5/29/25: on re-read I'm bumping my rating up to 4 stars. This has everything a middle grade fantasy need. Good world-building, well-developed characters, an engaging plot, and good explorations of big ideas make this a perfect read if you love middle grade fantasy. I'm excited for book 2!

DNF at 35%

 This is a short collection of folk tales and I enjoyed it as much as I do any folk tales. One interesting story was a Serbian version of Cinderella. It does make me wonder which version of Cinderella came first! It also shows how sometimes a story travels across many cultures with slight differences, but the bones of the story stay the same.