Posted on by TracyC

Mazemaker

Mazemaker by Catherine Dexter, 1989.

Twelve-year-old Winnie Brown loves mazes, and she is very surprised when one shows up among all the other graffiti on the schoolyard.  The maze is painted on the ground in silver and is big enough for a person to walk through.  Winnie and her friend, Harry, try to walk the maze, but it makes them dizzy at first.  Then, a cat they’ve befriended finds its way to the center of the maze and disappears right before their eyes!

When Winnie tries to tell her mother about it, her mother doesn’t really pay attention.  Although Winnie and Harry try to explain it away as an optical illusion of some kind, Winnie is still convinced that there is something strange about the maze.  She feels drawn to it, and she tries to walk it one more time, even though Harry is afraid. 

The next thing Winnie knows is that she’s in a hedge maze.  She faints, and when she wakes up, she finds that she is being cared for by members of the Taylor family, who owned a large house in the area about a hundred years ago.

Somehow, Winnie must find the path through the maze again in order to go back home.  According to the Taylors’ creepy housekeeper, Violet Minot, the only person who really knows the maze is the mazemaker, a distant cousin of hers who disappeared many years ago.  Winnie wants very badly to return to her own time, but she fears that Mrs. Minot may have diabolical plans of her own for the mazemaker.

The book is available to borrow for free online through Internet Archive.

Themes and Spoilers

Winnie learns that a couple hundred years before the time of the Taylors and Mrs. Minot, a cousin of Mrs. Minot’s family came to live with them.  He was an orphan, and the father of the family liked him better than his sons because he was a good worker, and they were trouble-makers.  The cousin, William Sparrow, was afraid of his cousins because he knew they were jealous of him.  His grandmother was a witch, and she had taught him a little magic about mazes, like the one that was made near the village in England where he grew up.  William built the maze and used its magic to escape from his cousins, who were about to kill him.  He came to the Taylors’ time, when the maze had been built into a hedge maze and found work as the Taylors’ groundskeeper. 

However, even though William was not murdered by his cousins, they were blamed for his disappearance and looked at with suspicion for the rest of their lives. The locals, having noted their hostility toward their cousin, believed that they probably murdered William and hid his body somewhere. In the end, they were silently judged for the crime that they wanted to commit but didn’t actually commit because they never had the chance to do it. In a way, it’s a kind of justice, although Violet Minot doesn’t see it that way.

Violet Minot, one of their descendants, has been searching for years for the secret to the maze.  She believed that if her ancestors hadn’t been blamed for William’s disappearance, her family might have owned the big house and the estate around it.  She recognized William when he appeared in her time and threatened to tell everyone in the village who he was if he didn’t share the secrets of the maze with her.  To escape her, William went through the maze again and ended up in Winnie’s time.  He painted the maze on the ground where it was supposed to be, although it had been covered up by concrete for the schoolyard.  Then, William was picked up by the police for defacing public property.  His cat roamed the area and made friends with Winnie and Harry.

When Winnie goes back in time through the maze, Violet tries to use her to learn the secrets of the maze.  Winnie eventually figures out how to get home because Violet’s great-aunt tells her that there should be an extra turn in the maze, one that isn’t marked, which she made by accident before. Can Winnie and William both outwit Violet and get back to the times where they both belong? Where does William even belong? If he can’t go back to where he came from, where should he go?

The story ends happily and something that Winnie knows from her time settles the matter of where William should live the rest of his life. There is one person in time who loves him and never stopped looking for him when he disappeared from her time. William’s time quandary and the existence of his magic maze have accidentally trapped other people in time, and when he resolves his problem and decides where he really belongs, he is able to free the others who were trapped and put an end to the magic.

Posted on by TracyC · 1 Comment

The Nutcracker

The Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoffmann, retold by Anthea Bell, 1816, 1987.

The reason for the two dates of this book is that the original Nutcracker story was written by a German writer, E.T.A. Hoffmann, in 1816, as the novella The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Some places, including the back of this book note different publishing dates for the original story because it was published more than once during the 1810s, as part of different story collections. This article gives more details about the original version of the story and different publications. Since then, it has been retold many times and in many different forms, including the famous ballet based on the story. In ballets and plays, the name of the heroine is often Clara, but in this picture book, as in the original story, the heroine’s name is Marie.

In the beginning of the book, which is set in the 19th century, Marie and her brother Fritz, are opening their Christmas presents on Christmas Eve. (The book explains that opening presents on Christmas Eve is a German tradition. A friend in Germany also explained that to me once because, in Germany, presents are supposedly brought by the Christ Child, not by Santa Claus. Since then, I’ve read that explanation may vary, depending on whether the household is Catholic or Protestant.) The children receive many wonderful presents, including a toy castle from their godfather, Mr. Drosselmeier. Marie’s favorite present is a nutcracker that looks like an odd little man. When Fritz is too rough with the nutcracker and breaks it, Marie takes care of it.

Marie stays up late, and when she finally puts the nutcracker away at midnight, she is astonished to see an army of mice coming out of the floorboards. The leader of the mouse army is the Mouse King, who has seven heads. The Nutcracker leads an army of toys against the mouse army. The mouse army appears to be winning, so, to save the Nutcracker, Marie takes off her shoe and throws it at the mice. Then, her arm hurts, and she apparently faints.

When Marie wakes up, she is in her own bed, and her mother tells her that she apparently put her arm through the glass door of the toy cabinet, cutting herself badly. When Marie tries to tell her mother about the battle between the toys and the mice, her mother and the doctor think that she’s ill and confine her to her bed for a few days. Mr. Drosselmeier repairs the Nutcracker and returns it to Marie, telling her the reason why nutcrackers look so strange and ugly, calling it The Tale of the Hard Nut.

