Read a New Book: Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs: Activities During Corona

Smoke Bitten (A Mercy Thompson Novel Book 12) by Patricia Briggs was released last week and was one of my escape hatches from Coronavirus Isolation last week. I've been reading Briggs' for years and years. This newest entry in her Mercy Thompson series is fun and particularly suitable for SurLaLune (several in the series are) because of the appearance of fairy tales in it. Diamonds and Toads provides some inspiration. Baba Yaga is a recurring character who makes an appearance. And so much of the world building uses folklore and fairy tales in general.

In this one, another well-known fairy tale character is one of the villains in the book. It's a built-up reveal that fairy tale fans may pick up on earlier than others--the clues are fair and accurate--but I don't want to ruin it by saying who. However, it was a fun element of the book for me.

Mercy Thompson, car mechanic and shapeshifter, faces a threat unlike any other in this thrilling entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

I am Mercedes Athena Thompson Hauptman.

My only “superpowers” are that I turn into a thirty-five pound coyote and fix Volkswagens. But I have friends in odd places and a pack of werewolves at my back. It looks like I'm going to need them.

Centuries ago, the fae dwelt in Underhill—until she locked her doors against them. They left behind their great castles and troves of magical artifacts. They abandoned their prisoners and their pets. Without the fae to mind them, those creatures who remained behind roamed freely through Underhill wreaking havoc. Only the deadliest survived.

Now one of those prisoners has escaped. It can look like anyone, any creature it chooses. But if it bites you, it controls you. It lives for chaos and destruction. It can make you do anything—even kill the person you love the most. Now it is here, in the Tri-Cities. In my territory.

It won't, can't, remain.

Not if I have anything to say about it.

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IAFA 37 Conference: Day 1

Hello all!

I send greetings from Orlando, FL where I am attending IAFA 37. After some airport adventures way too early this morning, we--hubby John is traveling with me although he's not attending the conference itself--arrived safely at the Marriott Hotel where the conference is held. I attended the opening session and the first papers session today and worked to get my tired brain into an academic mode.

First up was The Opening Panel: Wonder Tales with Moderator: Gary K. Wolfe, Delia Sherman (replacing absent Terri Windling), Holly Black and Cristina Bacchilega. The discussion centered around "wonder" as a term and experience, from the perspective of both creators and scholars. Some intriguing comments and questions were shared which I don't feel up to trying to convey here tonight as I write. Quite frankly, I would fail even with the helps of my notes to convey the nuances and tenor of the discussion.

Next up was the first set of sessions for the conference. It is challenging to pick one for each session but this time I chose to attend:

The Power of the Female Body in YA Fairy Tale Adaptations
Chair: Amanda Firestone
The University of Tampa

“And they lived ever after, whether they were happy about it or not”: Rediscovering Possibilities for Female Agency and Exploring
Trauma in Re-Imagined Young Adult Fairy Tales
Annika Herb
University of Newcastle, Australia

Your Body is a Wonderland: Fantasy and Desire in Francesca Lia Block’s The Rose and the Beast
Mandy Mahaffey
Valencia College

Annika Herb's paper primarily discussed the short story, "Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tongue" by Christine Johnson in Grim (Harlequin Teen). The story subverts the classic moral of "Diamonds and Toads" or I should say ATU 480 tales. And, yes, there was some amusement in the audience that this was published under the Harlequin imprint, too.

While both papers were strong and brought much to a fun discussion at the end of the session, this paper resonated with me. I am near finished editing an anthology of ATU 480: Kind and Unkind Girls tales of which Diamonds and Toads is a variant (my upcoming collection has over 150 variants of ATU 480 stories) so discussion of a modern take on the tale--a fascinating interpretation at that--was a fine start to the conference for me. I don't want to spoil it here, but really, go read that story if you are at all familiar with Diamonds and Toads.

This is a short story I will need to revisit since I quickly skimmed it when the book was released a few years ago. I own the book in paper instead of ebook, so that will need to await my return home.

