Review: The Fairy's Return and other Princess Tales by Gail Carson Levine

The Fairy's Return and other Princess Tales
by Gail Carson Levine
MG, Fairy Tale
400 pages
published: 2002
2 of 5 stars / 4 of 5 stars

About

What would you do if diamonds and rubies tumbled out of your mouth every time you spoke? Well, that's what happens to Rosella after a run-in with a misguided fairy in The Fairy's Mistake. If you were turned into a toad, would you pine after your prince as much as Parsley does in For Biddle's Sake?
The road to happily-ever-after is never easy, but the masterful touch of Newbery Honor author Gail Carson Levine will keep readers laughing their way through these fresh retellings of popular fairy tales. - from Goodreads

Just to be clear, this is a book of short stories. I recall being disappointed when that realization hit me after I had grabbed this book at the school book fair.

Reaction

After the initial shock of having a volume of short stories subsided, I began to enjoy this little book. The stories where cute retellings with a sense of humor. I happily skipped my way through the first few, delighted and thinking about how pleasant these will be for Jadyn. They weren't very deep or earth-shattering, but sweet and moral and clever.

Around the half way point, I changed my mind. What had been charming and amusing, became repetitive and ridiculous. My momentum diminished and then died. I doubt I would have finished if I hadn't stuck it in a place where I could pick it up when boredom overcame my annoyance with the book. The stories became so repetitive, in fact, that now I can't separate them in my head. Help!

Yet, there is a silver lining. I gave this to Jadyn, the target audience, and she loved it. She devoured it in a matter of days. I don't think she noticed that every male character had two older (and awful) brothers. I'll even suggest this to be a great introduction type book for any princess or fairy loving little girl.

So, 2 stars from me for the sake of the early pleasure, and 4 stars for the middle grade club.

I've Been Interviewed!

Hey Bloggies! My friend Stacy over at A Novel Source interviewed Jadyn and I today. Please go check out her beautiful blog and leave her some love!

And because this post would be too short otherwise, let's have some book + picture fun. I really want the first one. :P

Jadyn's Review: Josefina Story Collection by Valerie Tripp

Josefina Story Collection:
     Meet Josefina
     Josefina Learns a Lesson
     Josefina's Surprise
     Happy Birthda Josefina!
     Josefina Saves the Day
     Changes for Josefina
by Valerie Tripp
illustrated by Jean-Paul Tibbles
historical fiction
387 pages
published: 2001
Source: home library
6 of 5 stars

About

• It is about a young girl, Josefina, that lived in1824.
•  Josefina learns that you can hope and dream but things never happen in the exact manner you may want.
• She also learns sometimes you might feel the world should end because of sorrow and sadness but the world will never end in such a way. (This from the first book when she loses someone she loves.)
• All her sisters and her work together to solve their mishaps.

My thoughts 

• I like the mishaps and the way they were solved.
• I sort of enjoyed the whining, complaining, and stubbornness of Josefina and her sisters.
• I like this book because of excitement, drama, and more.
• I think this book is neat because it feeles like you're in the story.
• I like to reread it because sometimes it can be like a comfort and can help me through a situation if I go to the right book, in the right chapter, that has the right situation that can help me see the solution to my problem.
• I also enjoyed the way it ended with happiness and love.

Realizations Inspired by a Bad Book

I have discovered:

About myself -
          If there is a book I'm supposed to read, and I don't want to read it, I will find any means to put off reading it. But out of guilt I will not read anything else either. Reading screeches to an unhappy, guilty stop.

About Jadyn -
          She can push through a section in a book that nearly killed me by with violent eye rolling, and quickly catch up to my book mark. She is perseverance in a bottle! I really expected her to "set it aside" and absolve me of having to finish the dang thang.

About my Mom -
          When I try to explain glaring, laughable plot holes to her, she will defend those holes, come up with wild scenarios to make them accurate, and then pull out of her butt the caliber of a handgun required to kill a bear in a single shot. ?!? Mom, what have you been doing since I moved out?

