Ballet Picture Books

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Katy K.

It’s the one-year anniversary of the Kid Lit Blog Hop! With lots of authors and readers blogging and spreading the word on favorite children’s books, there’s always something to discover, so hop around and find something to love!

Kid Lit Blog Hop

My newly four-year-old daughter is very excited about ballet, so here’s a round-up of four favorite picture books on that topic, plus a bonus book about fairies. I could say it’s a little girl thing, but my son also went through a ballet phase at three, insisting on wearing a leotard every day for about a month and watching ballet dvds from the library.

Tallulah's TutuTallulah’s Tutu by Marilyn Singer. Art by Alexandra Boiger. Tallulah wants a tutu more than anything, but her mother suggests taking some lessons first. It takes some effort, but Tallulah learns to focus on class and knows she’s a good ballerina. Still, she expects her tutu after her second lesson. When it doesn’t arrive after her third, she decides to give up ballet, until something happens that changes her mind. This is a lesson in perseverance, told with gentle understanding. Tallulah’s little brother wanting her to teach him, too, is adorable. Boiger’s beautiful watercolors add a lot to the story, showing Tallulah’s many imaginings in big clouds over the pictures. This is the first of a recent and ongoing series, including Tallulah’s Solo, Tallulah’s Toe Shoes, and Tallulah’s Nutcracker. I like Tallulah enough to print and cut out the paper doll and the five position flash cards which are available on the book’s web site.

dancing-in-the-wingsDancing in the Wings by Debbie Allan. Art by Kadir Nelson. Sassy is taller and has bigger feet than anyone else in her ballet class. Her brother and the other girls in her class are always mocking her for it. Still, with support from her uncle and her mother, she decides to try out for the summer ballet workshops in Washington, D.C. anyway. Bonus points for having a hard-to-find all-in-color cast of characters. The author, Debbie Allan, is herself a noted choreographer of African-American heritage, and Nelson’s oil paintings tell the story beautifully. I wasn’t entirely comfortable with the amount of teasing in the book, but Sassy proves stronger than it in the end and my daughter adored the book enough that I had to renew it.

angelinaAngelina Ballerina by Katherine Holabird. Illustrations by Helen Craig. A classic, with many sequels in print and dvd. Angelina the mouse can’t help dancing everywhere she goes, to the extent that she knocks things down and neglects all her other responsibilities. But enrolling in ballet school gives her the outlet she needs to have energy to devote to other things outside of class. These have a strong British village feel, and the original illustrations do wonderfully well at showing little mouse bodies doing ballet. The books have been made into TV shows (which my daughter also loved) and then had books inspired by the TV show. Unsurprisingly, it’s worth going back to the original.

Ballerina SwanBallerina Swan by Allegra Kent. Illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully. Somewhere in the big city, a swan falls in love with the ballet class she watches through the studio window from her pond. Eventually, she works up the courage to try to attend class. Her first try is a failure, but when a younger, friendlier teacher takes over, she tries again. It’s never clear how the swan and humans communicate – the people know that her name is Sophie – but this didn’t matter to my daughter. She loved the story of the swan learning what ballet moves were easier and harder for her body, and earning herself a part in – yes – Swan Lake. This is another one told by a professional ballerina.

Too Many FairiesToo Many Fairies Retold by Margaret Read MacDonald. Illustrated by Susan Mitchell.
A little old lady hates how much time she spends on housekeeping, and complains and complains. Then, fairies come to help her with her work. She should be happy – but they’re so noisy and so unceasing that it starts to drive her crazy. What will she do? This is a lovely folk tale, told with nice repetitive language, fun sound effects for the fairies work, and illustrated with bright, cheerful pictures.

Dance is a topic that seems to come up fairly often in for this age. From earlier this year: Giant Dance Party and Belinda the Ballerina
From my son’s preschool dance obsession: Lili at Ballet, Alley Cat’s Meow and Tessa’s Tip-Tapping Toes.
And from my Twelve Dancing Princesses reading project, a round-up of Twelve Dancing Princesses picture books.

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Fyre

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Katy K.

Announcements: there’s only a few hours left to nominate a book for a Cybils Award! And, it’s Ada Lovelace Day!

FyreFyre. Septimus Heap Book 7 by Angie Sage. Narrated by Gerard Doyle.
This is the last book in the long-running Septimus Heap series. I’d read the first few books in the series back in 2007, when they were still relatively new, and then started again at the beginning with my son when he was six. He’s now almost nine, and it’s been two years since the previous book, so that it took both of us some time to work our way back into the story and remember all of the many characters.