Mandy Mahaffey primarily discussed "Snow" in Francesca Lia Block's The Rose and The Beast: Fairy Tales Retold which I remember pretty vividly from when it was released. I was a YA librarian then in Burbank, CA and that was the only book I ever had challenged. Not surprising considering its content perhaps, but it was on the shelf next to The Gossip Girl series which I thought warranted challenging on so many other levels. This book, while not to all tastes, was important to those needing its fairy tale interpretations, rather Angela Carter for teens.

Anyway, back to the session at hand. The Q&A had some wonderful questions and comments that sparked thoughts and ideas. One request was for feminist fairy tale interpretations for some of our youngest readers, in the ages 4-6 range. A lot of the usual suspects came up, such as Cinder Edna, Princess Furball, Tatterhood, The Paper Bag Princess, Sleeping Ugly and more.

My fatigued brain totally spaced on a more recent title: Sleeping Cinderella and Other Princess Mix-ups by Stephanie Clarkson (Author), Brigette Barrager (Illustrator). I reviewed the book last year after sharing it with my then 5-year-old niece. It's not a book that shouts feminist messaging, but once you look past the humorous delivery, it really is exactly that.

Another newer title offered for consideration was Shannon Hale's The Princess in Black which doesn't retell a specific fairy tale, but definitely plays with the genre. My niece, now six, adores this series and was just as thrilled to unwrap the most recent release--The Princess in Black and the Perfect Princess Party--for her birthday last month as the bigger, more expensive presents.

So if you can think of more to share, please do so here in the comments. Even if you aren't here at IAFA, you can join the after discussions with us here!

Now I'm off to rest and coddle my brain before exposing it to all the new discussions that await it tomorrow.

June Bargain Ebooks: Lots of Great Choices

It's a new month which means it's a new list on the monthly Kindle books for $3.99 or less. This is one of the strongest lists in a while--there are quite a few children's and YA titles this time, too, probably in anticipation of summer reading needs. I picked some of the titles most pertinent to SurLaLune readers to share here.

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christoper Healy is $1.99 and was a favorite of my niece Leighton upon its release. So much so that she left my house with my copy and we paid full price for the rest of the trilogy upon release.

Book description:

Prince Liam. Prince Frederic. Prince Duncan. Prince Gustav. You’ve never heard of them, have you? These are the princes who saved Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel, respectively, and yet, thanks to those lousy bards who wrote the tales, you likely know them only as Prince Charming. But all of this is about to change.

Rejected by their princesses and cast out of their castles, the princes stumble upon an evil plot that could endanger each of their kingdoms. Now it’s up to them to triumph over their various shortcomings, take on trolls, bandits, dragons, witches, and other assorted terrors, and become the heroes no one ever thought they could be.

Christopher Healy’s Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom is a completely original take on the world of fairy tales, the truth about what happens after “happily ever after.” It’s a must-have for middle grade readers who enjoy their fantasy adventures mixed with the humor of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. Witty black-and-white drawings by Todd Harris add to the fun.

The Council of Mirrors (The Sisters Grimm Book 9) by Michael Buckley is $1.99. I didn't own this one in ebook yet so I bought it, too. The final book of the Grimm Sister series.

Book description:

In the final volume in the Sisters Grimm series, Sabrina, Daphne, and the rest of the Grimms and their friends must face off against the Master to decide the fate of Ferryport Landing--and the world. When Mirror fails to escape the barrier using Granny Relda's body, he turns to his plan B: killing all the Grimms so that the magical barrier collapses. In the meantime, Sabrina has gathered the other magic mirrors as advisors on how to deal with their mortal enemy. They tell her to join forces with the Scarlet Hand against Mirror, in exchange for offering all the citizens of Ferryport Landing their freedom. This final chapter is the end of the road for several beloved characters, but the conclusion is sure to satisfy devoted fans of the series.

Storybound by Marissa Burt is also $1.99. This is part one of a two part series.

Book description:

When Una Fairchild stumbles upon a mysterious book buried deep in the basement of her school library, she thinks nothing of opening the cover and diving in. But instead of paging through a regular novel, Una suddenly finds herself Written In to the land of Story—a world filled with Heroes and Villains and fairy-tale characters.

But not everything in Story is as magical as it seems. Una must figure out why she has been Written In—and fast—before anyone else discovers her secret. Together with her new friend Peter and a talking cat named Sam, Una digs deep into Story's shadowy past. She quickly realizes that she is tied to the world in ways she never could have imagined—and it might be up to her to save it.

