Waiting on Wednesday: Witchkiller by Ashlee Latimer

Image: Scholastic Inc. 

Witchkiller by Ashlee Latimer. 336 p. Scholastic Press/ Scholastic Inc. October 7, 2025. 9781546137689.

I absolutely love a great fairy tale retelling or spin-off and this one sounds amazing. 

Publisher synopsis: Gretel had no choice.

Her brother Hansel was in danger, and she had to kill the witch. Five months later, she is still ripped from her dreams and awoken by the noise of her sword tearing into the witch's flesh. Her waking hours are no better. Hansel has grown more and more like their monstrous father by the day. The society she now inhabits has trapped her in an endless cycle of balls with nobles who sneer at her family's new money. And worst of all, her greedy father has issued his newest ploy to increase his wealth. Gretel must marry, and soon.

Devastated at the prospect of a lifetime with an old, decrepit husband, she flees a ball...and runs right into Prince Wilfried. When Gretel divulges the reality of her situation, Wilfried comes up with a solution. He is also being pressured to find a suitable future queen -- they can both delay the inevitable by faking an engagement. Gretel agrees, and what starts as a ruse quickly deepens as she finds herself falling for the handsome prince.

But in the quiet of night, still trapped in her castle with her memories, Gretel feels the walls closing in and ventures into the neighboring woods. There, she meets Katharina, a beautiful witch who introduces her to the witch community. But these women aren't evil -- they're healers, and Gretel is drawn to them.

When information comes to light implicating her family's involvement in a traitorous plot and endangering the lives of herself and those she's grown to care about, Gretel must ask herself -- did the wrong person die in that cottage? And can the Witchkiller become a witch?

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Cursed by Marissa Meyer

Image: Macmillan

Cursed by Marissa Meyer. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~16 hours. Read by Rebecca Soler. Macmillan Young Listeners/ Macmillan Audio, November, 2022. (Review of e-audio borrowed from public library.)

Teen Tuesday features Cursed by Marissa Meyer. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! This conclusion to the duology that began with Gilded hits the ground running and doesn't let up! Serilda can't escape the clutches of the Erlking without putting those she loves in danger. She's trapped in the castle awaiting a marriage she doesn't want. She's cursed and once she learns of the Erlking's plans, so is everyone in the world.

The writing is lush. The world building is astounding. The plot is intricate and layered with plenty of twists, turns and betrayal. And that cover! So gorgeous! Teen readers who love fairy tale retellings absolutely must read Ms. Meyer's work and must read Gilded before Cursed.

Rebecca Soler's voiced Serilda perfectly, adding to the suspense. 

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Cinder and Glass by Melissa de la Cruz

Image: Penguin Random House

Cinder and Glass by Melissa de la Cruz. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~10 hours. Read by Lauren Ezzo. Listening Library/ Books on Tape/ Penguin Random House, March, 2022. (Review of e-audio borrowed from public library.)

Happy Tuesday! It's going to be a lovely day today! I hope you get outside, get some exercise, then sit in the shade with a good book. I took Boo for a medium-long walk, went to yoga class, and will be heading into the garden with an audiobook soon.

Teen Tuesday features Cinder and Glass by Melissa de la Cruz. This is a lush and lovely retelling of Cinderella set in the late 1600s at Versailles during the reign of King Louis XIV. Cendrillon's hopes of becoming a lady-in-waiting in King Louis' court are dashed when her beloved father suddenly remarries and dies soon after. Her stepmother assumes ownership of the chateau and Cendrillon is reduced to a life of servitude. She had hoped her godmother would eventually marry her father. Cendrillon wonders why she doesn't visit. She's isolated and lonely. So when the king decides to have a ball in order to pick 25 maidens for his son, Prince Louis to court, Cendrillon decides to attend.

Setting aside Cendrillon's infuriating naïveté, something teen readers won't notice, but this old lady did, fans of fairy tale retellings will love it. This fast-paced romance may have familiar trappings, but there is plenty to delight, with plenty of court intrigue along the way. The narration was well-paced and engaging. 

