also solid, nothing earth-shattering, but also nothing horrible. Some parts were a bit obvious, but I wouldn't go as far as to say that Chris Colfer took the easy literary way out. There are some nice little surprises but nothing off the wall.

I guess that that's the summation of this book for me. It was solid. I would recommend it to kids I know, but it probably won't be the first title to pop into my head. It's not that I wouldn't want to recommend it, just that I might not remember to recommend it. It's solid, a good jumping off point for a series, but it isn't enthralling. It's engaging but not mind-blowing. It doesn't push boundaries but it's not trite or mediocre. I'll read the next one, because I truly believe that he has a lot of potential as a writer and will develop with time. So there you go.

The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer came out today

Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

Sunday is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, which means she's destine for great things.  But for now, she's just the youngest in a big family, and who has to be careful of what she writes, because it often comes true.  Sunday befriends a frog, and unbeknownst to her, a kiss turns him back in a man - Rumbold, the prince of the kingdom who Sunday's family has a personal dislike of.  Rumbold is determine for Sunday to meet him as a man and have her fall in love with him, despite her family's feeling.

This was a mishmash of fairy tales, from The Frog Prince to Jack and the Beanstalk to Cinderella.  For the most part, it worked very well.  It was fun to be reading along and pick up on another element of a traditional fairy tale that had been woven in.

Waiting on Wednesday: Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine to spotlight an upcoming release that we're excited about. This week I'm waiting on Enchanted by Alethea Kontis.

It isn't easy being the rather overlooked and unhappy youngest sibling to sisters named for the other six days of the week. Sunday’s only comfort is writing stories, although what she writes has a terrible tendency to come true.

When Sunday meets an enchanted frog who asks about her stories, the two become friends. Soon that friendship deepens into something magical. One night Sunday kisses her frog goodbye and leaves, not realizing that her love has transformed him back into Rumbold, the crown prince of Arilland—and a man Sunday’s family despises.

The prince returns to his castle, intent on making Sunday fall in love with him as the man he is, not the frog he was. But Sunday is not so easy to woo. How can she feel such a strange, strong attraction for this prince she barely knows? And what twisted secrets lie hidden in his past - and hers? (Summary from Goodreads)

I have a not so secret love for fairy tales, and this sounds quite lovely. It sounds like a sweet yet fraught little twist on the "Frog Prince." Awesome.

Enchanted comes out May 8th.

Sparks: An Urban Fairytale by Lawrence Marvit

Once upon a time there was a girl who looked at those around her and wished for a better life. She was surrounded by family that doubted her and friends that didn't understand. With her journal to comfort her and a wrench to keep her grounded, she eventually gives in to her fancies and creates a 'prince' out of auto parts. Little does she know that her silly playtime is going to create a living being. Eventually the prince will rescue the princess, but not before stopping the evil doers that would end their happiness.

This was quite a lovely story. Sad, romantic, uplifting, heartwarming. I think everyone should read this because it was wonderful. I thought that the artwork was perfect for the storyline - clean lines, almost child-like faces - fantastic for the overall fairytale theme that ran throughout the story. Awesome. This was really quite perfect.

Cinderella: Ninja Warrior by Maureen McGowan

Cinderella's real mother was a powerful wizard, but after her death, Cinderella's father hid her wand.  Shortly after he remarried, he died under suspicious circumstances.  Now Cinderella is held prisoner in her own house, thanks to her wicked step-mother's black magic, which is illegal in the kingdom.  Cinderella bides her time until she can make her escape, training herself to be a ninja warrior and working on developing her magic.  Now if only she could find her mother's wand...

When I saw the title of this book, I was of course intrigued.  Then, when I learned that it was not just Cinderella being a ninja warrior, but also a choose-your-own-adventure story (you know, at some high point in the action it'll say "To do this, go to page whatever, or, to do that, go to this other page"), I was incredibly excited.  I used to love choose-your-own-adventure books.  They were so ridiculous, so fun.  Alas, I was disappointed.

This book took itself way too seriously.  Come on now.  Cinderella is training to be a ninja warrior?  And you've made it a choose-your-own-adventure book?  This is not something that anyone would ever take seriously.  I was expecting silliness and hijinks at every turn.  But no.  What I got was a fairly straight-forward Cinderella story, except ninja training and magic are closely related in this world and since Cinderella isn't allowed to study magic, she's practicing becoming and ninja in secret. 

At three points in the book, you have the opportunity to make a decision for Cinderella.  The problem was, it didn't make any difference what you chose, you always ended up at the same place in the end.  So what's the point of that?  Why bother writing different paths, which weren't even all that interesting, if she's always going to end up at the exact same point?  And the divergent paths weren't very exciting.

Actually, the book as a whole wasn't very exciting.  Even when Cinderella is competing in a magic competition, and it's suppose to be nail-bitingly exciting, I was kind of bored.  The story just did not catch my interest.  It wasn't funny, it wasn't silly, it wasn't exciting, it was just...nothing really.  Kind of blah.

