Beauty by Sheri S. Tepper

Beauty is half-human and half-fairy with a mysterious object that burns in her chest - placed there by two fairies, Caraboose and Israfel. Her father neglects her (and her mother) going on excessive pilgrimages to find various holy relics. Beauty's mother abandons her as a young child and Beauty doesn't think much of it until she finds a letter written by her mother that asks her to come to the land of faeries. Her adventures begin as she seeks out her mother beginning in 14th century England before leapfrogging to the 21st century where magic has all but vanished and the Earth is destroyed. Beauty time travels back and forth trying to find the truth about what it means to be human and faery (the object in her chest is hope for humanity... I think). While I liked the fractured fairy tales, I didn't think the ideas on religion, feminism, ecological destruction, and the apocalypse were fleshed out enough to make sense in the end. At first, the story seemed like an allegory or metaphor for marginalized people, then I wondered if it symbolized fundamentalist views in religion. Tepper touches on everything and lands on nothing solidly.

The humor comes from poking fun at fairy tales in clever and grotesque ways. The Frog Prince turns into a prince when his grandma kisses him, not a princess. He helps Beauty weave a wisdom cap that she has to put on his head as a last ditch effort because he has the uncontrollable urge to kiss Sleeping Beauty which would mean him being cursed as well. When Cinderella's stepsister, Gloriana cuts off her foot to fit it in the glass slipper Tepper is referring to the original fairy tale but adding her own twist with Gloriana bleeding to death and Cinderella being the culprit in talking her into chopping off her foot. Cinderella in this fractured tale is meaner than her stepsisters. She also can't wait to hop into bed with the prince attempting to stay past midnight so her clothes will disappear when she's in the prince's arms and the spell is broken. Snow White is a cornflake and the seven dwarves are from Basque. There were many laugh out loud weird twists.

Illusions and symbols of the apocalypse, religion, and ecological destruction of Earth are abstract and interesting but don't come together in a way that makes sense. Beauty grows up in Westfaire, a place that represents either the loss of childhood innocence or the Garden of Eden or the rebirth of Earth after humans have destroyed the world. The church stole magic from faeries and the world ends because it grows darker and more evil by not believing in magic. Magic also represents the act of creating and humans have lost this ability in the future. The Dark Lord or devil is overcoming human ability to hope and create new things making Beauty's jump into the 21st century as a future filled with despair.

Beauty has to deal with abandonment and a mother that doesn't really care about her. Her mother is faery and immortal. Fairies view humans as animals for the most part. They made a covenant with the Holy One to protect humans and in exchange receive immortality. However, the King of Faery made a pact with the Dark Lord because he lusted after death and helped him build hell. This reminded me a bit of Dante's Inferno with the way fairies are similar to the indifferent people stuck in Limbo. They have a river Styx and character named, Charon, who is a ferryman in this hell. The hell is full of pornographers and TV producers which is too limited in scope. Tepper does create the land of Faery as one that is beautiful only for its illusions. As time passes, faery people use the magic of glamor to cover its ugliness and indifference to human qualities. This was presented quite well along with the character development of a strong female protagonist in Beauty. She could have easily been presented as a victim but she is a survivor who grows in wisdom as she ages. The story ends on a strong note returning to the plot of a fractured fairy tale with the unfocused subplots distracting at times.

3 Smileys

Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley

This book is like a slow boiling pot of noodles. I'm always impatient for the quiet pool of water to heat up. I forget about it and then suddenly boiling water is rushing unexpectedly to the top, steam hissing as it touches the dry sides of the metal pan before spilling over the edge onto the burner. "Circus Mirandus" simmers at the start with the nasty Aunt Gertrudis that cruelly manipulates her nephew, fifth grader Micah, from seeing his dying grandfather. The story erupts at the end with oodles of action as Micah matures into a young man willing to take risks and find happiness in whatever situation life gives him. The writing has beautiful figurative language that had me writing down favorite lines and themes that spilleth over like my pasta pot - although I found it hard to latch onto one. Good book. Thought-provoking. Just hard for me to write about in a cohesive manner. My fragmented sentences truly reflect my thoughts on this one.

Micah Tuttle has heard his Grandfather Ephraim's "Circus Mirandus" stories all his life, but when he finally gets to enter the world of stories for real, he finds magic in illusions that give him hope when things look bleak. His grandpa is dying and Micah needs a miracle to save his life. Micah knows that the Lightbender promised Ephraim a miracle as a young boy that he never used. Micah wants Ephraim to use that miracle now for a cure so he doesn't die and Micah will have to live with the unimaginative and mean-spirited Aunt Gertrudis. Grandpa Ephraim cashes in his "ticket" for a miracle and most of the story is spent seeing what that miracle is. Micah makes friends with Jenny, a girl in his class that doesn't believe in magic but science. She's a loyal friend and grounds Micah in reality as he gets lost in the world of magic.