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen

Image: Penguin Random House

Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~11 hours. Read by Yetide Badaki. Listening Library/ Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group, November, 2021. (Review of downloadable e-audiobook borrowed from the public library.)

Happy Tuesday! Posting a tad late today because I needed to solve the Wordle entry. Do you Wordle? So much fun!

Teen Tuesday features a sparkling debut called Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen. During the time when large ships would arrive in West Africa to steal humans, Simi is a Mami Wata, a mermaid whose job it is to collect the souls of those who die in the sea and send them home. Simi is a restless mermaid, who often returns to the land in order to remember her life as a human. Once she returns to the sea, however, those memories fade. One day, she discovers a boy in the ocean, thrown overboard by one of those evil ships, and he is alive! She can't leave him to drown and, in saving him, has broken an ancient rule and angered the gods. Now, she must make amends and also help the boy, Colo, reunite with his family.

Ms. Bowen notes in her Author's Note that her favorite fairy tale when growing up was The Little Mermaid despite the fact that she did not see herself in it. Later, she learned of the existence of West African myths that described mermaids. This historical fiction/ mythology mash-up is the first book of a duology and I can't wait for the next one! I fell in love with Simi and Colo and the twins, I laughed and I cried. 

The West African setting is vivid and lush and the writing is gorgeous! I was glad that I read this one with my ears. It was narrated by a West African narrator so I learned the proper pronunciation of the names of the gods and human characters.

And isn't that cover just amazing? 

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Gilded by Marissa Meyer

Image: Macmillan Publishers

Gilded by Marissa Meyer. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~16 hours. Read by Rebecca Soler. Macmillan Young Listeners/ Macmillan Audio, November, 2021. 9781250810588. (Review of downloadable e-audiobook borrowed from public library. HC purchased.)

Happy Tuesday! Dress for the weather this morning, it's windy out there! I hope my students had a wonderful three-day weekend. We teachers had a satisfying professional development day yesterday.

Teen Tuesday features Gilded by Marissa Meyer. Ms. Meyer gave Cinderella a sci-fi mash-up with her impressive debut, Cinder in 2012. Careful readers of the Daily Book Talk might remember that I featured Gilded in a Waiting on Wednesday post not long ago. In Gilded, she reimagines Rumplestiltskin. Now, Rumplestiltskin has never been a favorite of mine. So misogynistic! But, this! 

Serilda Moller is the miller's daughter who lives with her father in the village of Marchenfeld where she is known for her wild tales/ lies and her unusual eyes. Her father claims she is god-blessed. She feels it's more like god-cursed because the villagers basically shun her-all except the children. The children adore her stories and always ask for more. She also knows to remain indoors at the full moon when the Erlking and his hunting party of ghouls and hellhounds scour the countryside. On the night of the Cold Moon, Serilda saves two Moss Maidens from the Erlking, but then is discovered herself. When he questions why she is out on such a night, she says that she needs to harvest straw so that she might spin it into gold. He allows her to live, but returns at the next full moon, abducts her and brings her to his castle, where he locks her in a dungeon filled with straw and orders her to spin.

Serilda, to her credit, does try to spin the straw, but it's hopeless and she knows it. Suddenly, she's not alone in the dungeon. A redheaded boy appears. He says his name is Gild, he has no memory, and he's willing to spin the straw into gold-for a price.

If this summary doesn't quite fit your memory of Rumplestiltskin, you would be right. The bare bones are there, but Ms. Meyer has crafted her own spin on the yarn, one that is infinitely richer and more ominous than the traditional tale. The fairytale king and his court are truly hideous and terribly violent. The Moss Maidens she rescued, while grateful in their own way, viewed the act as a transaction.

Well-drawn characters and a vivid setting, especially the undead castle captivate readers from the start. I usually avoid reading too many reviews, and so did not realize that this is a series starter. I disagree that the story got a little slow. I just loved the world building. 

