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A Look at Ana Juan's Illustrations for The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Exeunt on a Leopard | The Wyverary |
Thy Mother's Sword | One Hundred Years Old |
Cory Doctorow is a co-editor of the popular weblog BoingBoing and the author of Little Brother, Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, and several other books.
Valente's The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making: sweet fairytale, shot through with salty tears -- magic!
Feiwel & Friends has done the world an enormous service by putting The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, Catherynne M. Valente's extraordinary, award-winning, free web-novel, between covers. What's more, they've augmented it with Ana Juan's wonderful illustrations, one for every chapter.
Fairyland is a book that is both deeply in love with fairy tales and sharply critical of them: the story of September, a girl who flies from her dreary and sad life in Nebraska to Fairyland on the Green Wind. In Fairyland, she meets every sort of wonderful mythical beast (including a wyvern that's half library), eats the most wonderful and strange things, and has the most wonderful and extraordinary adventures and quests. And it really is wonderful: whimsical and lyrical and shot through with an imagination that simultaneously renders the traditional furniture of fairy tales fresh, and manages to make the author's own inventions seem as mythic as the first story told in the first cave in front of the first fire.
But Valente's fairytale broods and seethes, and it is not always such a nice place. For every velocipede herd thundering across the plain, ridden by a marvelous fairy in aviator's leathers and jodhpurs, there's a whipped blue water-djinn who bears the emotional scars of slavery. For every autumn kingdom filled with fiery sylvan alchemists, there is a political exile in the winter country, banished and sorrowing. For every brave sacrifice from September's companions, there's an abandoned soap golem that wishes the good queen would restore Fairyland to its glory.
And that's what makes Valente's work so truly fairytale fantastic: the sense that the magic sweetness is alloyed with a pinch of salty tears that makes it all so flavorful and complex, a wonder streaked with anxiety. So as September embarks on her quest to topple the evil Marquess who is bent on remaking Fairyland so that it is as dull and regimented as Omaha, Nebraska, we cheer her on, fear for her, and wonder, a little, if she might not be on the wrong side of the war.
Valente's lyrical fairytale is billed as a young adult novel, but like all the very best young adult novels, this is a book that can (and should be!) enjoyed by grown ups too.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE is the author of over a dozen books of fiction and poetry, and is best-known for her urban speculative fiction, including Palimpsest (winner of the 2010 Lambda Award), and The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden. This, her first novel for young readers, was posted online in 2009 and won the Andre Norton Award―the first book to ever win before traditional publication. Cat Valente lives on an island off the coast of Maine with her partner, two dogs, and an enormous cat.
ANA JUAN is a world-renowned illustrator known in this country for her wonderful covers for the New Yorker magazine, as well as the children's books The Night Eater, and Frida, written by Jonah Winter. She lives in Spain.
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. September is a twelve-year-old girl, Somewhat Grown and Somewhat Heartless, and she longs for adventure. So when a Green Wind and a Leopard of Little Breezes invite her to Fairyland - well, of course, she accepts (mightn't you?). When she gets there, she finds a land crushed by the iron rule of a villainous Marquess - she soon discovers that she alone holds the key to restoring order. As September forges her way through Fairyland, with a book-loving dragon and a boy named Saturday by her side, she makes many friends and mistakes. But while she loses her shadow, her shoe and her way, she finds adventure, courage, a rather special Spoon, and a lot more besides . . . Twelve-year-old September lives in Omaha and used to have an ordinary life. One day, September is met at her kitchen window by a Green Wind (taking the form of a gentleman in a green jacket), who invites her on an adventure, implying that her help is needed in Fairyland. Illustrations. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9781780339818
Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9781780339818
Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. Prepare to be swept away to a land unlike any other, with a cast of friends you'll have for life. A charming modern fairytale with crossover appeal, full of 'oddments, wisdom and joy' (Holly Black). Seller Inventory # B9781780339818
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. BRAND NEW ** SUPER FAST SHIPPING FROM UK WAREHOUSE ** 30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. Seller Inventory # 9781780339818-GDR
Book Description Condition: new. Seller Inventory # f410235fcd92e350182eb7fadf49067e
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 336 pages. 7.76x5.12x0.79 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __178033981X
Book Description Condition: New. 1892. Paperback. Prepare to be swept away to a land unlike any other, with a cast of friends you'll have for life. A charming modern fairytale with crossover appeal, full of 'oddments, wisdom and joy' (Holly Black) Series: Fairyland. Num Pages: 336 pages, Line drawings. BIC Classification: YFH. Category: (J) Children / Juvenile. Dimension: 198 x 132 x 21. Weight in Grams: 262. . . . . . Seller Inventory # V9781780339818
Book Description Condition: New. 1892. Paperback. Prepare to be swept away to a land unlike any other, with a cast of friends you'll have for life. A charming modern fairytale with crossover appeal, full of 'oddments, wisdom and joy' (Holly Black) Series: Fairyland. Num Pages: 336 pages, Line drawings. BIC Classification: YFH. Category: (J) Children / Juvenile. Dimension: 198 x 132 x 21. Weight in Grams: 262. . . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # V9781780339818
Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 18648190-n
Book Description PAP. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000. Seller Inventory # GB-9781780339818