This is the first book in a series of "Twisted Tales".  I can't say that I'll be looking for the other ones to come out.

The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

In the town of Near, there are three abiding philosophies: the Near Witch is a legend that has shaped the culture of the town, the lonely wind is to be ignored when it calls to you, and strangers are not to be tolerated. These are the thoughts that go through Lexi's mind when she looks out her window one night and sees a young man standing near the moor. He is almost translucent and yet more real than anything she's ever encountered. But what seems a gentle curiosity turns into an overwhelming need to understand not just the stranger but also the moor itself as the children of Near begin to disappear and the wind begins to whisper, "Witch."

I really enjoyed this book. It was so fantastically done! Let me start off with saying that this story reminded me a lot of Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales. The fact that there's a quest, the romance involved, and the history and fairy tales within the fairytale. (I know this isn't an academic study on Andersen's fairy tales, but it seems to be a theme that some of them have.)

Loved the lore of the Near Witch and how that affected the community and their interactions with each other and outsiders. I also really found the characters to be quite delightful. They're all so different, none are stereotypes or one-dimensional.

I'm going to end it there. This was a wonderful story, nothing was contrived or shallow. There were more twists than I expected and it was overall an absolute delight.

Castle Waiting, Volume II by Linda Medley

The long awaited follow-up to Castle Waiting continues the stories of the interesting cast of characters who have found a home at Castle Waiting, a safe haven for whoever needs it. 

In the first volume, we got pretty much the full story of Sister Peace, and a little bit about Jain and a few others.  In the second volume, the story of Jain continues.  We see her as she grows and her relationship with Tylo, who is one day to become her husband.  I found this very interesting to follow.  We know from the first book that Jain has a child from a man who is not her husband, and that she ran away so her husband wouldn't kill her.  Tylo doesn't seem like a violent man.  He isn't very smart.  He's awkward and crude, but nice enough.  I'm interested to see what happens later on.  I hope it isn't years before volume III comes out!

We also start to get more of the story of Heinrich.  In the current time, two dwarfs come to call at Castle Waiting, and we learn that they are Heinrich's foster family and he grew up with them.  A little more is revealed about Heinrich and what happened to his son, whose death broke his heart.  Some of the back-story of the peculiar Doctor and of Simple Simon is also beginning to unfold.

While we get these stories, life of course goes on at the castle.  Jain is moving to different quarters, and the dwarfs help the castle inhabitants make things ready by exploring some secret passageways, which unbeknownst to them seem to be haunted.

I enjoyed this just as much as the first one.  Learning more about the characters only makes me want another volume to come out REALLY REALLY soon so that the stories can continue!

Black Pearls: A Faerie Strand by Louise Hawes

More fairy tales!  These fairy tales take on familiar stories, but look at them from an unexpected perspective.  We learn what was really going on with the "witch" from Rapunzel, what happened after Cinderella married the prince, and many more.

Like Red Spikes, these stories were dark, violent, and often sad.  They weren't as dark, violent and sad though.  I preferred these to Red Spikes.  I liked having a base for the story already, and then reading a new interpretation of them.  This has been done many times before, certainly, but I still enjoyed these.

Different things were done for each story.  For Dame Nigran's Tower, we learn about the witch, who really isn't a witch, and how she ended up with Rapunzel.  We understand he fierce love for her, and Rapunzel's ultimate betrayal.  In Ashes, the prince falls in love with Cinderella because she's so unlike all the other highborn ladies, but after they're married she changes.  She demands the death of her stepsisters and stepmother and the prince doesn't know what to do.  Not all the stories changed very much.  Pipe Dreams, which was about the story of the pipe piper of Hameln, was told by the boy on the crutch.  We got some different perspective, but there wasn't really a whole lot different about that one.

I liked that most of the stories show how what "really" happened got twisted into the story that we've come to know today.  There was also some really beautiful illustrations.

Red Spikes by Margo Lanagan

So this was...weird.  Did you read Tender Morsels, also by Margo Lanagan?  I had the same feeling after reading this that I did after reading Tender Morsels.  A feeling of, "Huh.  Well.  That was...weird.  Is this really YA?  Whom would I recommend this for?" 

It's a collection of original fairy taleish stories.  For the most part, the stories were quite dark.  And, much like Tender Morsels, many of them had sexual undertones.  Some of the stories seemed to be from the perspective of animals, showing the violence of their lives.

They're hard to describe.  I don't really know what to say, which I know doesn't make a good review.   Let me try describing one in more depth.  "Under Hell, Over Heaven" was inspired by Lanagan's Catholic primary school education in the 1960s about Limbo.  Four children are stuck in Limbo.  It's being told from Leah perspective, who's in Limbo because she wasn't baptized.  The four children earn Brownie points with Heaven by taking those who have accidentally gotten into Heaven to Hell.  The children bring the Miscreant to Hell, where there is an incredible graphic and disturbing description of Hell opening up and the screaming and the burning flesh and the Miscreant getting dragged in.  The other three children are disturbed, but Leah wants to hold on to the feeling.