Year ago, there was a royal banquet given by the King and Queen who were the parents of Princess Pirlipat. A mouse who claimed to be the queen of Mousolia demanded some food from the banquet as the Queen was preparing it. The King was angry that the mouse took some of the food and wanted revenge. The King asked his Court Watchmaker, who was also named Drosselmeier, to build some mousetraps to catch the mouse queen’s seven sons. When the sons were caught, the mouse queen vowed that she’d take her revenge on Princess Pirlipat. Princess Pirlipat was a pretty baby, but the mouse queen turned her ugly. The King took out his anger on the Court Watchmaker, ordering him to find a way to change Princess Pirlipat back to normal and threatening to behead him if he failed. After consulting the Court Astronomer, the Court Watchmaker learned that the key to breaking the spell on the princess was a special nut, which had to be cracked by being bitten by a man who filled certain special requirements, which all happened to be met by the son of the Watchmaker’s dollmaker cousin. The King had promised that the person who could break the spell could marry his daughter, but the mouse queen interrupted the last part of the ritual, causing the young cousin to turn ugly himself. When pretty Princess Pirlipat saw her rescuer turn ugly, she didn’t want to marry him anymore. The Court Astronomer said that the only way to break the spell on the young man was for him to defeat the new Mouse King – the mouse queen’s youngest son – and for him to find a woman who would love him regardless of his appearance.

Marie knows that the story is true because she has seen the Mouse King herself. She loves the Nutcracker and wants to help him. The Nutcracker returns to visit Marie during the night and makes repeated demands of her for her candy and toys. Marie knows that, no matter what she gives him, the Mouse King will keep returning to demand something else. The Nutcracker tells her that he needs a sword to fight the Mouse King. They borrow one from a toy soldier, and the Nutcracker successfully defeats the Mouse King, giving Marie his seven golden crowns.

As a reward for helping him, the Nutcracker takes Marie to the land where he is from, leading her there through a magic staircase in an old wardrobe. The Nutcracker’s land is beautiful, filled with candy and sweets and gold and silver fruit. (The Christmas Wood that they pass through reminds me of the woods in the wardrobe in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.) The Prince Nutcracker’s home is Marzipan Castle in Candy City, where his beautiful princess sisters live. They welcome Marie and the Nutcracker home.

Then, suddenly, Marie wakes up, as if it were all a dream. However, Marie knows that it wasn’t a dream because she still has the Mouse King’s crowns. Marie tells the Nutcracker that she loves him. There is a sudden bang, and Marie faints. When she wakes up, she is told that Mr. Drosselmeier’s nephew has come to visit them. The nephew is the Nutcracker, restored to human form and now a handsome young man, thanks to Marie’s love. Marie later marries the nephew, and the two of them rule magical Kingdom of Sweets.

There is a section in the back of the book that explains a little more about E.T.A. Hoffmann and the original version of the Nutcracker story.

This book is available to borrow for free online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

No More Magic

NoMoreMagic

No More Magic by Avi, 1975.

Chris has a fun time on Halloween with his best friend, Eddie.  The two of them are dressed as superheroes.  Eddie is Batman, and Chris is the Green Lantern.  However, the next morning he discovers that his bike is missing.

Chris loves his bike because of its wonderful green color.  He thinks of green as a magical color, and the bike has a great shimmery kind of green paint that reminds him of the Green Lantern.  Although his green bike was a little old and his mother gets a good deal on a newer yellow bike, Chris misses his old one and begins investigating, trying to figure out who could have taken it.

At first, the challenge seems difficult.  On Halloween night, lots of people were running around in costume.  However, Chris’s community isn’t too big, and he is able to identify many of the people who came to the house around the time that the bike disappeared.  One kid that he doesn’t know well is Muffin, a new girl at school, who came to the house in a nurse costume.  There was also a mysterious kid who came in a warlock outfit, with a cape and a tri-cornered hat.

When Chris interviews Muffin to see if she knows anything about his missing bike, he learns that the warlock costume originally belonged to her.  She had made it herself and was proud of it, but someone stole it while it was hanging up to dry.  The nurse costume was a last-minute substitute.  Chris thinks that whoever was wearing the warlock outfit is the most likely suspect for stealing his bike because the local police chief told him that a man had complained that someone riding a bike like his and wearing a costume like the warlock costume ran into him.  He suggests that the two of them team up to find the mysterious warlock/thief and get their stuff back.

Muffin is kind of a strange girl and is oddly evasive about her life and family.  At first, all she will tell Chris is that her real name is Maureen (but she doesn’t like that name) and that she has come to town to live with her aunt because her parents “aren’t around.”  Her aunt seems somewhat strict, and Chris donates some of his own money to Muffin to help her buy a used bike so the two of them can ride around together, looking for clues.

One of the first things they learn is that the person wearing the warlock costume won the prize for the best costume at the Halloween parade downtown.  Chris didn’t attend the Halloween parade, but his friend, Eddie, says that he went.  However, Muffin and Chris notice that Eddie’s name wasn’t on the list of attendees.  When they try to ask Eddie about it, he becomes strangely angry.  Chris doesn’t want to think that his best friend could have stolen his bike or the warlock costume or both, but why would he try so hard to avoid answering their questions if he didn’t have something to hide?