Our three main characters here are Septimus Heap, Apprentice to the Extraordinary Wizard, Jenna, the Princess, and Beetle, now the Chief Hermetic Scribe. It’s a little odd from an adult standpoint to have three fifteen-year-olds running or almost running the whole castle, but satisfying on a narrative level. All of them have matured a lot since we first met them, and it’s satisfying to see them doing well.

As our story opens, the Extraordinary Wizard, Marcia Overstrand, is working with Marcellus Pye, the last surviving Alchemist (due only to time travel) to rebuild the great Alchemical Fyre that was put out in Marcellus’s own time several hundred years earlier, so that they can use it to destroy the evil Two-Faced Ring. This is very hard for Marcia, as all Extraordinaries must swear to prevent any resurgence of Alchemy. However, she consents to Septimus having a month-long Alchemy apprenticeship so that he can help Marcellus with the Fyre. Meanwhile, Jenna is getting close enough to her coronation that it’s finally legal for her to meet the ghost of her mother. But two strong-willed women getting to know each other for the first time is pretty much guaranteed not to go smoothly.

The book is long – over 700 pages in print or 13 discs – and the plot rambles on, always with something exciting going on, but never in a straight trajectory. Funny alternates with serious. There’s room for each favorite character to take a turn getting into trouble or saving the day or figuring out where his or her life should go next. Nearly every character is well rounded, both good and bad guys shown with a mix of sympathetic and annoying traits. The Marcia Overstrand has trouble showing warmth and wears those annoying Pointy Purple Python Shoes, but she still loves Septimus and really knows what she’s doing as the Extraordinary Wizard, for example. The world of the Castle is vividly drawn, too, making this whole series excellent especially for people who read for character

Now, as I’m writing about it, I’m trying to decide if it did that masterful job of tying up all the loose ends with a spectacular finish, the way a good series should end. I’m not really sure. But my boy and I listened eagerly to it, and he now wants to start over again at the beginning, at least as soon as we finish Harry Potter. We’ve enjoyed it very much on audio, but the print books are nicely designed as well – all very fat, but with a nice magical-feeling type face and pencil illustrations.

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The PLAIN Janes & Janes in Love

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Katy K.

This is a two-book graphic novel series that I’d been meaning to read since they came out in 2007. It’s written by the author of Odd Duck, and published by the sadly now defunct Minx Books, which focused on publishing graphic novels for teen girls.

PLAIN JanesThe Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg.
Teen-aged Jane is just walking in Metro City when a bomb goes off. She’s ok, and saves the life of an artist whose leg is wounded by holding on until help comes. But the mysterious artist only had his sketchbook on him, and isn’t waking up. Meanwhile, her mother has panicked at the close call and moved the family out to the suburbs of Ohio where she thinks they’ll be safer.

After this hard-hitting and somewhat grim start, the book lightens up somewhat. Jane cuts and dyes her hair in an effort not to feel like the victim she was at the bombing. She tries to find her place in the new high school, ignoring the overtures of the popular girls and persisting with a table of outcast girls (who are all named Jane as well), despite their initial coolness. She crushes on cute boy Damon, whose locker is near hers. She writes letters back to the man still unconscious in the hospital in Metro City. And she tries to find some way to bring joy back to her mother’s life. What she decides on is art. She convinces the Janes to form PLAIN – People Loving Art in Neighborhoods – hoping that spontaneous and unofficial art installations will help people to live in the moment and realize the joy of being alive. Of course, things never go as smoothly as planned, and neither her mother nor the community at large react as they expect. As the tagline says, “But can art really save a group of misfits from the hell that is high school?”

This really is a perfect high school book. All the high school social dynamics, plus the issues with authority and the new consciousness of bigger world events and the desire to change the world that comes with being a teen are here. It’s told in sassy but thoughtful language, with clear pictures that do the work of making characters distinct and recognizable (even as main Jane changes both her hair style and color), as well as bringing the teens’ art installations to life. 2007 seems like a while ago – but the book is still available for sale and in lots of libraries, so do yourself a favor and go find it.

