|
|
|
Wildwood Dancing
by Juliet Marillier
Reviewed by Jennifer Rothschild, Biblio File
Jena and her four sisters live in a Transylvanian castle, on the edge of the Wildwood. Villagers have always told stories
about the Wildwood and who lives there. Jena has seen them herself—that awful day, years ago, when the creatures in
the deadwash took her cousin. She also sees them every full moon when she and her sisters join the fairy court for their
revels. But this is a hard winter. Jena's father has taken ill and gone to the coast, leaving Jena in charge of the
household and his business. Jena's cousin, Cezar, starts taking over, slowly but surely wresting all control from Jena,
leaving the family completely at his mercy.
In the Other Kingdom, Night People have come to the valley. Jena's older sister, Tati, has fallen in love with one of them
and is wasting away. Cezar is growing suspicious of the sisters' relationship with the Wildwood and threatens to embark on
a campaign to destroy it, and all who live there. Old promises are coming due, and and it's going to take all of Jena's
strength and courage to see her family to spring.
A wonderful and complex retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Marillier has kept the feel of Transylvanian folklore
and written an excellent addition to the genre. It is sure to be enjoyed by fans of such books as Robin McKinley's Beauty
and Shannon Hale's Goose Girl. It also includes excellent historical notes, as well as a glossary and
pronunciation guide.
The Silenced
by James Devita
Reviewed by TadMack (Tanita S. Davis), Finding Wonderland: The Writing YA Weblog
The Zero Tolerance Party: it's no longer just a name or a political theory held by a few. It's invaded Marena's life. It's
taken away her mother, and put her father under house arrest. Now the Zero Tolerance Party is invading her school.
It wouldn't be so bad if Mr. Greengritch had come to just talk—everybody at the Spring Valley Re-Dap Community is used
to that, just like they're used to fingerprint scans, random body searches, no privacy and no recourse. But, it's still
school, and school is always the same, right? The JJ-girls—jingle-jangle they call themselves, because of their
jewelry—are air-headed and cute, and used to ignoring people in favor of their own prattle. The nukes—new kids—are
too scared to listen, separated as they are from their families and sent to the community to learn what Zero Tolerance
really means. Marena is used to being able to give her boyfriend a sidelong glance and ignore the static from the adults.
But Mr. Greengritch is right there, in their faces. He got their favorite teacher "disappeared." He's brought in vicious
people who shave their heads, make them fight for their food, train them until they're at peak physical excellence—and
on the verge of complete physical breakdown. He's told them that it's time to change who they think they are. He does this
by telling them they are no one at all.
Marena had already begun to suspect that she was no one at all—her father has faded into being wallpaper, under the
thumb of the Zero Tolerance party, he's not the same person her mother had loved. Her mother had died for her beliefs, why
can't Marena's father at least live for his? Marena believes it's all up to her—to preserve her mother's memory. To
act.
She is tired of being one of The Silenced.
This brilliant and terrifying dystopian novel sucks the reader down in one swallow. Based loosely on the history of Sophie
Scholl, the young German woman who resisted the Nazi ideology by forming and participating in the resistance cell called
the White Rose, this book is a hopeful and strongly heard clarion call for young people to become active in their beliefs.
In the face of tyranny, you have no right to be silent.
Worldweavers: Gift of the Unmage
by Alma Alexander
Reviewed by TadMack (Tanita S. Davis), Finding Wonderland: The Writing YA Weblog
Galathea Winthrop feels like a big fat zero. In a family of adept magic-users, she, the seventh child of two seventh
children, can do NO magic at all. Her Aunt Zoë is deeply sympathetic. Her siblings are disbelieving, but it's her parents
that are the worst—they are deeply, deeply disappointed. Thea's been both pushed and protected all her life, and her
only response to her failure is baffled rage, made up of equal parts of agonized self pity and resentment.
Thea can't stand anymore to see the look in her father's eyes as he sees her humiliating Ars Magica homework undone
yet again. She's smart at school—writes great essays and does well enough, but none of that matters without the magic.
"Oh, Thea," her mother says, but Thea can't even contain her own disappointment, much less her parent's losing their
faith in her.
But now the cameras have stopped rolling, and even the Alphiri, the mysterious otherworlders who wanted to buy part of her
power before she even manifested, have stopped coming around. Thea has been sent away—first to Cheveyo, a mage and
teacher who may or may not be in the same time as Now, and to The Wandless Academy—where children with no magic at all
are sent to learn to be...useful.
But Thea is finding that what she thought was weakness may be strength. Maybe it's just in choosing where you choose to
display your power that counts.
A fantasy that intertwines Pacific Northwestern traditions and cultures, Worldweavers: Gift of the Unmage looks to
be the first in a series of interesting novels that combine coming-of-age stories with stories of finding one's gifts and
the power of self-esteem. Though the friends Thea makes at the Academy are not quite as dimensional as they could have
been, subsequent volumes may fill in the gaps and make these books an even better read.
Books Reviewed:
Wildwood Dancing, by Juliet Marillier . Random House Children's Books, 2007. ISBN: 0-3758-3364-9.
The Silenced, by James Devita. HarperCollins, 2007. ISBN: 0-0607-8462-1.
Worldweavers: Gift of the Unmage, by Alma Alexander. Eos, 2007. ISBN: 0-0608-3956-7.
|
| |
|
|