Then, Chris learns why Muffin is so secretive about her life.  The school counselor has noticed that Chris has made friends with Muffin, which she thinks is good, but she tells Chris’s mother about Muffin’s circumstances because she thinks that they should know.  Muffin’s parents recently split up.  For unknown reasons, her mother walked out on her father.  Muffin’s father was distraught when his wife left, and he decided that he should go after her and try to straighten things out with her.  He left Muffin with her aunt and went to try to find his wife, although no one really knows exactly where they went or when Muffin’s father might be back to get her.  The part that worries the school counselor is that Muffin seems to be blaming her parents’ problems and their mysterious absence on magic.  She thinks that magic made her mother go away and that magic is what’s keeping her father away.  The school counselor thinks that being friends with Chris, who is a pretty practical kid (even though he also believes in magic a little), will help bring Muffin down to Earth, and Chris’s mother encourages him to be nice to Muffin and bring her over for dinner.

Still, Chris can’t shake the thought of magic from his head.  He has the strange feeling that, somehow, his magic bike and the magic that Muffin is looking for to get her parents back are connected.  One night, he even thinks that he sees the warlock flying across the sky with his bike, although his father thinks that he dreamed the whole thing.  Neither of his parents believes in magic, and Chris even comes to question whether Muffin is to be trusted.  However, as Chris’s father says, it’s often a matter of asking the right questions before ending up with the wrong answers.

Muffin’s belief in magic comes from what her father said after her mother left.  He said that “the magic had gone,” and he blamed himself for being too self-centered to realize it.  Adults would realize that “the magic” the father was talking about is the romantic feelings that come with love, but Muffin had interpreted the phrase literally.  When her father decided to go after her mother and try to work things out, he said that he was going to “go and find the magic and make it work again.”  Again, Muffin believed that was literally what he was going to do.

It turns out that there are perfectly logical explanations for what happened to both Chris’s bike and the warlock costume, and the two missing objects are not necessarily connected.  Much of what happened on Halloween night involved a series of coincidences, deceptions, and misunderstandings, but even when the full truth becomes known, Chris and Muffin can’t shake the thought that there was a kind of magic behind it all.  Plus, as the kids had guessed, Muffins parents return when they find Chris’s magic bike.

The book is available to borrow online for free through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

The Wicked, Wicked Ladies in the Haunted House

The Wicked, Wicked Ladies in the Haunted House by Mary Chase, 1968.

Nine-year-old Maureen Swanson has a bad reputation in her neighborhood, mostly deserved.  The other kids don’t like her because she tells lies and picks fights with them.  Maureen is fascinated by an old, abandoned house in her neighborhood where the wealthy Messerman family used to live.  Sometimes she likes to pretend that she lives there herself. 

One day, while trying to avoid punishment for her latest antics, she finds her way inside the Messerman estate.  There, she meets a little man who turns out to be a leprechaun.  He tells her that she should leave immediately and not come back, but instead, she ends up exploring inside the house.  To her amazement, she finds paintings of the seven Messerman sisters, who disappeared from the house long ago, and the ladies in the paintings move when she turns her back on them.

When Maureen tries to tell others about it, no one believes it.  When she leaves the house, Maureen takes with her a strange bracelet that she finds on the ground, the same one that she had seen on one of the ladies in the paintings, a gold chain with pigeon feathers.  Later that evening, the same lady from the painting shows up at Maureen’s house, asking for her bracelet back.  The rumors Maureen has heard about the Messerman house being haunted are more true than she knows, and the wicked Messerman girls will stop at nothing to get what they want.

Years ago, the leprechaun came to the Messerman house along with a maid who was from Ireland.  Mrs. Messerman was a very kind woman, and Nora, the maid, was his friend, so he decided to stay.  However, the Messerman girls were always selfish and wicked.  One day, the eldest of the girls stole the leprechaun’s magic bag of tricks and turned herself and her sisters into birds so that they could always go where they wanted and do what they wanted without anyone stopping them.  Mr. and Mrs. Messerman were broken-hearted when their girls disappeared.  Years later, after their parents were dead, they finally returned.  They were not sad at all, but continued their selfish and wicked ways.  Because of the magic, they never age and can turn into birds whenever they like. 

Maureen is afraid to admit that she has the bracelet because she knows that her parents will punish her for trespassing on the Messerman property.  The next day, the women trick her into entering the estate again, only this time, Maureen enters the estate as it was in the past, when the girls were young.  Mr. and Mrs. Messerman are very kind to Maureen and offer to look after her until they can find where she lives.  Mrs. Messerman seems to know that her daughters are mean but doesn’t seem to know what to do about it.  She asks Maureen to help them if she ever has the chance.  It’s a touching moment for Maureen, who suddenly realizes that no one has ever asked her for help before.

Maureen, frightened by the girls, finally gives back the bracelet, and they all fly off again, leaving her alone in the past. How is Maureen going to get home?

This book also goes by the title The Wicked Pigeon Ladies in the Garden. It is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction and Spoilers

This is partly a story about personal transformation. Maureen has definitely been the resident mean girl, but she gains a new perspective on her own life and behavior when confronted with the frightening wickedness of the Messerman girls.

The leprechaun tells Maureen that the only way to get out of the pretend past created by the Messerman girls is to think about what is going on in the real world.  When Maureen thinks of her mother, she hears her mother calling her and returns to her own time.  The leprechaun catches the birds in a net and almost drowns them in a pond, but Maureen stops him, telling him that Mrs. Messerman had asked her to help them.  The leprechaun releases the birds and tells Maureen that they will continue to be, literally, flighty birdbrains, but that their mother’s love will always be with them.  Maureen, having seen how cold and cruel the sisters were, never appreciating their mother’s love, learns to appreciate her own family more and to behave better. At the end of the story, she acknowledges that she heard her mother calling her and that call, the product of her own mother’s love and concern for her, was what helped her to return home. Maureen ends up better off than the wicked and flighty Messermans because she not only has a home where people care for her but she has learned to appreciate that home and those people and will now treat them better.