Gilded, weighing in at ~16 hours of listening (512 pages), with its depiction of ruthless fey politics, is best suited for a more mature teen reader, but highly recommended.

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim

Image: Penguin Random House

Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~13 hours. Read by Emily Woo Zeller. Listening Library/ Penguin Random House Audio, July, 2021. 9780593398876. (Review of e-audio borrowed from public library.)

Happy Tuesday! I hope you dress for the weather today! It's COLD out there (in northern NJ)! Teen Tuesday features Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim. I admit that I'm partial to fairy tale retellings and boy, have I been on a tear lately, each one better than the last. It wasn't hard to discern from the title, which fairy tale the author retold, The Wild Swans is one of my favorites. I learned from the publisher's page for the book that it also weaves in elements of Cinderella as well as two tales that are new to me-Tale of the Bamboo Cutter and the legend of Chang E.

Shiori-anma is the youngest of her father's seven children. She's the only girl and his favorite. She's a pampered princess in every way, always getting her own way, until her father decided whom she will wed when she turned seventeen. Shiori wants nothing to do with this barbarian prince from a northern province. She's also hiding a secret. She has magic and her father has forbidden magic in his kingdom. So far, she has been able to keep her talent hidden, despite the close call with the paper crane she brought to life. When she loses control on the day of her betrothal ceremony and runs into the lake, she catches the eye of a water dragon, who rescues her and changes into his human form to talk to her. Her icy step-mother, whom Shiori believes possesses magic, curses her six brothers-by day, they inhabit the bodies of crimson crane and change back into their human forms only by night. Shiori is banished, cursed to wear a bowl on her head and warned that if she speaks, one of her brothers will die for each word she utters. And so, penniless, voiceless and with only her secret paper crane as company, Shiori sets out in search of her brothers and a way to break the curse.

Weighing in at more than 450 pages and 13 hours on audio, this story is epic! It's also the beginning of a series and I cannot wait for book two! The writing is wonderfully rich, but man, the pace is fast! The setting is quite vivid and the characters are all well-developed and complex. I loved the stories within the story as well. 

Emily Woo Zeller is becoming a favorite narrator. She paces her performances well and has a wide repertoire of voices. 

Book two, The Dragon's Promise doesn't have any info or cover yet. It's due out in August. 

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Sea Witch by Sarah Henning

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

Sea Witch by Sarah Henning. Unabridged e-audiobook, 550 minutes. Read by Billie Fulford-Brown. Katherine Tegan Books/ HarperAudio/ HarperCollins Publishers, July, 2018. 978

Teen Tuesday features Sea Witch by Sarah Henning. While I love a good fairy tale retelling, I especially love a good villain origin story. The very first one I remember is The Magic Circle by Donna Jo Napoli, which explores the origin of the witch in Hansel and Gretel. More recently, I was captivated by Heartless by Marissa Meyer, which tells the story of the Queen of Hearts from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I cannot wait to read Gilded by Ms. Meyer as well.

Evie lives in Havnestad, a kingdom by the sea in Denmark with her fisherman father and elderly aunt. Magic and witchcraft are forbidden. Evie's aunt is a healer, rumored to be a witch, but left alone because she once saved the king's life. Evie is best friends with the king's son, Prince Nik and Anna. Evie has been an outcast ever since Anna's death by drowning three or four years earlier. Nik managed to save Evie but not Anna and Evie feels tremendous guilt over that. The townspeople whisper about the unseemly friendship between Nik and Evie, especially as Nik is about to come of age. Nik doesn't care and invites Evie to attend his birthday party on his father's new ship. Evie sees a face looking in a port hole that looks like Anna, but it's gone before Evie can take a closer look. A sudden storm blows in and Nik is swept overboard. Evie and Nik's cousin, Iker search frantically for Nik and Evie finds him washed ashore and alive, but not alone. It seems a girl has saved Evie's best friend, but then she disappears into the ocean.

