Ahoy there me mateys!  I received this short story collection eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  So here be me honest musings . . .

While I have read many of Jane Yolen's works, most have been her novels.  It has only been recently that I have been reading her short stories.  This collection has 28 varied tales.  In addition, the end of the book has author reflections on how the stories came to be along with some of her poetry.

This collection didn't resonate with me as much as the emerald circus collection did.  I only loved about half of them.  The others not so much even though I could appreciate the skill of the writing.  I will try to give ye an idea of the bare bones and thoughts on me favourites:

"Snow in Summer" - a Snow White retelling with a fantastic answer to what happens to the evil queen.

"The Moon Ribbon" - this one has a bit of Cinderella (which I know) and a bit of The Princess and the Goblin (which I don't).  It was weird but I rather liked it.

"One Ox, Two Ox, Three Ox, and the Dragon King" - this was the seventh story in the collection and the first one I really loved.  It tells the story of dragons from a Eastern perspective but with a Western solution.

"Brother Hart" - this tale was apparently based on the Russian/ Grimm story of Little Brother, Little Sister.  I am not familiar with that tale at all but I loved this story.  It deals with transformations and loving sibling relationships.

"Sun/Flight" - a tale based on the Icarus myth.  I didn't love it but I found it oddly beguiling and interesting.

"Slipping Sideways Through Eternity" - this is a story about a girl who goes back in time to the Holocaust with the help of Elijah.  Powerful and compelling"

"The Foxwife" - this story features a kitsune.  Ever since I read shadow of the fox, I have loved takes on the kitsune Japanese folk tales.  Yolen also recommend foxwife by Kij Johnson.  I will have to check that one out.

"The Faery Flag" - this is based around the Faery Flag legend of Scotland about the McLeods on the Isle of Skye.  I got tired of faery stories a while back.  This was a breath of fresh air.

"One Old Man, with Seals" - this one is based on the Greek shapeshifter, Proteus but set in 20th century America.  It has a lighthouse and the sea.  Awesome!

"Sleeping Ugly" - an absolutely lovely fracturing of Sleeping Beauty.  The ending!

"Green Plague" - a fun mix of frogs and the Pied Piper of Hamelin.  Silly and fun.

"The Unicorn and the Pool" - it has an unicorn!  Short and bittersweet.

"Sule Skerry" - this is a tale of selchies of the Scottish Islands inspired by the song "The Great Selchie of Sule Skerry."  Lovely.

"Cinder Elephant" - another Cinderella retelling where our protagonist is overweight and a bird watcher.  This was a lovely, wonderful tale.  The poem and description about writing this tale was absolutely fabulous as well.  I think this was me favourite.

"Mama Gone" - a fairy tale about vampires that is both sad and sweet.  Seriously.

I be very grateful to have a chance to read these stories.  While I didn't love every story, I do have a few new favourites of hers.  Arrrr!

So lastly . . .

Thank you Tachyon Publications!

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It is time to abandon ship me mateys! I am abandoning more books this year then usual. Sad. Perhaps that is because I am trying new things. In this case, this involved an old love – dragons! By all rights I should have loved this book. And I did sort of like it . . . up to a point.

I made it to the 63% mark before calling it quits. The novel is split into two parts – before dragons and after dragons. This is the story of a pygmy girl named Pip who is captured from her island and taken to be an exhibit in a zoo. I absolutely loved the majority of the section in the zoo. While in the zoo she makes friends with the creatures in her enclosure. Her friendship with Hunagu was the highlight. I loved Pip’s tenacity, intelligence, loyalty, and grit. Her growth was lovely to watch. She is small but fierce like me! Arrrrr!

The problem occurs when the dragons enter the story. I know crazy right? I adore dragons but from the point of Pip’s leaving the zoo, the story started to go downhill for me. I believe some of this is due to the structure of the novel. The zoo is a small world where the scenery doesn’t really change so all of the focus was on the characters and their relationships. I loved this character-driven section.

When Pip leaves the zoo, it is to enter the wider world. The focus on character relationships is mostly removed and the story shifts to the overall arcing politics of the world which I simply didn’t care for.

Pip ends up in dragon school and discovers her own nature. Hunagu disappears from huge parts of the story. We don’t even get to delve in the nitty-gritty of the school. It almost felt like it turned into a different book altogether at this point. While I love dragons, I didn’t love the dragons in this book or the dragon culture. Ah that’s saying something. So I stopped there.

Side note: The prologue of this novel was not good at all and felt kinda horrible with cliches of jungle people and Pygmies from Australia in particular. I should have stopped there maybe but I wanted to see how the dragons were displayed. Sigh.

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Ahoy there me mateys!

This was another book recommended by my first mate. He wanted to watch the movie with me and as usual, I wanted to read the book first. I had heard good things about this one including that it had won the National Book Award and the Newbery Medal. So I checked it out . . .

I actually really loved this one. First of all I adored the first two chapters and how they set up the novel. The main character of Stanley Yelnats is just plain wonderful. He is cursed and has to go to a juvenile camp for a crime he did not commit. And let’s just say that the camp wasn’t like anything he was expecting.

It wasn’t really like anything that I was expecting either. The kids have to dig holes in the dirt in the middle of nowhere as part of their punishment. One a day that is as tall and wide as a shovel. Weird, no? Of course, the reasons for that get explained over the course of the novel. But what I liked best about the story was watching Stanley be in a situation out of his control and dealing with it through grace and with strength. I loved in particular his unlikely friendship with the kid named Zero.

In addition the novel tells the stories of Stanley’s ancestors and the reasons for and effects of their family curse. It also tells the story of Green Lake and what happened in that community. This is done by interspersing the facts of these interrelated things through the narrative of Stanley’s story. I very much enjoyed the story of Mary Lou and Sam despite how it turned out.

The book was quick to read and very enjoyable. Give it a go.

Side note: A teacher at my old high school used to read chapters from Sideways Stories from Wayside School periodically during school assemblies. I did not know who the author was though I liked the stories. Surprise! Same author as this book. Oh and the movie is worth watching. The author wrote the screenplay for it too . . .

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