One of the things that I appreciated most about this book was the unusual way the leprechaun was used in the story. The story starts out seeming like it will be about ghosts in a haunted house, but that’s not quite what’s happening. Also, when leprechauns appear in stories, they usually have a pot of gold or play tricks on people, but the leprechaun’s role in this story isn’t quite the same.

Posted on by TracyC

Tomorrow’s Wizard

TomorrowsWizardTomorrow’s Wizard by Patricia MacLachlan, 1982.

In a way, this story is a collection of shorter stories, but they are all tied together. In the beginning, Tomorrow’s Wizard (that’s actually his name, he’s also called Tomorrow) has just been given an apprentice wizard named Murdoch. Their job is to listen for important wishes to grant. Each of the shorter stories in the book involves a different wish and how Tomorrow and Murdoch grant it.

The First Important Wish – Rozelle is a pretty girl but wild and given to fits of temper. Her parents had her later in life and never disciplined her, so she has never had a reason to learn to control herself. However, her tantrums drive everyone else crazy. Rozelle’s father, acknowledging how difficult it is to deal with Rozelle, wishes that he could find a man who was willing to marry her. Tomorrow hears the wish and sends a variety of suitors to meet Rozelle, but she doesn’t like them, and none of them really like her, either. Then, another possibility occurs to the wizards: the villagers have been complaining that they are afraid of a nearby giant. Tomorrow knows that he giant is really harmless and gentle, just lonely. Could it be possible that Rozelle is the company that he needs?

Three-D – Miller Few and his wife, Mona, are nasty people, two of a kind. Because he’s the only miller in town, Miller Few (known to his neighbors as Three-D for Dreadful Dastardly Demon) freely cheats his customers. He and his wife have no friends because they’re so awful. Then, one day, Three-D saves Murdoch’s life. To reward the miller, Murdoch agrees to grant him a wish. The miller and his wife decide that they want a nice, sweet child who would do their work for them. The child Murdoch grants them is indeed sweet. A little too sweet. Not only does little Primrose look pretty and do the housework, but she helpfully reminds the miller about his debts and the other things her parents do wrong. The miller and his wife become more careful and agreeable and gain new friends because of Primrose, but they aren’t very happy. They aren’t really being themselves, and they’re tired of being on their best behavior all the time. But, perhaps there is one thing that can stop Primrose from being overly sweet: the miller’s old cat, Clifford.

The Comely Lady and the Clay Nose – Geneva is a very beautiful young woman and has many admirers, but she knows that they are more in love with the way she looks than with who she is. It worries her, and she wishes for someone who would love her for the person she is. To help solve her problem, Tomorrow makes an ugly clay nose for Geneva to wear, telling her that it will help her to find the person she is looking for. When she puts it on, her former admirers flee, and for awhile, Geneva is very lonely, but she perseveres and ends up finding the love that she is looking for.

The Perfect Fiddle – Bliss, the fiddle-maker, is ironically an unhappy man. The reason is that, no matter how good his fiddles are, he can never make one that’s completely perfect. After Bliss tries several crazy schemes to capture perfection in his fiddles, Tomorrow goes to visit Bliss’s wife, Maude. Like Tomorrow, Maude has seen the problem with Bliss’s approach to his fiddles and finally asks Bliss the question that makes him reconsider whether perfection should be his goal.

The Last Important Wish – Although Tomorrow is impatient with his apprentice, Murdoch, he does like having him live with him, and he has also grown attached to the horse that lives with them both. However, he has come to see that the life of a wizard isn’t the one that Murdoch is really suited for. More than anything, Murdoch wants the experience of being born and living among humans. The horse, too, wishes for a kind master and a family. Tomorrow sees that it’s time to grant both of their wishes, giving the horse and Murdoch (as a baby) to a kind farmer with a wife and other children.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

Wizard’s Hall

Wizard’s Hall by Jane Yolen, 1991.

Henry hadn’t seriously considered becoming a wizard.  It was just one of a number of things he considered being when he was young.  However, when he suggests the possibility when he is eleven years old, his mother unexpectedly jumps on the idea and immediately packs him off to Wizard’s Hall, the school for young wizards.  Although Henry expresses doubts, his mother tells him that it’s only that he try that counts.  Being a dutiful son, he immediately sets out for Wizard’s Hall to enroll.  He has a moment when he gets worried and tries to turn back, but he discovers that he can’t because his destiny is at Wizard’s Hall, the road there won’t let him turn back.

At Wizard’s Hall, the Registrar (after consulting with a strange bird or animal in a cage called called Dr. Mo) changes Henry’s name to Thornmallow, saying that he’s prickly on the outside but squishy on the inside.  Henry isn’t happy about being given a new name, but he accepts it as part of what he has to try at the school.  The Registrar and the teachers also refer to Thornmallow oddly as what they “desperately need.”  Something is deeply wrong at Wizard’s Hall, and the teachers are hopeful that Thornmallow will be the one to save them, although he doesn’t appear to have much aptitude for wizardry.

On his first day, his teachers discover that he is tone-deaf, which is unheard of for wizards.  Wizards have to recite their spells in the proper tones, and Thornmallow can’t do it.  When one of his teachers tries to help him by covering his years while he attempts to recite, Thornmallow accidentally recites a spell that produces an avalanche of snow and roses.  It’s more powerful than anyone expects of a beginning student, especially one like Thornmallow, who has no prior knowledge of spells and doesn’t show much aptitude in other ways.  Thornmallow wonders briefly if he might have some special, hidden talent for wizardry, but he is unable to produce the same results when he is alone.

