My Head Is Full of Books: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In a Ship of Her Own Making

"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Saturday, October 15, 2011

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In a Ship of Her Own Making

I finished reading The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente on Monday. Since that time I have tried to figure out how to write this review. How does one write a word of criticism or evaluation of the most creative book that she has read in years? Think of a mash-up between The Wizard of Oz, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chronicles of Narnia, and His Dark Materials trilogy and you will get a little idea of what this book is like.

With the comparisons to those well-known books, it also begs the question, what makes a book into a classic? I suspect that it has something to do with cross-over appeal to all age groups. Marketed to middle-grade students, this book will delight all age groups. I'd also say that classics are those novels which prove to have an influence over novels to come. Time will tell if Fairyland will influence future books, but I suspect that it will. Using my divination powers I predict, if it hasn't happened yet, teachers will be reading this book aloud to the delight of their students soon. Here are a few other things you should know about The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making:

The author Catherynne M. Valente has a fabulous website. I really appreciate her FAQ sections where she answers questions about the writing/publishing process.
Valente offered the first eight chapters of Fairyland FREE. Read them here.
The winner of the 2010 Andre Norton Award (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America for excellent Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy.) Fairyland won this award while it was only available in the e-book format. That has to be a first!

Since you can read the first eight chapters right now, let me leave you with a very tantalizing quote from the end of the book which does a lovely job setting up a sequel:

"All stories must end so, with the next tale winking out of the corners of the last pages, promising more, promising moonlight and dancing and revels, if only you will come back when spring comes again."