The pace is quite leisurely in the beginning, which might deter readers who like action earlier. Evie is a conflicted narrator prone to dismissing herself as just a poor fisherman's daughter so much so that it became annoying. Still, the dynamics between Evie and the two princely cousins was cute and the mystery of Annamette was intriguing. Once all the pieces begin to click into place, the pace quickens to dizzying and the reader is left breathless at its conclusion.

The new-to-me narrator had a wide array of voices and was well-suited to the material. I'm interested in reading the companion, Rise of the Sea Witch soon. 

Teen Tuesday: Beasts and Beauty by Soman Chainani

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales by Soman Chainani. 334 p. HarperCollins Publishers, September, 2021. 9780062652638.

Happy Tuesday! Today is the Winter Solstice! The sun will set at 4:31 tonight, ushering in the longest period of darkness of the year, but tomorrow, the sun begins to return a bit more each day. Teen Tuesday features Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales by Soman Chainani. If the author's name seems familiar to, it's because you faithfully read the Daily Book Talks. Earlier this school year, I finally took an eighth grader's suggestion and read School for Good and Evil, in which the author took many fairy tale tropes and turned them inside out in the start of an original and delightful series. 

He does the same with twelve classic fairy tales here in this handsome, beautifully illustrated collection. You might recognize the names of some, but that is where the resemblance stops. The characters are racially diverse and there's LGBTQ representation as well. Plus, you won't find one maiden in distress needing rescue, but you will find one man in distress!

Readers used to the Disney version of fairy tales might be shocked by the violence and gore in many of these tales. You might recall that I mentioned that way back when the tales were collected, they were quite violent - even Cinderella! Mr. Chainani's retellings are atmospheric and eerie, subversive and surprising. So settle into your favorite reading spot with a nice cup of hot cocoa and prepare to be unsettled.

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Darling by K. Ancrum

Image: Macmillan

Darling by K. Ancrum. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~7 hours. Read by Angel Pean. Tantor Audio/ Tantor Media, June, 2021. (Review of e-audio borrowed from the public library.)

Teen Tuesday features Darling by K. Ancrum. Darling is a contemporary retelling of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. It is a dark and twisty thriller that mature teen readers will find hard to put down.

First, you may be wondering why, during Native American/ Indigenous Heritage Month, I am featuring a retelling of the Peter Pan story. Both Barrie and Disney treated the Tiger Lily part of the storyline very stereotypically. In Darling, the Tiger Lily character is called Ominotago, and she is fierce, independent and determined. But I'm getting ahead of the plot.

Wendy Darling has moved from the suburbs to Chicago with her overprotective parents. She's stifling under their rules, but recognizes that they love her. Her window doesn't close properly, but her father postpones fixing it, telling her to put a book in the opening. That doesn't deter the person who later breaks into the Darling home thinking that it's empty. That person is Peter Pan, a beautiful, charismatic boy. Nana, the Darling dog, ripped the sleeve off Peter's favorite jacket and Wendy sews it back on for him. Peter invites Wendy to come to a party with him and Tinkerbell. Tink is furious, but Wendy is intrigued. What could be wrong with going out with the boy who broke into your house for a night in a brand new city where you know no one?

Readers soon meet the Lost Boys, but new characters are also introduced, including Ominotago's football teammates. The two crews need to duck into a nightclub called "The Mermaid's Lagoon" to hide from the police, headed by a detective known as Hook. The cast of characters is huge but each is fully fleshed out and quite diverse. The Chicago setting, complete with a ride on the L, is vivid.

If you are a fan of thrillers, Darling is the book for you. I probably should've read this one with my eyes, in part because I can read faster, especially when the suspense is high, but mostly because I didn't love the narration. The narrator mispronounced quite a few words and that became a distraction. Also, her pacing was erratic and didn't match the mood. 

Teen Tuesday: Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas

Image: Macmillan Publishers

Lost In the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~12 hours and 13 minutes. Read by Avi Roque. Macmillan Audio, March, 2021. 9781250779557. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Happy Tuesday and L'Shana Tovah to all who are celebrating the Jewish New Year. May you have a sweet start to, 5782, the new year.