Although Thornmallow feels lonely and out-of-place at his new school, he persists because he promised his mother that he would try, and the teachers at the school also say that trying is important.  He also makes his first real friends his own age at the school.  A couple of other first-year students, Tansy and Willoweed (called Will for short) are assigned to be his Guardians, helping him to become acquainted with the school and its rules, and another girl, Gorse, also becomes his friend.  Thornmallow realizes that he would miss his new friends if he were to leave, although he briefly considers it, having the feeling that his first spell was just a fluke and that he doesn’t have any real talent for magic.

However, just when Thornmallow goes to tell his teachers that he thinks that his admittance to the school was a mistake, he overhears them talking about the serious threat to the school: the school is in danger from an evil sorcerer and his Quilted Beast (a “quilted beast” doesn’t sound particularly threatening because quilts are soft and comfy, but it’s way worse than that).  The teachers don’t know how to defeat the Master and his Beast, but they know that it’s vitally important for the school to have its full quantity of students, 113.  They were almost full when they sent out a call for the final student and got Henry/Thornmallow.  Although they aren’t sure why Thornmallow is the proper final student, it seems that he has some important role to play in the situation. When he learns the danger that they’re in, Thornmallow realizes that he has to stay and try to help them as best he can.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction and Spoilers:

Master Hickory, one of the teachers, explains to Thornmallow and his friends that the Master was one of the original founders of the school years ago.  The main founder had been Doctor Morning Glory, and she sent out a call for others to help her, bringing 13 sorcerers to found the school.  However, one of the others, Nettle, was prickly in every sense of the word.  He enjoyed using his words (and words are very important in magic and in the story) to sting and hurt others.  Eventually, the other 13 founders pushed him out of the school, and he turned to dark magic to get revenge. 

The Quilted Beast is made out of the dark pieces of the souls of each of the other founders, all “quilted” together.  Master Hickory explains that everyone has a little darkness in them in the form of very deep emotions, the kind that can tempt people to do bad things, if they let them get out of control.  I particularly liked the explanations of how people have their dark sides and how mature people deal with them.  At first, Thornmallow struggles to understand why the teachers are so upset that their dark sides have been removed because he thinks that would make them better.  However, Master Hickory explains that by “dark side,” he doesn’t mean the parts that are necessarily evil; he means the parts that could become evil, some of which are actually good.  Master Hickory says that some of the strongest human emotions can turn to evil if they aren’t kept under control.  For example, ambition out of control can become greed, or admiration out of control can become envy.  Having these feelings isn’t evil by itself; it’s the way people respond to their feelings that determines that.  Even love, which is considered good, is a deep emotion that can turn to something evil if used improperly, and so can count as part of a person’s dark side.  Mature people learn to deal with their feelings and control them, using them in the best ways.  People who aren’t mature, don’t.  Thornmallow, who often quotes his mother’s words of wisdom throughout the story, says, “Good folk think bad thoughts; bad folk act on ‘em.” 

I find those words of wisdom familiar because that’s something that my own parents impressed on me, “You can feel anything, but you don’t have to act on it.  You never have to act on it.” It was okay to have feelings and to say how we felt, but just “feeling like it” wasn’t an excuse for misbehavior. Everything has limits. You can’t hit your sibling just because you feel like it, and you can’t call people names just because you’re mad.  You can feel any way you want, but no matter what you’re feeling, you still have to behave, within the rules. If you don’t, there will be problems, and those problems won’t go away because of how you “feel.”  This probably explains a lot of my impatience toward people who don’t control themselves and don’t have limits for their behavior.  It’s not that I think it’s always easy or that people are always completely successful; it’s more that I have no respect for those who think it’s impossible and don’t even want to try, which brings us back to the story …

Master Hickory says that the teachers who had the smallest dark sides have still been basically functional since having them taken away, but those of particularly strong feelings have been damaged by the attack, including Morning Glory, who was both the most loving and the most ambitious of all the teachers.  What happened to Morning Glory isn’t fully explained until almost the end of the story, but the loss of her has been devastating to the school. When Thornmallow tells his friends about the problem, the kids are scared, but if there’s one thing that Thornmallow believes in, it’s trying. He and his friends are determined to try and save the school from the Master and the Quilted Beast, but time is running out.

The importance of trying is the theme of the story. Thornmallow/Henry doesn’t know his real talents or abilities, but just by showing up and trying to help, he learns that he possesses a special ability that makes him the right person to stop the evil wizard. Although he is not good at magic, not an enchanter, he has the ability to act as an enhancer for the abilities of others. The times when Thornmallow succeeds in his spells are when he’s working with, especially touching, one of the other wizards. He is able to use the talents of others and magnify them to be greater than anything either of them would do by themselves. By himself, Henry isn’t particularly special, but he can unite his friends and combine the talents of others, just by trying.

Another interesting aspect of the story is that the magic at Wizard’s Hall is largely based on word play. The characters play off words, using special names to point to the true natures of people and to change situations to be what they need them to be, which turns out to be part of the solution to their problem. Words spoken aloud at Wizard’s Hall have power and can change reality. For example, the names that everyone is given when they arrive at Wizard’s Hall are clues to the kind of people they are and what their abilities are. Thornmallow’s name is already explained, and at first, he puzzles a little over Tansy’s name when he meets her. Tansy is a black girl, and Thornmallow knows that tansy is a bright yellow flower. Gorse later explains to him that Tansy got her name because of her sunny personality. It’s not about what she looks like but what she is. Gorse describes herself as being small and prickly, and she seems proud of it because she’s comfortable with herself as she is. Before they can defeat the Master, who is really Nettle, they realize that they need to learn more about what Nettles are, which gives Thornmallow a clue as to what he needs to do and the words he needs to use.