Janes in LoveJanes in Love by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg.
The first book ended just after New Year’s. Now, it’s February. The Anthrax scare is on, and Main Jane’s mom is afraid to leave the house and checking up on Jane by cell as soon as school lets out. Jane still hopes that art will provide redemption – but is shaken to her core when she and the rest of the Janes get arrested. While the other Janes (and the irrepressible gay boy who’s joined PLAIN) insist they want to keep going, things are getting harder. Main Jane doesn’t want to risk her team getting in trouble again, plus art is expensive and they’re all running out of money.

While she gets encouraging letters from a secret admirer, all the Janes’ thoughts are turning to love. Main Jane can’t forget Damon, who (spoiler!) turned her down in the last book. Theater Jane has a deep and moody crush on a fellow drama boy from theater camp. Athletic Jane doesn’t hesitate to ask out the cute boy from the basketball team, while Science Jane is way too shy to ask out the smart boy from chemistry class. There’s also follow-up on the bomb victim Jane saved at the very beginning of the first book. While romance is fun, the focus of the book is still solidly on Jane’s struggle to find a way to continue PLAIN and bring art to people without it being considered terrorism. This is a solid and very enjoyable continuation of the story.

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Revenge of the Dragon Lady

Posted on October 12, 2013 by Katy K.

This series is one that my son’s school librarian recommended for him, which he and I both read.

Revenge of the Dragon LadyRevenge of the Dragon Lady. Dragon Slayers’ Academy Book 2. by Kate McMullan.
This is the second in a series of early chapter books geared at boys. As you can tell from the title, it’s a school story with dragons. There’s also a lot of humor at the expense of teachers – the incompetent headmaster Mordred, as well as a professor who spits a lot and uses lots of spit-producing alliteration when he talks. In this particular story, Wiglaf, our gore-fearing would-be hero, learns that Seetha, the mother of the dragon he accidentally defeated in book one, is looking for revenge. Wiglaf defeated the last dragon by finding out its secret vulnerability: bad jokes – and now begins looking both for ways to look fiercer so the dragon will be scared off on sight, and of research to find out what Seetha’s weak spot might be. His attempts range from the silly to the serious, and include his asking advice from his wise pig, Daisy, who speaks to him in Pig Latin. The book in general has many instances of silly fake Latin meant for second-graders to be able to understand, from labeled diagrams of dragons to the school motto, “Goldius est goodies.”

I had mixed feelings about this book. On the plus side, it has lots of elements to appeal to early readers, especially boys. The chapters are short, exciting, and usually end with cliffhangers. There are entertaining bios of the major characters in the back, complete with pictures. There is both slapstick and gross-out humor, as well as relatable school dynamics. A strong plus is that the books held my son’s interest for two full books. On the negative side, even the short chapters seemed padded to me. I felt that so little was happening in each one that the whole thing might just as easily have been told as a picture book, with each chapter condensed down to one page spread and illustrations. Maybe all the repetition is put in on purpose to help beginning readers? It didn’t bother my son, though, who is actually the right target audience. I wouldn’t recommend this as great literature, but definitely, if you have a reader at the early chapter book level who’s interested in fantasy with boy appeal, this is a good choice.

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Touchstone

Posted on October 9, 2013 by Katy K.

One of the retired librarians at my library has a similar taste for fantasy, and we often trade book recommendations when she comes in. This one came from her (the recommendation, anyway; the book itself came, as usual, from the library.)

Touchstone. Glass Thorns Book 1. by Melanie Rawn.
TouchstoneTouchstone is an adult fantasy novel, telling the story of theater geeks in a world where the theater runs on magic. It might be the epic tale of a small company’s rise to prominence, but refreshingly so far, kingdom politics are tangential to the main plot, and saving the world is not on the agenda.

The story is at first narrated to us from Cayden or Cade’s point of view, the tregedor or playwright of a small group. Jeska is the masquer or actor, and Rafe the fettler, who holds all the magic together. As the book opens, they are trying for the first time a new, young, and very self-confident glisker, who projects magical scene and costume changes and emotions to the audience. Mieka may be overconfident, but Cade knows in his heart that Mieka is right when he says that they are the perfect match for each other, and together the four young men will go far. The goal is to get invited to the annual event where troupes compete for the chance to win one of three royally sponsored tours around the country.