Teen Tuesday features Lost In the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas. Eighteen-year-old Wendy Darling is driving home from her volunteer job at the local hospital one night, when a shadowy figure lands on the hood of her truck. She pulls over to the side of the road to investigate and discovers a boy lying on there. He appears to be unconscious, but he opens the bluest eyes Wendy has ever seen and he calls her by her name! She has no idea who this boy is, but she has been obsessively drawing him and a picture of a gnarled tree for the past five years-ever since she and her brothers disappeared into the woods. 

Wendy was the only to return after a six month absence, clutching an acorn and with no memory of who took her or what happened to her brothers. Wendy's memory loss has been frustrating for her, her parents, the police and the town, all of whom want closure, especially since two children went missing recently. The boy is named Peter and his shadow has something to do with the disappearance of the children. Peter begs for Wendy's help finding his shadow before any more children disappear. Wendy agrees and as they investigate, more children disappear, most having some connection to Wendy Darling.

This modern-day Peter Pan story just thrums with suspense and atmosphere. While there are subtle references to the J.M. Barrie classic, this twisty, menacing tale is wholly original, scary, occasionally humorous and delightful.

Lost in the Never Woods is perfect for fans of fairy tale updates/ retellings or any reader who enjoys a twisty mystery. I wasn't a huge fan of the audiobook, though. The narrator chose to pause at odd times fairly consistently through the book, frequently taking me out of the story. They also lacked nuance between different voices, often leading to confusion about who was speaking.

#tbt: A Curse as Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Image: Author's Website

A Curse as Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce. 400 p. Arthur A. Levine Books/ Scholastic Inc. March, 2008. 9780439895767. (Own)

Happy penultimate Thursday of the 2021 school year! #tbt features A Curse as Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce. I hope Ms. Bunce's name seems familiar to you now, since I featured her Myrtle Hardcastle Mysteries on Monday and Wednesday! A Curse as Dark as Gold is a reimagining of the Rumplestiltskin fairy tale. 

Charlotte Miller's father has died leaving his struggling textile mill to his daughters. Townsfolk like to say that the mill is cursed, but Charlotte is determined to make it work despite the fact that her greedy uncle would like to see it fail. Enter a dwarf named Jack Spinner. What would Charlotte do in order to succeed?

A Curse as Dark as Gold is long. Clocking in at almost 400 pages and tending toward slow and elaborate pacing, this won't appeal to teens who like fast and furious. Thoughtful teens, especially those who enjoy fairy tale retellings will appreciate the lovely writing, vivid setting and fascinating characters, as well as Ms. Bunce's take on what might be my least favorite fairy tale. I really liked it.

This story was published in 2008 and was Ms. Bunce's debut. It won the William Morris Award, which is given to a debut author and it was named an ALA Best Book For Young Adults as well as a Smithsonian Notable Book.

#tbt: A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz

Image: Penguin Random House

A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz. Illustrated by Hugh D'Andrade. 288 p. Dutton/ Penguin Young Readers, October, 2010. 

#tbt features A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz. Fairy tales have been watered down over the years, especially by Disney. The folklore was passed from village to village, generation to generation in the oral tradition - a way of entertaining and perhaps warning. They were scary and often gruesome stories! Adam Gidwitz returned to that tradition in his hair-raising debut. Hansel and Gretel are wandering the woods in search of nicer parents after their father, the king tried to behead them. Wait, what? That's not the story I heard. Mr. Gidwitz delightfully fractures multiple fairy tales in the siblings' adventure through the dark woods.

A Tale Dark and Grimm was published in October of 2010 and received multiple honors, such as being named an E.B. White Honor as well as a New York Times Editor's Choice. That book was followed by two sequels, In a Glass Grimmly and The Grimm Conclusion. The inspiration for the book arose from the stories Mr. Gidwitz told his students while working as a teacher in a NYC school.

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Poisoned by Jennifer Donnelly

Image: Scholastic Inc.