Posted on by TracyC

Talking to Dragons

Talking to Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede, 1985.

This is both the fourth book in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles and the first book in the series that was written.  The author wrote this story before the others and then wrote the other three to explain how the characters got to this point.  The first three books in the series focus on Princess Cimorene and her adventures, but this book focuses on her son, Prince Daystar.

Partly because this series is kind of backwards, with the last book being the first written, I’m going to start with a spoiler.  When the book begins, Daystar is unaware that he is a prince and that his father is the king of the Enchanted Forest.  He grew up in an ordinary cottage on the edge of the forest, so he is accustomed to the presence of all kinds of fantasy creatures and fairy tale characters.  He thinks of himself and his mother as ordinary poor folk.  However, his mother has taught him not only reading and writing but other skills that are more unusual for peasants, like music, fighting, and even a little magic.

When Daystar is 16 years old, a wizard named Antorell comes to their house.  Daystar’s mother, Cimorene, seemed to know him, and he knows her.  Antorell demands “the sword” and the boy, and Cimorene casts a spell to melt him.  (“’No! Not again!’ he screamed.”  If you’ve read the other books, you already know why.  But, again, this book was written first.)

The next day, Cimorene gives Daystar a sword that he’s never seen before but which seems to draw him to it, and she starts giving him instructions.  The instructions are vague, but Cimorene insists that Daystar is to go into the Enchanted Forest and not to come back until he can explain why he had to go in there in the first place.  Also, he is not allowed to draw the sword from its scabbard unless he really needs to use it.  Cimorene says that she can’t explain more because it might “ruin everything.”  Not knowing what else to do, Daystar starts into the Enchanted Forest.  When he glances back, Cimorene and the cottage have suddenly disappeared.  Daystar has no idea why, but he has no choice but to keep going.

In the forest, Daystar meets a talking lizard called Suz, who claims to know everything about the Enchanted Forest and what goes on there (a tall claim, considering everything that goes on there).  When Daystar asked him if he knows anything about the mysterious, magical sword that his mother gave him, Suz tells him that it’s the Sword of the Sleeping King and that everyone has been looking for it.  Daystar knows nothing about it, which surprises Suz.  To Daystar’s surprise, both the sword and Daystar’s lack of knowledge agitate Suz, who says that he must get Kazul, who will know what to do.  Before he then runs off, leaving Daystar wondering who Kazul is, Suz tells him that he’s going to have to learn about the sword by himself because there are certain rules associated with magic, but that he should follow the sword to find out.

The next person Daystar meets is a red-haired girl who is stuck in a hedge.  She is surprised by how easily Daystar can get into the magical hedge, and at first, she thinks that he is a wizard.  She is relieved when she finds out that he’s not.  The girl, Shiara, tells Daystar that wizards have been chasing her because she burned the Head Wizard’s staff.  Most people could never accomplish that because wizards’ staffs are extremely powerful and have protective spells on them, but Shiara is a fire-witch.

As the two of them talk, Daystar learns that, while fire-witches are extremely rare and powerful come by their powers naturally, Shiara’s abilities are more unpredictable than most.  She has trouble casting spells on purpose, but when she gets mad, she can do some extremely powerful ones without really trying.  Fire-witches tend to have tempers, and Shiara is no exception.  Because of that, she doesn’t have many friends.  Most people are afraid to be around her because they never know when she’ll lose her temper and accidentally set things on fire.  Even worse, for Shiara, is knowing that most fire-witches are able to do very impressive spells and are almost invulnerable, but yet, she can’t even burn her way through a hedge when she tries it.  The wizards are very interested in her because most fire-witches are immune to their spells.  When they learned that she was a fire-witch who couldn’t cast her own spells, they tried to kidnap her in order to study her magic, which she how she ended up setting the Head Wizard’s staff on fire.

Daystar and Shiara finally get out of the magical hedge when Daystar suggests that Shiara try being polite to it instead of losing her temper.  Creatures and objects in the Enchanted Forest tend to respond well to politeness.  When they’re out of the hedge, a wizard shows up and tries to kidnap Shiara again, but Daystar defends her with his sword.  However, Daystar’s hand is injured when he tries to pick up the pieces of the wizard’s staff, and it explodes.

Daystar and Shiara seek help from Morwen, a witch who lives nearby.  It is from Morwen that Daystar begins to get a sense of what his sword is capable of doing.  He also meets up with Suz again, who tells him that he should go to the castle and that Kazul will meet him there.  Daystar still doesn’t know what he’s walking into, but missions in the Enchanted Forest can’t be ignored, and he has a mission to complete that everyone has been waiting for since before he was born.

By the end of the story, Daystar has learned what he needs to do to rescue his father, and Cimorene and Mendanbar are reunited.  Shiara ends up getting what she wants, partially, because she gains the ability to use her powers, but is forced to be polite in order to do so, which really irritates her.  She becomes Kazul’s new princess, where she will learn both the personal skills and magical skills she needs to control both herself and her ability.  Cimorene believes that Shiara will end up marrying Daystar eventually and becoming the next queen of the Enchanted Forest.  However, the series ends here, and the future is left to the imagination.  Morwen also decides to marry Telemain, a character from the previous books.

Like other books in this series, this book contains a lot of humor and parodies on popular fairy tales and fairy-tale creatures. Personally, I like the first two books in the series the best, but this one is also fun. There is a mild touch of romance to it, which is also nice.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

There is one more story after this series, a short story in the collection Book of Enchantments that features Daystar and both of his parents but does not have Shiara.

