Gods of Jade and Shadow

 Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (2019) 340 pages

I really enjoyed this fairy tale adventure. It begins with some Cinderella vibes, but quickly veers onto its own path. The setting of 1920's Mexico was fun. Our heroine Casiopea Tun, who restores Mayan god of death Hun-Kamé to life, has the perfect blend of personality traits to take us along on a quest. Casiopea and Hun-Kamé are magically linked for the duration of the quest. She is gradually dying and he is gradually becoming more mortal. It feels natural that they slowly fall in love too. Hun-Kamé's brother dismembered him and stole his throne decades ago. The quest is to restore Hun-Kamé's missing body parts and a necklace, then recover his throne, so his brother doesn't return the world to the old ways of blood sacrifice as tribute to the gods. On the cross-country trek, Casiopea meets many magical beings known to Hun-Kamé. It reminded me of Gaiman's American Gods, the book or the TV show.

The Dragon of Ynys

 The Dragon of Ynys by Minerva Cerridwen, 87 pages.

Sir Violet isn't really a knight, the village of Ynys is too small for that, but he does all of the things that knights do, so the villagers call him one anyway. Mostly this means he has to hike out to the local dragon's cave every time he steals something and politely ask for it back. But when the baker goes missing Sir Violet, the dragon, and the baker's wife have to solve the mystery of her disappearance, and the trip may be altogether more adventure than Sir Violet really wanted. 

This is a very wholesome little story about embracing each person's differences as a community. In many ways this novella reads like a story from a very good picture book, although there aren't any pictures in it. It is marketed as an "all ages" fairy tale, and I think that's a pretty good descriptor. I think this would be a really good book to read with kids.

Spin the Dawn

 Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim, 392 pages.

Maia Tamarin has always dreamed of being a Master tailor like her father, but by tradition that path is not open to women in A'Landi. But when her ailing father is summoned to the palace she feels she has no choice but to take his place, and is thrown into a high stakes competition for the longed for role of imperial tailor. A contest with impossible tasks, followed by an even more impossible quest, pushes Maia to her limits and helps her unlock power she never thought she had. It's a shame it can only help her so much when she begins to question what she really wants. 

The blurb for this book describes it as "Project Runway meets Mulan" and I would say that's very accurate to the first half of the book, although it doesn't oversell the great fairy tale energy throughout this book. It reminded me quite a bit of the second half of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, but it is also strongly inspired by Asian mythology, with Chinese and Korean elements being especially prominent. I found the world very rich and the story compelling. It felt in some ways like a retelling, but also like an original story. The book definitely felt like it ended halfway through the story, so I will likely be picking up the sequel more quickly than I had anticipated. Luckily it's available, so I don't have to hold it against the book and instead get to be excited to read the ending.

The 13 Clocks

The 13 Clocks by James Thurber  124 pp.

Neil Gaiman mentioned this book as a favorite from childhood in his book The View from the Cheap Seats.  I remembered reading it as a child (I went through a "Thurber phase") but could not recall anything about the story. It's the story of an wicked duke and his niece, the Princess Saralinda. The duke is so cold that the thirteen clocks in his castle have stopped. Any potential suitors for the princess are given impossible tasks to complete before they can marry the princess. A new suitor appears disguised as a minstrel and, with the help of a mysterious person/creature called the Golux, finally outsmarts the duke and the clocks ran again. What sets this book apart from similar fairy tales is Thurber's writing style.

Fables, vol. 1

Fables: Legends in Exile [vol. 1] by Bill Willingham, et al, 118 pages

Every so often, I feel the need to check in with Snow White, Bigby Wolf, Jack, Flycatcher, King Cole, and the rakish Prince Charming as they navigate our mundane world, where they settled after fleeing their homelands under threat of the Adversary. The first volume is set up as a murder mystery, with Snow White and Bigby Wolf investigating the bloody disappearance of Rose Red. It's self-contained, though not at all indicative of the rest of the series (which will be reviewed here in the coming weeks). While some may claim this is the same thing as ABC's TV show Once Upon A Time, this take is far better, more complex, and fully realized. This isn't the first time I've read Fables, nor will it be the last.

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman, 66 pages.
Neil Gaiman's illustrated version of the sleeping beauty fairy tale, wherein the endless sleeping spreads outward from the castle where beauty lays to the surrounding lands. This version of the story is richly illustrated by Chris Riddell. All of the major characters in Gaiman's telling are female: victim, villain, and hero. An engaging tale.


"The Sleeper and the Spindle" also appears as a story in Gaiman's most recent collection of stories, Trigger Warning.

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The Phantom Tollbooth

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, illustrations by Jules Feiffer, 256 pages

Milo is bored boy, who often doesn't know what to do. A middling student, he runs everyday from school to home and then sits around, staring at his toys and doing nothing. Until one day, when a mysterious package appears in his room. Inside is a set of instructions on how to build the tollbooth and a map to the Lands Beyond. After putting the tollbooth together, he hops into his electric toy car, puts a coin in the toll box, and suddenly finds himself on the road to Expectations. Picking up Tock the Watchdog along the way, he winds up in Dictionopolis, where he learns that nothing in the land of Wisdom has been the same since the princesses Rhyme and Reason were banished by their brothers, King Azaz the Unabridged and the Mathemagician, over their decision that letters and numbers were equally important. Milo agrees to bring the princesses back, so with Tock and the Humbug in tow, they set off across Wisdom in search of the princesses, meeting interesting characters and having great adventures.

This book is a classic, and I can see why. Chock full of inventive word play and fun characters, Milo's quest to rescue Rhyme and Reason twists and turns delightfully through the different cities and areas of Wisdom. While I appreciated all of the puns, I suspect that a lot of them can go over children's heads. But for those that get them, this is a book that's sure to please. In a lot of ways, it reminds of The Little Prince, but not as serious. It would a good book to read with a special child in your life.