Poisoned by Jennifer Donnelly. Unabridged downloadable e-audiobook, ~11 hours. Read by Rosie Jones. Scholastic Audio, October, 2020. 9781338637496. (Review of e-audiobook downloaded from public library. HC purchased.)

Teen Tuesday features Poisoned by Jennifer Donnelly. Buckle up everyone! This is no Disney version of Snow White! This feminist fairy tale hews a bit closer to the Brothers Grimm. It is dark and twisty and oh so intriguing.

"Once upon a time, a girl named Sophie rode into the forest with the queen's huntsman. Her lips were the color of ripe cherries, her skin as soft as new-fallen snow, her hair as dark as midnight. When they stopped to rest, the huntsman took out his knife… and took Sophie's heart."

Wait, what? Yes, dear Reader, Princess Charlotta-Sidonia Wilhelmina Sophia of the Greenlands - Sophie, was left for dead by the Queen's huntsman in this re-imagined fairy tale by Ms. Donnelly, who, you may remember, re-imagined Cinderella from the stepsister's POV in Stepsister.

Sophie was rescued by seven brothers, who were able to capture her soul before it was too late. One brother fashioned a clockwork heart to replace hers and Sophie recovered in their home in a hollow. Alas, clockwork, no matter how finely crafted does tend to wind down eventually, though Sophie does not know this initially. She pines for her prince, whom she betrothed the night before her "murder." She continues to think he will come searching for her. Poor kind and naive Sophie!

This tale is familiar, yet new and filled with an intriguing cast of characters. It is richly atmospheric, menacing and really satisfying. I read this one with my ears and was always sorry to have to turn it off. If you love magic and fairy tale retellings, you will love Poisoned. Isn't that cover incredible?

Waiting on Wednesday: Poisoned by Jennifer Donnelly

Poisoned by Jennifer Donnelly. 320 p. Scholastic Press/ Scholastic Inc., October, 20, 2020. 9781338268492.

Publisher synopsis: Snow White's stepmother wanted to get rid of the beautiful stepdaughter who was challenging her title of 'most beautiful' - by any means necessary. Was Snow White poisoned? What happens to the poisoned, and the poisoner?

Jennifer Donnelly turns her feminist eye to this most delicious of fairy tales and shows Snow White as she's never been seen before.

I just adore Donnelly's books and thought that Stepsister was brilliant. Of course, I can't wait for this! And isn't that cover just brilliant?

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly

Image: Scholastic

Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~13 hours. Read by Jayne Entwistle. Scholastic Audio, May, 2019. 9781338357677. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Happy Tuesday TMS Readers! Don't let the rain get you down! Go out and sing in it, then dry off and curl up with a good book! Teen Tuesday features Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly. Author Donnelly begins at the end of the Cinderella tale and weaves a wholly original tale of identity and redemption. 

If the Disney version of Cinderella is the only one you are familiar with, then you're in for a bit of a shock. You see, Cinderella's stepmother had one stepdaughter cut off her heel in order to fit into the glass slipper that was left behind at the ball. When that didn't work, thanks to some tattletale birds living in the linden tree, she had the other stepsister, Isabelle, cut off her toes in order to fit the slipper. 

Isabelle doesn't want to. All her life, she has been told she doesn't fit in - she's too bold, she's too headstrong, her interests in horseback riding and fencing aren't feminine and she certainly has no interest in marrying the prince! Her heart belongs to someone else; someone who left her brokenhearted. 

We know that the stepsisters' ruse did not fool the prince and the archduke. What we don't know is what happened to the stepsisters after Cinderella's "happily ever after." Donnelly's fierce, feminist, wholly engrossing and original fairy tale is not for the faint of heart. It is, however, a must-read if you are a fan of fairy tale retellings, magic and fantasy and intricately plotted adventure. Isn't that cover gloriously gory?

Jayne Entwistle turns in an absolutely fabulous performance. Her vocal changes are subtle and consistent. The pace is careful, almost leisurely giving the listener time to savor the delicious writing and wry commentary. This is one I may reread with my eyes and underline (yes, underline) all the examples of terrific writing and plotting.