Posted on by TracyC

Calling on Dragons

Calling on Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede, 1993.

This is the third book in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. Cimorene is now married to Mendanbar and expecting their first child.

Morwen, a witch living in the Enchanted Forest, realizes that something strange is going on when she encounters a rabbit that is more than six feet tall. The rabbit, called Killer, has no idea how he managed to grow so big. It just happened suddenly that morning while he was eating some clover. Morwen goes to investigate the clover patch in the hopes of finding what might be responsible for the change. She discovers a wizard’s staff nearby, which is never a good sign.

She contacts King Mendanbar, Queen Cimorene, and her friend Telemain, a magical theoretician. Part of what they discover is that one of the wizards has shrunk himself in size. Mendanbar also discovers that someone has stolen the sword that he uses to control the threads of magic in the Enchanted Forest. The sword helps to maintain the protective spell around the Enchanted Forest that keeps wizards out. If the wizards have it, they may be able to enter the forest and soak up its magic. Mendanbar wants to go with the others to get it back, but Telemain points out that he can’t because he’s the other main focus of the protective spell; if he leaves the forest, it will be completely vulnerable. Even worse, they don’t have much time to retrieve the sword because whenever it’s outside of the Enchanted Forest, it leaks magic. Although Mendanbar doesn’t want to let Cimorene go on the mission to retrieve the sword while she’s pregnant, he has to let her go with the others. Before the book is over, Killer, who accompanies them on their mission, changes from a giant rabbit in to a flying blue donkey.

Among the fairy tale parodies that the characters encounter on their journey are a farmer named MacDonald (E-I-E-I-O) and a sorceress named Rachel who lives in a tower that can only be entered via a chair which Rachel lowers to bring people up (“Rachel! Rachel, send down the chair”). They keep in touch with Mendanbar in the castle using a magic mirror (“Mirror, mirror on the wall, I would like to make a call.”), until, for some reason, they are unable to reach him.

They are able to retrieve the magic sword, but the wizards capture Mendanbar and seal him inside his castle, trapped in a transportation spell to keep him safe yet contained. They don’t want to kill him because the Enchanted Forest would be plunged into chaos by his death, and they can’t keep him prisoner in a normal way because his friends would rescue him. Cimorene and the others know that the sword has the power to break through the shield spell on the castle, but the problem is that only a member of the royal family can wield it to do so. The sword allows Cimorene to carry it because she is Mendanbar’s wife, but only a blood relative can use the sword to break the spell . . . which mean that they have to wait for Cimorene’s baby to be born and become old enough to do it.

Although I like this series and think it’s a lot of fun, I’m not really fond of the last two books because of Mendanbar’s years of imprisonment. He’s okay when they finally get to him, but I still don’t like it. The ending of this book leaves things hanging until the fourth book.

This book is currently available online through Internet Archive.


Posted on by TracyC

Searching for Dragons

Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede, 1990.

This is the second book in The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, continuing the adventures of Princess Cimorene, although the story is told from the point of view of Mendanbar, King of the Enchanted Forest.  The Enchanted Forest is no ordinary kingdom, and Mendanbar is no ordinary king.  To be King of the Enchanted Forest means being a skilled enchanter.  Mendanbar can use the forest’s magic directly, making him more powerful than wizards.  Most of the creatures in the forest obey him, and unlike ordinary people, he can find his way around the forest almost automatically, even though things in the forest tend to move around.

At the beginning of the story, Mendanbar’s steward, Willin, pesters him about the subject of getting married.  Mendanbar hasn’t given the matter much thought since his father died three years earlier, but then, there’s been a lot to do.  Queen Alexandra has several daughters, any of which would be considered “suitable,” but Mendanbar doesn’t like any of them.  Mendanbar is annoyed because he’d just gotten the elf clans’ feud settled and was looking forward to a period of relative calm, so he decides that he’s going to give himself the day off, for a change.

He decides to take a stroll by the Green Glass Pool to relax, but on the way, he encounters a princess.  That’s not too unusual for the Enchanted Forest (home to many fairy-tale creatures and the events that make up fairy tales), but this princess strikes Mendanbar as a particularly scheming and ambitious one.  She tells him a great tale of woe in which her wicked stepmother cast her out that Mendanbar can tell is carefully rehearsed and might have even been the idea of the stepmother in question, with the idea of hooking an adventurous prince.  (Royal families do things like that, see the previous book in the series.)  However, Mendanbar is puzzled because the forest usually keeps out people who are obviously selfish.  Then, the princess mentions crossing an area of waste to get into the forest, and Mendanbar is alarmed because there shouldn’t be a wasteland there.  Forgetting about the princess, he hurries off to investigate.

Sure enough, Mendanbar discovers that a section of the forest is actually missing, destroyed to the point where there are just dead stumps.  Even the magic is gone.  Upon further investigation, Mendanbar finds dragons scales.  He isn’t sure why the dragons would want to attack the Enchanted Forest because they haven’t had any quarrels and mostly leave each other alone.  On the advice of a nearby talking squirrel, Mendanbar goes to see the witch Morwen.

After examining the dragon scales, Morwen demonstrates that, although they appear to be different colors and look like they’re from different dragons, they have actually been disguised.  They are actually from one dragon only.  Morwen also doubts that a dragon was really responsible for the damage to the forest.  After all, why would a dragon waste time disguising his scales when he could just pick them up?  Also, healthy dragons don’t shed that many scales.  Morwen is a friend of Kazul, who is the current King of the Dragons, and she advises Mendanbar to go see Kazul. 