About my Friend -
          She will listen to my endless ranting and surround me with sympathy. Thank you Dear. You are an island of sanity for me.

About my Brother -
          He will immediately jump to the same conclusion as I did, and even use the same vocabulary as I did in my head. That I'm going to be blacklisted. Rock on.

About Everyone who had the Misfortune to Listen to
Me in the Last Few Days -
          That honesty is the best policy. This I know. I never had any intention of being less than honest (though perhaps had hoped to escape) but it does my heart good to hear that everyone values honesty so much.

Have you had any realizations lately?

Book Moments in Photos

That is a headband that Jadyn has reassigned as a bookmark/handle. I thought her very clever and funny. And that book is the second in an awesome series by Kathleen Duey. I really need to get around to reviewing some of the backlog.

This guy loves book too. He likes to hit himself in the head with them. He likes to steal them and run away. He likes to open and close them. He likes to rip out pages. But mostly (you guessed it) he likes to eat them. Somehow, I know just how he feels. That does not, however, make it okay that he ATE my signed copy of Fablehaven. Cretin.

Jadyn's Review: Fairy Realm books by Emily Rodda

FAIRY REALM Books 1 - 10
by Emily Rodda
MG, Fantasy

It was amazing and MAGICAL series of awesome tasks and adventures. On the way Jessie finds out that she is a fairy princesses.

What I liked

1. Jessie is granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Belairs. Mrs. Belairs has an amazing identity an always comes to her rescue.

2. Jessie has a charm bracelet given to her by the folk of the realm and presented to her by Queen Helena.

3. It is sooooo extremely interesting and exciting. It was an extreme series and I want to read all of Emily Rodda's books that she has written and will write!

Here are the books in the series:

1.  The Charm Bracelet In it Jessie saves the realm.
2. The Flower Fairies  It is an extraordinary book about .......about...............FOR PETE'S SACK IT'S ABOUT THE FLOWER FAIRIES!
3. The Third Wish  Is an awesome book about a young mermaid and her mistake.
4. The Last Fairy Apple Tree The gnomes are scared that their greedy greed will betray them.
5. The Magic Key is about Jessie's birthday and her wonderful and frightening party and mishap.
6. The Unicorn  is about the marvelous creatures of the DREAM FOREST.
7. The Star Cloak is about Jessie's encounter with creatures on STAR MOUNTAIN.
8. The Water Sprites is about the mean and jerky, restless sprite.
9. The Peskie Spell is about a spell that needs to be found and gets found.
10. The Rainbow Wand is about a young girl in the realm and the fight.

That's all I'll say for now.

Jadyn's Review: Mayk by Angie Sage

Introducing my oldest (10 years) daughter, Jadyn. She has grown into quite a reader of late and I've invited her to do some reviews for my blog. Enjoy!


MAGYK is about Jenna, Boy 412, and the Heap family.  It is also about how Boy 412 helps Marcia.  In the story Jenna finds out that she is a princess and people are trying to kill her.

What I liked -

1. I like how the story goes.
2. When there's action it's packed.
3. It was very interesting and hard to put down.

I read 552 pages in two days.

I felt such concern and sympathy for them and they felt real to me. I pictured Jenna as me but with longer blacker hair and a gold circlet or a crown on her head .  I pictured Nikko Heap as Xander (my little brother) but with a litte longer blonder, curlier hair and a bit taller too.  Septimus looked like Xander too, but taller and with much curlier hair.  Marcia looked a lot like Mommy but with longer black hair, taller, and most of all, fancier. Silas Heap, the father of all the 7 Heap boys, I pictured as Daddy but with slightly curlier hair and a bit shorter. Sara Heap reminded me of Mommy but with longer blond curlier hair and depthless deep dark green eyes like Silas and all 7 Heap boys. The other 7 boys I would explain but my time is running short.

I LOVE Magyk.
I'm Jadyn and bye!