Middle Grade Monday and Audio Review: Everland by Wendy Spinale

Everland by Wendy Spinale. Everland series #1. Unabridged downloaded audiobook, 8 hours, 56 minutes. Read by Fiona Hardingham and Steve West. Scholastic Audio, May, 2016.

I just adore fairy tale retellings/ reimaginings! This steampunk Peter Pan story was just superb!

England has been invaded by Germany. More specifically, Captain Hanz Otto Oswald Kretschmer (HOOK) has taken London and driven out the queen. The wrinkle to his complete and utter conquest is that his bombing blitzkrieg unleashed a deadly virus (which had been sent by Germany earlier). It has killed most of the surviving adults and female children. The human race is in danger of extinction, except there may be one human female who is immune to the virus. 

Gwen Darling is trying to keep her siblings, Johanna and Mikey safe and hidden. But Hook and his troops are closing in. She is rescued by Pete and Bella while out scavenging; but Johanna, who has been left behind with Mikey is not so lucky. She has been captured by Hook's men. Gwen and Mikey join Pete and the Lost Boys in their underground hideout, but she really wants to rescue her sister, which means venturing into Hook's lair. 

Debut author Spinale has created a world that is at once familiar and brand new. Readers familiar with J.M. Barrie's work will recognize some of the quotes rolled into this incredible new twist. 

Hardingham and West are favorite narrators of mine. Together they narrate the spectacular fantasy series, Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. Hardingham narrated Puck's part in Scorpio Races  by Maggie Stiefvater. The majority of the book is from Gwen's POV. Hardingham's clear and musical voice lends urgency and desperation to Gwen's story.

I cannot wait to read the second and third installments in the series, which blend other stories. Give this to fans of fantasy, steampunk fans or any reader looking for terrific worldbuilding. 

#tbt: The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. 400 p. Books of Bayern series #1. Bloomsbury USA, August, 2003. 9781582348438. (own)

Happy Thursday TMS Readers! #tbt features a favorite of mine. Shannon Hale's debut, The Goose Girl was published in 2003. It is a retelling of a fairy tale of the same name that was collected by the Brothers Grimm in the 1800s. Hale remained quite faithful to the Grimm version but also created a world and secondary characters all her own. It is the story of Princess Ani who is supposed to travel to another kingdom to meet her betrothed but she is betrayed by her maid. Her maid convinces some of the guards to kill the loyal guards and the princess, but Ani flees into the forest. The maid continues to the palace posing as Princess Ani. The story is complicated but moves quickly thanks to interesting characters and a fascinating fantasy world. Hale went on to write several companion novels to The Goose Girl and set her Princess Academy series in a nearby kingdom. She collaborated with her husband on two graphic novels based on Rapunzel. These were illustrated by Nathan Hale (no relation). Most recently, Hale wrote a graphic novel memoir called Real Friends, which is a TMS favorite.

Waiting on Wednesday: The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson

The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson. 278 p. Scholastic Inc., September 25, 2018. 9781338209969.

Publisher synopsis: All 12-year-old Marinka wants is a friend. A real friend. Not like her house with chicken legs. Sure, the house can play games like tag and hide-and-seek, but Marinka longs for a human companion. Someone she can talk to and share secrets with.

But that's tough when your grandmother is a Yaga, a guardian who guides the dead into the afterlife. It's even harder when you live in a house that wanders all over the world . . . carrying you with it. Even worse, Marinka is being trained to be a Yaga. That means no school, no parties -- and no playmates that stick around for more than a day.

So when Marinka stumbles across the chance to make a real friend, she breaks all the rules . . . with devastating consequences. Her beloved grandmother mysteriously disappears, and it's up to Marinka to find her -- even if it means making a dangerous journey to the afterlife.

With a mix of whimsy, humor, and adventure, this debut novel will wrap itself around your heart and never let go.

I enjoy fairy tales retellings and variants. Plus, that cover!