Little Sister And The Month Brothers by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers is also $1.99. This is one of my favorite versions of the hundreds of ATU 480 Kind and Unkind Girls tales, which are often misidentified as ATU 510 Cinderella, like in the description for this book.

Book description:

Little Sister is very busy doing all the work around the house and the yard. But she doesn’t mind: she sings and hums, and she grows prettier and prettier as she does her chores. Her wicked stepmother and stepsister can’t stand the fact that Little Sister is so happy. One day, they tell Little Sister to bring home violets in the middle of winter—or not to come home at all!

How Little Sister gets help from the Month Brothers in the forest offers a delightful twist on this Slavic version of Cinderella.

Bliss by Kathryn Littlewood is $1.99, too. Not fairy tale related but a fantasy with culinary elements that will hopefully appeal to those kids who like to watch Food and Cooking channels with their parents.

Book description:

Rosemary Bliss’s family has a secret. It’s the Bliss Cookery Booke—an ancient, leather-bound volume of enchanted recipes like Stone Sleep Snickerdoodles and Singing Gingersnaps. Rose and her siblings are supposed to keep the Cookery Booke under lock and whisk-shaped key while their parents are out of town, but then a mysterious stranger shows up. “Aunt” Lily rides a motorcycle, wears purple sequins, and whips up exotic (but delicious) dishes for dinner. Soon boring, nonmagical recipes feel like life before Aunt Lily—a lot less fun.

So Rose and her siblings experi-ment with just a couple of recipes from the forbidden Cookery Booke.

A few Love Muffins and a few dozen Cookies of Truth couldn’t cause too much trouble . . . could they?

Kathryn Littlewood’s culinary caper blends rich emotional flavor with truly magical wit, yielding one heaping portion of hilarious family adventure.

Forgive My Fins by Tera Lynn Childs is $1.99. A mermaid book for the beach.

Book description:

Lily Sanderson has a secret, and it's not that she has a huge crush on gorgeous swimming god Brody Bennett, who makes her heart beat flipper-fast. Unrequited love is hard enough when you're a normal teenage girl, but when you're half human, half mermaid, like Lily, there's no such thing as a simple crush.

Lily's mermaid identity is a secret that can't get out, since she's not just any mermaid—she's a Thalassinian princess. When Lily found out three years ago that her mother was actually a human, she finally realized why she didn't feel quite at home in Thalassinia, and she's been living on land and going to Seaview High School ever since, hoping to find where she truly belongs. Sure, land has its problems—like her obnoxious biker-boy neighbor, Quince Fletcher—but it has that one major perk: Brody. The problem is, mermaids aren't really the casual dating type—the instant they "bond," it's for life.

When Lily's attempt to win Brody's love leads to a tsunami-sized case of mistaken identity, she is in for a tidal wave of relationship drama, and she finds out, quick as a tailfin flick, that happily ever after never sails quite as smoothly as you planned.

Wings by Aprilynne Pike is also $1.99. A fairy book to read on the beach.

Book description:

Laurel was mesmerized, staring at the pale things with wide eyes. They were terrifyingly beautiful—too beautiful for words.

Laurel turned to the mirror again, her eyes on the hovering petals that floated beside her head. They looked almost like wings.

In this extraordinary tale of magic and intrigue, romance and danger, everything you thought you knew about faeries will be changed forever.

Gail Carson Levine's Fairy Tale Backlist Available in Ebook Format

The Fairy's Return and Other Princess Tales and The Wish are not new books. They are actually two of Gail Carson Levine's earliest books, dating back from when Ella Enchanted (Trophy Newbery) was released. I'm posting about them here because they have been released in ebook format for the first time and I have always been a fan of Levine's collection of Princess Tales that appear in The Fairy's Return since she plays with some lesser known tales in fun ways. They are short--short story length really--and were published individually back in the day for a higher price for each than this one volume costs with them all combined. How often do we see Princess and the Pea and Toads and Diamonds used for fairy tale retellings inspiration? Not much. Just see my lists on SurLaLune to understand how rare it is.

