The Elves and the Shoemaker by John Cech. Illustrated by Kirill Chelushkin “A long, long time ago, when shoes were still made by shoemakers and not by machines in factories, a shoemaker and his wife found themselves in very hard times.” So begins this new retelling of a classic fairy tale. The shoemaker cuts out his last pair of shoes before going to bed, but when he wakes up in the morning, they are beautifully put together. They sell for enough money to buy double the amount of leather, and thus turn around his fortunes. Finally, he and his wife decide to investigate, and find that a pair of elves in worn-out clothing are responsible. The language is good, but the pictures are what really stand out. They are ink and watercolor illustrations, in a palette of mostly browns and black with the occasional bits of red or orange. Chelushkin plays with the perspective, so that a plane can be a table on top and a house or a hat underneath, while little elves of all shapes crowd the edges of the pictures. They are more eerie than usual for fairy tales, but very fun to find everything going on.
Sorcery and Cecilia, Or, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
In The Grand Tour, Cecy and Kate are both newly married and off on a joint Grand Tour of Europe for their honeymoon (it helps that their husband are best friends as well.) Cecy’s contributions come from a supposed deposition after the adventures, while Kate is writing in her commonplace book. They have not even made it to Paris before intrigue finds them. A strange woman finds Cecy alone in the hotel and gives her a mysterious flask to give to the older Lady Schofield (Kate’s mother-in-law, joining them as far as Paris.) No sooner have they found what it is than it is stolen. As they explore the mystery, they find that other historical items are being stolen around the continent. Could someone be trying to imitate Napolean’s ambitions? The Duke of Wellington asks them to investigate secretly. As before, the writing is snappy in a nice period-ish way, the fashion impeccable and the characters intrepid.
The Heroines by Eileen Favorite It’s the early 1970s. Thirteen-year-old Penny Entwhistle lives with her mother in a little B&B on the Illinois prairie. Along with some regular customers, this B&B is visited by the heroines of literature, who come at the most stressful points of their stories. Penny has clear memories of Blanche DuBois and Scarlett O’Hara (who tried to steal their silver). Now, though, Penny is really sick of all the attention her mother gives them – particularly the weepy Deirdre, who’s currently taken over Penny’s own room. Penny snaps. She meets the mysterious Conor in the woods, a Celtic king who claims that Deirdre is his runaway wife and wants her back. When the police get involved, Penny tells them the truth, with predictable results. She meant to hurt her mother – but suddenly, Penny is the heroine in her own story, and things are not going well. This is light and amusing fiction for fans of the classic heroines.
V for Vendetta In a dark near-future world, Britain has been taken over by a fascist government, while the United States has dissolved into chaos. Evey (Natalie Portman) is a young news employee, out past curfew and rescued from thugs by a mysterious man in a black cloak and a Guy Fawkes mask (Hugo Weaving). He introduces himself as V and invites her to come with him to see a show. She watches in shock as he blows up a national monument to the accompaniment of the 1812 Overture on the emergency broadcast system. Evey has only been trying to blend in since her parents were killed in the brutal early years of the regime, but somehow she keeps tangling with V and risking capture by the government. The action is tense and the characters compelling. V is both extremely likable and very icky, a terrorist with an easy-to-support goal. The government is both a reflection of the Third Reich and a not-implausible result of a government which uses fear of outside attack to suppress dissent. The performances by Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving – whose face we never see – were impressive. If you want a side of thinking with your dose of action, this is a great movie.
Uglies by Scott Westerfield. Narrated by Carine Montbertrand. If you pay any attention to teen books, you’ll have heard of this one – it’s been on the bestseller lists and on prominent display in the bookstores for the past couple of years. A few hundred years in our future, cities are small and self-sufficient, powered by renewable energy. In one such city, fifteen-year-old Tally Youngblood is waiting impatiently to turn sixteen. Then she will undergo cosmetic surgery to become a Pretty and move to New Pretty Town, where the parties last all night long. With just a few days to go, her new-this-summer best friend, Shay, tells Tally that she wants to keep her own face. She wants Tally to run away with her to the Smoke, a tiny settlement of people who have rejected the city. Tally says no – until Special Circumstances tells her she’ll stay Ugly until she brings Shay back. Can a girl who’s relied on a computerized city to tell her where to go her whole life survive traveling through the wilderness alone? And, if she can find the settlement, will she believe what’s she’s been told her whole life about the Operation, or will she listen to the tales of the dark secrets of the city that the founders of the Smoke tell her? -
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Unraveling Family Secrets in The Inevitable Undoing of Zahara Douglass by Leslye PenelopeSeptember 16, 2026Katy K.-
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