The world is its own fantasy world, not a reimagining of a specific time period on Earth, but with magic, as so many are. It has a decidedly 17th-century feel to it, though, based on the technology, style, mores, and the archaic vocabulary sprinkled in. The troupe is all young men because only men are allowed to act or attend the theater. But Cade’s best friend Blye is a female glassmaker. She can make the glass quills that hold the theater magic better than her father, a Guild member, but will lose her livelihood when her father is no longer there to stamp off her work, as women can’t be Guild members. She also must disguise herself as a man every time she wants to see Cade and his troupe perform, which results in Cade becoming a leader in what might become a women’s rights movement.

The world is populated by a full array of traditional fantasy races, including wizards, humans, goblins, elves, trolls, and piskies. Unlike Tolkien, though, while the races all have defining physical and magical characteristics, they all come in a variety of skin tones and have been intermarrying for hundreds of years, so that while someone may have a defining race or two by looks, hardly anyone can claim to be pureblood anything anymore. All gliskers, like Mieka, must be part elf to be able to work that magic, for example.

Cade is part elf, part wizard, and has the dubious gift of being overtaken by visions of possible futures. He can and does take action to change futures for himself that he finds unpalatable, but he has been taught to keep the visions a secret from all but his closest friends. Throughout the whole book, he keeps having visions related to Mieka, but struggles with whether or not to tell Mieka about them. Meanwhile, Mieka is as talented as he claims to be, but also addicted to a drug that comes in a glass thorn, ready for injection.

There are multiple strands braided together here, the bright tale of theater antics contrasting with the darkness of Cade’s visions and Mieka’s addictions. I guess I’d been concentrating on the more up-beat plot lines, because I was shocked when things came together into a decidedly depressing ending. Still, there’s a lot in this gorgeous book to please those who read for character, plot, writing, or world-building, and I guess I will just have to wait for the second book in the series to come back to the library. Elsewhens came out in February, and Thornlost, the third in the series, is scheduled for publication in April 2014.

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Kat, Incorrigible

Posted on October 9, 2013 by Katy K.

This is another one that I’ve been seeing a lot of love for on all the blogs. I was possessed of such a strong desire to read it, even though the library where I work didn’t own it, that I took the radical step of making a special trip to the library in my hometown, both children in tow, to find it. With renewed love and respect for my love, who does this nearly every weekend I’m at work, I went in for one book and came out with 27, mostly not for me.

Kat, IncorrigibleKat, Incorrigible. The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson Book 1. by Stephanie Burgis.
The setting is Austen-era England. Magic is real, but considered terribly improper, and especially frowned on by the church. Twelve-year-old Kat, our heroine, is the youngest of four, including a brother, Charles, and two older sisters, Elissa and Angeline. Their mother died when Kat was born, and her father remarried. None of the children get along very well with Stepmama, but Stepmama finds willful, wayward Kat a special challenge. She’s trying to impress on all the girls that their first duty is to make a marriage that will be financially advantageous to the family. Kat, naturally, finds the very notion horrid. When she discovers that she’s inherited their mother’s illicit magic, and that her oldest sister, Elissa, is being courted by the sinister Sir Neville, she decides to do everything in her (very untrained) power to save her sister.

Those bare bones are fun enough, but Burgis puts in a whole lot of related plots and interesting details. Should Kat believe the Mr. Gregson who claims to have been her mother’s tutor, but who seems to feel that her mother failed by getting married to her father? And what will become of the handsome young man who insists on following Angeline around everywhere? There are highwaymen in swirling black cloaks, and touching reflections on familial love and duty. This is solidly middle grade girl, with nothing inappropriate and plenty of excitement both for the target audience and older fans of Regency and fantasy.

I gobbled this right up and passed it on to my mother before returning it, getting a report back of someone having stayed up into the wee hours with Kat. And since my home library doesn’t have any of the two sequels, I prevailed upon our youth fiction librarian to buy the whole series, so I can finish it.

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The Mark of the Golden Dragon

Posted on October 7, 2013 by Katy K.

The Mark of the Golden DragonThe Mark of the Golden Dragon. Bloody Jack Adventures Book 9. by L.A. Meyer. Read by Katherine Kellgren.
At the end of the last Jacky Faber book, Jacky was on board her own ship, a free woman again, and eating dinner with her beloved Jaimy and a group of other friends. Of course, something that good could never last – readers of the series will know to expect a separation if the book starts out with Jacky and Jaimy together. There is a typhoon, and Jacky and little Ravi are washed overboard, landing in Burma. With her usual talent of landing on her feet, Jacky manages to charm a powerful English-educated businessman, Chinese Charlie, befriend his daughter, and convince him to give her a shipful of treasure with which they will both be able to buy their way into England’s favor. While in England, Jacky hopes to track down Jaimy.

