If you are anything like me, you hear a film called Beast and think of Beauty and the Beast. And then you see the main character in a yellow dress, with a one syllable name that ends in an ll sound, and there are scenes of stepping through hedges, almost from one world to another […]
This is a really beautifully illustrated book and a girl named Hortense. She doesn’t like her shadow, it is always following her around, so one day she gets rid of it. But of course later she comes to learn that her shadow is a good thing to have around. It is a slight story, but […]
Johnny Saxby is running his family farm pretty much single-highhandedly. His father’s illness means he can’t help out, although he can still point out what needs doing. His mother left a long time ago. It’s just him, his father, and his nan living an isolated life in Yorkshire. He spends his day looking after the […]
Shadows and Light ; 3 That traditional selkie story, where the fisherman finds a selkie, hides the skin and gains a wife have always been a bit ick. I mean, its a rape story, sanitised to make it somewhat palatable. But there have been retellings, an attempt to get another view point out there, Margo […]
Rec’d by Maggie Stiefvater on her tumblr. When I read the first few lines of Stiefvater’s review of The Secret Horses of Briar Hill I knew I had to try it. A book that feels like “it has always existed” with winged horses! How could I resist. And those wonderful illustrations. So I finally got […]
Into thin air, Sylvie goes missing, and as Jules stumbles in grief, a fox cub is born. A shadow fox, spirit and animal in one. From the minute the cub opens her eyes, she senses something very wrong. Someone—Jules. (from goodreads) Oh my god, you guys, this book is so sad! Beautiful and wonderful, but […]
Book one in The Lion Hunters Although this book doesn’t really have any fatastical elements, I am still counting it towards this year’s Once Upon a Time challenge because it is an Arthurian legend inspired book. Medraut is the eldest son of Artos, but he will not inherit the High King’s title, lands, or power. […]
Peter Lake was once in training to be a mechanic, but a tragedy meant that he was cast out of that life, and found himself with the Short Tails. A New York gang run by Pearly Soames. There he became a master burglar. But he went against Pearly and so the Short Tails are now […]
ISBN: 1864488239
Growing up is hard. Even when you have encouraging responsibly parents, like Chloe. When you don’t, when your parents are like Janey’s, consistently putting you in harms way and causing your damage how do you cope? Chloe and Janey are best friends, they live their lives entwined in each other. Chloe is sensible and practical. She keeps Janey somewhat rooted. But nothing can keep janey from trouble. Free-spirited is a charitable description of her life-style. Some of the girls from her school used much harsher terms, she was worse than a prostitute, she didn’t even charge for what she did in the boy’s toilets! But free-spirited is the more accurate description. Janey can’t see the dangers in her life. Or perhaps it is because she has so many that she doesn’t look for an escape. There are no ways out for her.
Or the evening redness ISBN: 0679728759 See the child. He is pale and thin, he wears a thin and ragged linen shirt. He stokes the scullery fire. Outside lie dark turned fields with rags of snow and darker woods beyond that harbor yet a few last wolves. This may sound contradictory; I would heartily recommend […]