Illusion in Circus Mirandus is suppose to inspire hope and good-will for children that represent the future. Not everyone understands the power of illusion. Aunt Gertrudis felt deceived by the world of illusion as she never got to see Circus Mirandus. Victoria believes that magic is power and should be spent on oneself and not children. She uses magic for the wrong reasons. Micah and his Grandpa believe in the good and joy that magic brings to their lives. The Lightbender is the master of illusion and a metaphor for storytelling.

Micah and Ephraim tell the Lightbender that he has "changed" them. Storytelling in its own right is a form of illusion with the goal of changing the reader. Readers must be able to enter another world and identify with the characters. In that alternate make-believe world they can interpret what is happening in the plot, apply it to themselves and develop new understandings of themselves in a complex world. In this case, Micah is dealing with death and the choices he makes in life. He realizes that he can't control the adults around him, but he can control his attitude and beliefs. Storytelling is passed from generation to generation and as Ephraim passes his stories on to Micah the tradition and history of this craft is highlighted. Stories as a form of entertainment, socialization, ethics, and education can be found in every culture from ancient times (i.e. Gilgamesh, Beowulf, Vedas, Shijing) to the present.

The friendship between Jenny and Micah reveals the complexity of relationships from acquaintances to interpersonal bonding. Jenny is skeptical of magic and at times embarrasses Micah with her lack of understanding when she meets others from the circus. She's not sensitive to what she is saying and only realizes something is up because Micah seems upset. But Micah doesn't abandon their friendship because of a fight. She helps settle him down during emotional moments and gives sound advice at critical moments. Micah knows this and reminds himself of her strengths when he feels let down or angry with her. The two disagree but they are respectful of each others opinions.

Aunt Gertrudis is an archetype like Dicken's Scrooge or more accurately Roald Dahl's Aunt Spiker. She is wicked and more of a caricature that represents human qualities than a three-dimensional character. I understand that hyperboles are a good way to to point out the details of characters, but it doesn't work for me if the character is cliched or stereotyped. Aunt Gertrudis is neither, but she was plain ole frustrating with her lack of compassion and use of authority to keep Micah from seeing his grandpa. I thought the plot's action got slightly repetitive as she kept preventing him to see his grandpa.

Aunt Gertrudis' description is delicious: "On the inside, Aunt Gertrudis was probably cough syrup. She wore her dust-colored hair twisted into a bun so tight it almost pulled her wrinkled skin smooth, and she starched her shirts until the collars were stiff enough to cut. She made black tea every day in a bright steel kettle. The tea was scalding and bitter, a lot like her, and she wouldn't let Micah add sugar because she said bad teeth ran in the family."

Now compare the above description to Aunt Spiker in Roald Dahl's book. "Aunt Sponge was enormously fat and very short. She had small piggy eyes, a sunken mouth and one of those white flabby faces that looked exactly as though it had been boiled. She was like a great white soggy overboiled cabbage. Aunt Spiker, on the other hand, was lean and tall and bony, and she wore steel-rimmed spectacles that fixed on to the end of her nose with a clip. She had a screeching voice and long wet narrow lips, and whenever she got angry or excited, little flecks of spit would come shooting out of her mouth as she talked. And there they sat, these two ghastly hags, sipping their drinks, and every now and again screaming at James to chop faster and faster. They also talked about themselves, each one saying how beautiful she thought she was."

Grandpa Ephraim explains to Micah that if you hold on too hard to something you break it. When something becomes too important in life such as magic, money, power, fame, it leads to self-centered choices that are distorted in reality. Victoria thought she was so important and special that she murdered animals to prove a point and didn't see anything wrong with it. For her, the future did not exist in the children she brought happiness to but existed in satisfying her own needs and wallowing in her magical powers. She desires to be special, to stand out. Like Aunt Gertrudis she is an archetype  villain whose perspective is distorted in the quest for power.

Circus Mirandus nutures magic. But magic is what is inside of people. For Micah, magic is in the knots he can tie that reflect the complexity of others. For Jenny, magic is in her friendship to Micah and ability to be open to new ideas. Magic for the Lightbender is to create fantastic illusions that give hope in the impossible. Magic is the part of a person that is too big to keep to himself or herself and must be given to others in order for a person to reach his or her potential. Magic is a metaphor for giving to others. Individual talents are not for personal gain but used to nuture and share with others. Like I said, I had a hard time pulling out one strong overall theme that the character development points back to. I think its magic. In the end, I feel more like Big Anthony who loses control of his pasta pot. Perhaps someone else can take my mishmash and make sense out of it. I'm done drudging through my thoughts and I'm hungry for spaghetti.

5 Smileys

Rose (Rose #1) by Holly Webb

Some authors do such a good job slowly divulging the plot. It's similar to how we trained our puppy; a trail of broken treat crumbs snaking across the floor into her kennel at bedtime. Holly Webb leaves clue-crumbs spaced at just the right distance leaving me in eager anticipation of the next event. I'm not very tolerant of slow-paced plots and if the character isn't interesting or the writing beautiful I will abandon the book in a snap. This book was entertaining with its spunky main character, Rose, but it also shows class differences and attitudes between rich people and servants. Even though not much happens in the beginning, Rose either does or has enough odd things happen to her to keep me chugging happily along.