If ever you were part of a book club that wanted to read something dark and weird, this would give you SO MUCH to talk about.  Whoa.  So if you like the dark and creepy, take a looksy at this one.

Castle Waiting by Linda Medley

Sleeping Beauty's abandon castle has become a place for fairy tale refugees.  It's a safe place for all who need it, no matter what reason.  Some only pass through, and others live their indefinitely.  Lady Jain has come to Castle Waiting, fleeing from an abusive husband and seeking a safe place to have her child.  There she meets a variety of characters and begins to learn their stories.

This is lots of fun, especially if you are a reader of fairy tales and can pick out whom some of the people are at Castle Waiting and in the surrounding towns, even before you hear their stories.  It's mixture of light fairy tale and more serious issues, like Lady Jain leaving her husband, or some of Sister Patience's story.

Castle Waiting was originally self-published serially in 1997-98.  Medley planned to publish other volumes, so that over time each character's story of how they ended up at Castle Waiting would be told.  In the first volume, only part of Lady Jain's story and the story of Sister Patience is told.  Due to not great sales, this never happened, which was very sad.  But hurrah, for Fantagraphics picked it up, published the existing Castle Waiting stories in one volume and this year the second volume finally came out!  So now you can get Castle Waiting vol. 2.

Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall by Bill Willingham

Snow White, acting as envoy for Fabletown, appeals to the Sultan of a far away land for help.  At first she is ignored, but then she is tricked to seeing him in his rooms.  It turns out that the Sultan holds a grudge against women.  He marries a woman every night, and then has her killed in the morning.  To make the Sultan want to keep her alive, Snow White tells him stories of how the different refugees came to Fabletown.

I LOVED this!  I like fairy tales, and I love reading twists on fairy tales.  We get to hear stories after the fairy tales we are familiar with have ended, but before they came to Fabletown.  We learn what happened to Snow White after she married her prince, what happened to Frog Prince after remarried his princess, what happened to the witch that got burnt by Hansel and Gretel, and so on.

For the most part, these stories were very dark.  These are not Disney fairy tales; they are much more in the flavor of Grimm fairy tales.  There's a lot of violence, cruelty and revenge.  I recommend this for older high school students, 10-12 grades.
 
I loved the illustrations.  There were eleven different illustrators for this volume, so each story that Snow White told had a different style of illustration.  In particular I liked the pictures in the first story, "The Fencing Lesson," which were done by John Bolton.  Beautiful, detailed, full color pictures. 

Anna reviewed the first couple volumes of Fables before, if you'd like to check that out.

Alberic the Wise and Other Tales by Norton Juster, illustrated by Domenico Gnoli

A compilation of three short fairy tales: "Alberic the Wise", about a man named Alberic who spends his life searching for wisdom and trying out many vocations along the way, only to find as an old man he is perceived as wise because of his experiences; "She Cries No More", about a young boy named Claude, who doesn't care about anything until he steps inside a painting to help a beautiful lady; "Two Kings", where a king who lives in poverty and a king who lives in great abundance set out to find out if there's another kingdom better off or worse off than they are.

While this was a very short book (only 88 pages) and it wasn't very complex, and it has pictures and all, this isn't really a children's book. In the same that fairy tales weren't really meant for children, it just ended up that way. They are stories that teach a lesson, and they were nice stories, and I enjoyed them very much, but I also don't really see myself recommending this as a fun read for very many children. It is the kind of book a parent gets to read aloud to their kid and then talk about it.

For example, in "Two King," Good King RNP's kingdom is in ruins. The weather is always bad, no one has any money, and no one even knows who the king is. He's completely miserable, but his only adviser assures him that it's probably worse everywhere else. Meanwhile, King Magnus the Abundant's kingdom is beautiful, happy, and plentiful. However, King Magnus wonders if somewhere out there there's some who has more than he does. Both kings set out to see for themselves. King Magnus' people love him so much they don't want him to be sad when he gets somewhere where people don't greet him, so the entire kingdom packs up and secretly travels to King RNP's kingdom, fixes everything up, and then lines the street to greet him. King Magnus is happy, until he sees how new and beautiful everything is and thinks that someone does have things better than he does. King RNP arrives and King Magnus' deserted kingdom, where a storm as destroyed much of it. He looks around at the destroyed, abandon town, and thinks that some does have things worse than he does. King RNP goes home happy, and King Magnus goes home sad.

I was most interested in "Alberic the Wise," where Alberic goes from vocation to vocation, but not really being good at anything and then moves on. This reminded me very much of Lloyd Alexander's Tarran Wanderer. I bet there's some Old Norse or Old English story that both were based on. Maybe I'll email my Literature and the Fantastic teacher and ask her.

So anyway, I liked it a lot, I love Norton Juster, good stories, not exactly a kid's book though.