Once in England, though, her plan doesn’t seem as straightforward. For one thing, Jaimy appears to have gone mad at her supposed death, and has descended into lawlessness, seeking only to revenge himself on the two men he holds responsible for Jacky’s sentence and therefore her death. He is now the very romantic yet tragic Black Highwayman. For another, Jacky still has a lot of enemies in England herself, and must proceed very cautiously. Fortunately, she meets up with her old friend, the handsome Lord Richard Allan, who is more than willing to help her with her mission (at least the part that doesn’t involve her finding Jaimy.)

As I’ve been reading this series for a full decade now, I feel prone to a little reflection on why I like it so much. I’ve often mentioned how I love the wild adventures, Katherine Kellgren’s fabulous reading, and the frequent inclusion of period songs. But the books couldn’t have survived on that formula alone if Jacky herself weren’t such a great character. She’s bold and daring, with a decidedly anachronistically modern sensibility that makes her easy to relate to. But she’s also full of faults acutely aware of them – her tendency to rush into things head-first without checking, her inability to keep from kissing a similarly inclined pretty boy even while she’s determined to stay ultimately loyal to Jaimy, the ease with which she loses her temper. She is deeply emotional in general, exuberant when happy, and quick to tears when accused of heartlessness or when she hears bad news about any of her many, deeply loved friends. In short, she’s a person with the temperament that I can believe would get into the kind of adventures she does (as increasingly unbelievable as they are) and who would inspire the kind of deep, friendship-based loyalty that makes the stories work.

I had just started last year’s Viva Jacquelina! with plans to move on to the most recent entry in the series, Boston Jacky, when my love bought The Dream Thieves for me. And – well, I don’t know that it’s a weakness, per say, as I like the comfort-adventure I get with Jacky very much. It’s still on hold until I find out what’s going to happen to Blue and the Raven Boys.

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A Corner of White

Posted on October 6, 2013 by Katy K.

This book sounded so intriguing when I read about it on the Book Smugglers months ago that I went around and entered multiple giveaways… I might be embarrassed about that now. I didn’t win, but luckily my library got a copy, so I was able to read it in my usual manner.

A Corner of WhiteA Corner of White. The Colors of Madeleine Book 1. by Jaclyn Moriarty.
Here’s the wonderfully concise Official Summary of the book:

“14-year-old Madeleine of Cambridge, England, struggling to cope with poverty and her mother’s illness, and fifteen-year-old Elliot of the Kingdom of Cello in a parallel world where colors are villainous and his father is missing, begin exchanging notes through a crack between their worlds and find they can be of great help to each other.”

Madeleine has a life that seems interesting enough, with close relationships to her mother, a couple of good friends, and a homeschool program her mother has cobbled together for them, being tutored in various subjects by colorful neighbors and the odd relation. But she can’t help remembering the larger-than-life father and the extravagant lifestyle she left behind when she and her mother moved to Cambridge. Now, her mother sews hours a day to pay for their one-room apartment, practicing and failing at quiz show questions, while Madeleine, instead of being the toast of parties, she has just two friends, Jack and Belle. It’s not that she dislikes her new life – she just can’t help going back to the “what if” of staying in her old life.

Elliot lives in the Kingdom of Cello, a parallel world where colors are often-dangerous beings. You might have a cloud of Reds fly by that simply make everyone feel warm and fuzzy, but many more of the colors are deadly. Elliot has been spending the past year traveling, putting himself in danger, trying to track down his father, who was kidnapped by a violent Purple. It’s been long enough that his mother has decided to rent out their electronics repair shop to another couple, the Twicklehams, who have a small and silent daughter. Now, though, people keep urging him to stay in his home town of Bonfire, where he’s the star of the local sports team, a role he’s not quite comfortable with.

The people of Cello know about Earth, while Earth, obviously, does not know about Cello. That means that when letters start appearing – stuffed in the seam of a broken parking meter for Madeleine – it takes a long time for Madeleine to believe that Cello is real. But even though Elliott knows that failing to report a crack is a crime and both Elliott and Madeleine are developing romances with friends in their own world, they keep writing more letters. (I really appreciated a story where a teen boy and girl could be drawn to each other just for friendship, without the need for the central relationship to be romantic.)

