I, Coriander struck me as the perfect YA companion book to Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel. Both books freely mix English history and fairy magic. Think of I, Coriander as Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel's precocious kid sister, if you will. Coriander grew up in a beautiful house on the Thames River, a house full of flowers and fairy tales from her mother and exotic goods from her merchant father. But a shadow soon falls over Coriander's life, heralded a mysterious gift: a pair of silver shoes to lovely to have been made by human hands. When King Charles I is executed, the rising tide of Cromwell supporters and black-clad Puritans begin to threaten everything, and everyone, that Coriander loves.