Book description for The Fairy's Return and Other Princess Tales:

Ever since Newbery Honor author Gail Carson Levine introduced the magical village of Snettering-on-Snoakes in the faraway Kingdom of Biddle, young readers have been laughing their way through her hilarious retellings of famous and not-so-famous fairy tales.

Now, for the first time, the six beloved Princess Tales are together in one magnificent volume:

The high jinks begin in The Fairy's Mistake, which pokes fun at a meddlesome fairy whose plans for good go terribly awry. In The Princess Test, the author spoofs the notion that a pea can prove a person's pedigree. Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep features a genius of a princess, a hundred years of snooze, two princes, and a flock of balding sheep! Cinderella is a boy in Cinderellis and the Glass Hill, and the glass slipper is a glass hill. In For Biddle's Sake, Parsley tries to forget her beloved prince and get used to life as a Biddlebum Toad. The road to happily-ever-after isn't easy when a baker's son and a princess fall in love in The Fairy's Return.

Elements of the classics are woven into these not-so-typical retellings of "Toads and Diamonds," "The Princess and the Pea," "Sleeping Beauty," "The Princess on the Glass Hill," "Puddocky," and "The Golden Goose." The fresh and funny twists on favorite fairy tales will win the hearts and capture the imaginations of young readers everywhere.

Book description for The Wish:

There's nothing wrong with Wilma Sturtz. She's perfectly nice. But nobody cares about nice at Claverford, her middle school. Wilma is left out, forgotten, ignored -- until she meets an extraordinary old lady who grants a wish: for Wilma to be the most popular kid in school. Presto! Everything changes. Now Wilma has more best friends than she can keep track of and forty dates to the Graduation Night Dance; and someone is writing her love poetry. What more could she want? Nothing! But will it last? How can Wilma make sure she is never unpopular again?

From Gail Carson Levine, author of the Newbery Honor book Ella Enchanted, this modern-day fairy tale shows a very real girl in a very unusual predicament, and along the way it reveals some painful truths about whether or not we really want to be liked for who we are.

Five New Books in the It's Not About... Series by Veronika Martenova Charles

It's Not About... Series by Veronika Martenova Charles: I wrote about the first five books in this series almost three years ago. This year five more books were added. I missed these earlier this year, but I am thrilled to see they have been published. I haven't seen these but I saw the original five since they were sent to me for review and they are great tools for sharing different versions of fairy tales in a classroom or elsewhere--well, you know, away from SurLaLune which offers a similar service. These versions by Charles are easy reading level for early and middle readers with cool characters sharing the stories, so they are safe for the classroom, too, unlike some of the tales shared on SurLaLune.

Series description:

More first books for fledgling readers that offer the enjoyment of a good story with the thrill of accomplishment that comes from independent reading. Written in short, easy phrases with carefully selected vocabulary and plentiful illustrations, each book helps youngsters achieve success as they have fun.

The series follows three friends who love to share stories. In each book, one is reminded of a well-known story:

It's Not About the Ball! (Easy-to-Read Wonder Tales) is based on The Frog Prince and has The Promise from Scotland, The Frog Boy from Vietnam, and The Singing Frog from Chile

It's Not About the Tiny Girl! (Easy-to-Read Wonder Tales) is based on Thumbelina and has The Peanut Boy from Chile, Little Inch from Japan, and Baby-man from Native America

It's Not About the Diamonds! (Easy-to-Read Wonder Tales) is based on the story of Diamonds and Toads and has The Three Gnomes from Germany, Rice Cakes from Indonesia, and Old Man of the River from Africa

It's Not About the Straw! (Easy-to-Read Wonder Tales) is based on Rumpelstiltskin and has The Elf from Germany, Lady in Green from Scotland, and The Bridge from Japan

It's Not About the Beanstalk! (Easy-to-Read Wonder Tales) is based on Jack and the Beanstalk and has the Bean Tree from Appalachia, Olaf and the Troll from Norway, and Molly and the Giant from Scotland

As one friend starts his story, the others are reminded of versions they know so each volume has three stories within one framework. The stories come from around the world, and Veronika Martenova Charles provides a note at the end of each book to describe the origins.