The Victorian setting is flavored with a magical twist. Only rich people can practice magic because it is expensive and when Rose gets a housemaid job at Mr. Fountain's mansion she's ecstatic. Happy to be chosen out of all the girls at St. Bridget's Home for Abandoned Girls, Rose has always dreamed of making an income and being independent. She tries to hide that she has a smidge of magic, thinking she'll get fired if her upper class magical employers discover her secret. When Rose discovers her best friend has disappeared along with other children in town, she decides to use her magic skills to find them. Freddie, Mr. Fountain's apprentice, mentors her on magic as they try to solve the mystery.

Rose is a likable character. She takes action or holds back out of self-preservation when necessary. She doesn't want to acknowledge her magic because she doesn't want to lose her job. She's worked so hard to become independent it is easy to see why she is so cautious. Circumstances force her to reveal her abilities to Freddie and the talking magical cat, Gus. She doesn't want adults to know her abilities from her employers to the other servants who are suspicious and frightened of magic. Her magic frightens her at times too. She denies her magical skills at first and tries to give logical explanations as to why her story came to life in a picture form while she was telling it to Maisie. Her denial turns to acceptance eventually and the slow process of self-realization is one of the character developments I really enjoyed.

I would have liked more of Rose's background and exploration of why magic is in the upper class. The reader is not sure if orphan Rose is of an upper class background or if she is lower class. I hope it is the later for it would be more interesting if the lower class had magic too, but they just do not know how to use it or if it is being suppressed by those in power. Of course, this is a short book and that would have made it denser perhaps losing the interest of the young reader. It is tricky balancing action that moves things along versus slogging through backstory. But I have to mention it because I kept waiting for it to be addressed as I was reading and it never was. Perhaps in the sequels, it will be addressed.

Freddie comes across as a snob who becomes intrigued by Rose and goes out of his way to be her friend when his curiosity gets the better of him. Gus, the talking cat, adds humor and looks out for the two children as they pursue the villains. Freddie's sister, Isabella, is a spoiled brat that is so used to getting her way that it is amazing when the adventure brings out the best in her and her stubbornness is used for the good of others. The differences in what Rose would like to say but knows she can't due to class differences is ripe for discussion. She's good at manipulating the children without getting them in trouble. She also diffused Freddie's jealousy of her powerful magic by her self-denial. She really didn't want it and he couldn't understand her rejection of such a powerful gift and desire to be a servant. The character developments are quite well-done. The end has some violence that might disturb some. The villain has some blood-drinking actions that threaten to kill some children. A good addition for your library.

4 Smileys

The Emerald Altas by John Stephens

Magic. Wizards. Time Travel. Dwarves. Witches. Adventure. Sounds fun, right? It is!

In The Emerald Atlas, by John Stephens, Kate, Michael, and Emma are being shuffled from orphanage to orphanage after their parents mysteriously give them up. Kate is told by her mother to look after Michael and Emma, but when they end up in a creepy mansion in Cambridge Falls with a book that allows them to travel through time, Kate's job becomes impossible. Not only are evil creatures trying to capture the three children who are the only ones who can use the powerful ancient books, but an evil witch has captured the children of Cambridge Falls and will kill them if Kate doesn't give her the ancient book called, The Atlas. Can she change the future? This fast-paced book is sure to be popular with students.   

The characterizations are hilarious, especially with the dwarf, King Hamish: "...'fore we get started on the whole thingamabob, what're the names a' these brats a' yours who think they can just go walkin' in my land when and where they please? Eh" Tell me that."

"It wasn't on purpose," Kate bagan. "We-"

"Oi!" Hamish smacked the table. "Did I tell you to speak?! Huh? Did I say, 'I want to hear from one of the brats'? Did I say, 'I wish one a' them brats would pipe up'? The dwarves around him shook their heads vigorously. "No! I said, 'Magician.' That's 'im!" He pointed a chicken wing at Dr. Pym. "So you, lassie, just keep your yapper shut. Bloody manners on this one."

The housekeeper is funny as well. The humor and wit made the story fun and the plot twists were surprising. The part where Kate naively ends up with the witch was predictable but a surprise comes quickly thereafter. The writing is in third person omniscient from Kate's point of view with the occasional shift to a minor character; mostly Emma. I believe this is because the next book will be from Emma's point of view. The setup is for a sequel with many unanswered questions, but the book has a distinct ending - I didn't feel cheated. The female characters are strong. Kate is the kind caretaker, Emma is spunky and brave, Michael is academic and brilliant. There is some violence but most is tempered with humor.

5.1 Reading Level

:-) :-) :-) :-) 4.5 out of 5 Smileys