Madeleine looks bright and whimsical on the cover of the book, and she and the book are very wonderfully so. But there’s plenty of adventure to go along with the whimsy, from Madeleine’s struggles with her family in Cambridge to Elliott’s more dramatic struggles in Cello. And there is a lot of heart behind all of it, as both of them are realizing that they might not get their fathers back, and musing about the nature of the universe, especially displayed in the Cambridge teens studying of real-world Cambridge figures Isaac Newton, Lord Byron, and Ada Lovelace. The characters are complicated, appearances are extremely deceiving, and there is a lot more depth to everything than first appears. It has solid teen appeal, without anything offensive for advanced younger readers, and plenty of draw for older readers as well.

It’s the first of a series, and I will be tracking down the second book as soon as it’s out next March.

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The Hum and the Shiver

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Katy K.

It’s October! What are you going to nominate for a Cybils Award? Take a look at the great books that have already been nominated and make sure your favorites are in there, too!

There’s a librarian in my state who gives talks on the latest in sci-fi and fantasy that I make a point of getting to whenever I can. I heard about this a year or two ago now, but it just now made it to the top of my reading pile. This is Fantasy for Music-Lovers.

The Hum and the ShiverThe Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe.
Deep in the Smoky Mountains of Eastern Tennessee is Cloud County, the home of the Tufa people. They might look similar to Native Americans, with their olive skin and straight black hair, but they have been there longer than anyone can remember. Usually, not many outsiders notice them, but right now, there’s a lot of attention focused on them as Private Bronwyn Hyatt, a First Daughter of the Tufa, is returning from war. She doesn’t remember the incident that people are saying made her a hero, but she’s wounded and knows she has to come home. At home, both of her parents have been seeing signs that death will come soon to somebody in the family – there is a haint trying to talk to someone, and the sin eater was seen shambling around the house – but no one can tell for sure who. It looks like either Bronwyn or her mother, but Bronwyn’s father or one of her two brothers are still possibilities.

As she’s trying to heal her shattered leg, Bronwyn realizes that she has forgotten how to play her mandolin and so can’t access the healing power her music would bring her. Meanwhile, she needs to avoid both the press and her abusive ex-boyfriend Dwayne Gitterman, though his sweet and obviously smitten younger brother Terry-Joe has been sent over to help her with her mandolin. There’s also Craig Chess, a handsome young Methodist minister who’s the latest in the steady trickle of preachers the church sends to try to convert the Tufa. The story makes it clear that the Tufa can’t be converted; my mother found this disturbing, but still couldn’t put down the book. I, on the other hand, like Craig’s sense of humor (“What… was the Good Lord smoking?” he asks himself at one point) and that he is determined to minister to people in need – the sick and dying and so on – whether or not he can get them to come to church.

There’s a lot going on here, both for Bronwyn and for a host of secondary characters, including her mother, Craig, and the local journalist who must learn more about his deliberately forgotten Tufa ancestor to get close enough to Bronwyn to get the story his boss says will save his job. The story is as much about who the Tufa are and what it means to be one as it is about Bronwyn’s particular troubles – though of course she has to figure out her own identity to solve her problems. Though there’s definitely a dark side to the story, the joy of life and music shines through as well. This is one for the mature, between Bronwyn’s recent violent past and the sexual exploring she was known for before she joined the military. There aren’t a whole lot of present-time bedroom scenes, most of them between married people, but there is a lot of talk about what various characters did before they settled down. Even though I felt like I didn’t need to hear so much about either the wild pasts or the haint’s trailing entrails, I loved the world. I loved the importance of music and the folk ballads, both traditional and original, that filled the pages. I loved the Tufa, both individually and collectively, living in the modern world while their heritage is carried on the night winds, and the rough edges where Tufa and other people meet. And I went right out and got the sequel, which came out in June.

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Sir Princess Petra’s Talent Blog Tour

Posted on October 2, 2013 by Katy K.

Tour BannerBook two: Sir Princess Petra’s Talent synopsis

Sir Princess Petra has already proven she is a kind and noble knight. This, however, does not please the king and queen—they want her to behave like a princess and forget this silly knight nonsense of hers!

But when the king writes a new rule in the royal rule book that requires her to attend Talent School and acquire a princess talent certificate or suffer the spell of the royal magician, Petra, reluctantly, agrees to go. But who could have guessed what Sir Princess Petra’s Talent would be?
Continue reading →

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