Morwen also chides Mendanbar for not visiting Kazul when she became the king the year before.  Mendanbar feels a little guilty, saying that he’s just been very busy, which is true.  However, Morwen points out that what he could use is more effective help to organize things in the kingdom, not just making lists of things for him to do, like his steward does.  It’s part of the reason why people are saying that Mendanbar should get married.

Before Mendanbar can visit Kazul, he gets an unexpected visit from Zemenar, the Head Wizard.  Zemenar says that the wizards have been having problems with the dragons (again, see previous book) and that the dragons will not let them enter the Caves of Fire and Night.  He hopes that Mendanbar will allow them access from the Enchanted Forest.  Mendanbar doesn’t really trust the wizards, and he refuses the request on the grounds that he has something important to discuss with the King of the Dragons himself.  Zemenar tells Mendanbar about Kazul’s princess, Cimorene, blaming her for the the “misunderstanding” between the wizards and dragons.  Mendanbar at first imagines that Cimorene is much like the scheming princess he met that morning, but soon discovers that she’s anything but.  Taking the enchanted sword that only the kings of the Enchanted Forest can use with him, Mendanbar goes to visit the dragons.

At Kazul’s cave, Mendanbar meets Cimorene, who informs him that her official title is now Chief Cook and Librarian.  She tells him that part of the point of advertising this title is that it cuts down on the number of princes who come around.  Lots of princes want to rescue a princess, but few people want to rescue a Chief Cook and Librarian.  Mendanbar finds Cimorene a surprising change from the other princesses he’s met.  Mendanbar also makes a positive impression on Cimorene by using his sword to fix a broken sink, even if she describes the magic as being a bit “flashy.”

However, all is not well among the dragons.  Although Cimorene is reluctant to admit it at first, Kazul has mysteriously vanished.  She was planning to go out and search before Mendanbar showed up.  Kazul had been visiting her grandchildren when she decided to go by the Enchanted Forest to investigate someone growing dragonsbane.  Mendanbar shows Cimorene the dragon scales he found, and she indentifies them as belonging to Woraug, a dragon who was changed into a frog in the previous book.

It doesn’t take the two of them long to realize that the wizards are back to their old tricks and scheming.  However, what would they really have to gain by setting the Enchanted Forest and the dragons against each other?  And where is Kazul?

Like the other books in this series, this book is full of humor and a touch of mystery.  There are many parodies on fairy tale tropes, including an Wicked Uncle who’s not very wicked and does both a favor and an evil deed for his nephew by sending him to boarding school instead of abandoning him in the forest to have an adventure, as he’d hoped.  There is also romance between Cimorene and Mendanbar.  As you might have guessed, Cimorene is just the kind of practical princess Mendanbar needs to help him manage the magical chaos that is the Enchanted Forest and Mendanbar is the kind of king who is happy to find an intelligent princess who can do magic and rescue dragons.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

The King’s Equal

The King’s Equal by Katherine Paterson, 1992.

Everyone dreads the day that Prince Raphael will rule the kingdom instead of his father.  Prince Raphael is good-looking and highly educated, but he’s also selfish and greedy.  His one outstanding characteristic is that he’s arrogant.  He assumes that no one knows as much as he does about anything and no one is as deserving as he is . . . of anything.  Knowing that, as the old king lies dying, he makes his final decree that the prince will not wear his crown until he is married to a woman who is his equal.

When the prince hears that, he immediately becomes angry, saying (as his father guessed he would) that there could not possibly be any woman in the world who is his equal, who is as rich, intelligent, or beautiful as he is.  After his father dies, the prince immediately begins looting the kingdom for his own gain and generally abusing his subjects (as they had also guessed he would).  Still, he doesn’t have the one thing he really wants: his father’s crown.

The prince orders his councilors to find him an appropriate bride but (as the councilors feared), the task proves impossible.  No matter what options they place before the prince, the prince finds something about them to nit-pick.  Princesses of fabulous wealth are not beautiful or intelligent enough for him.  Princesses who have amazing beauty either aren’t beautiful enough or don’t know enough.  Princesses with amazing knowledge are still lacking in some area of knowledge or are just plain ugly in the prince’s eyes.  One by one, he dismisses them all.

Meanwhile, a farmer in the prince’s kingdom, has sent his daughter, Rosamund, to live in the mountains with their goats to avoid having the prince confiscate their only livestock, which he has done with everyone else.  During the winter, Rosamund and the goats almost starve, but they are saved by a magical Wolf.

The Wolf assures Rosamund that her father is alive and well, and Rosamund says that she is worried about what is happening in the kingdom.  The Wolf tells Rosamund that the kingdom would be saved if the prince finds the princess that he is looking for and that she should go to the capital and present herself as that princess.  Rosamund doesn’t see how she can do that because she is definitely not as wealthy as the prince, and she doesn’t think of herself as particularly beautiful or clever.  However, the Wolf tells her that her mother, who died when she was born, had blessed her, that she would be a king’s equal.  To fulfill her dead mother’s wish, Rosamund does as the Wolf tells her.

To Rosamund’s surprise, the prince falls in love with her beauty at first sight.  She also impresses him with her intelligence when she tells him that she knows what no one else does, that he is actually very lonely.  (Which is natural, since he thinks that no one can be his equal or true companion.)  Although she cannot demonstrate that she possesses great wealth, she can demonstrate that there is nothing in particular that she wants while the prince still feels like he is lacking things he needs (like his father’s crown).  The prince is satisfied that Rosamund has passed all the necessary tests to be his equal, but Rosamund turns the tables on the prince by pointing out that his description of her has made her more than his equal, challenging him to prove to her that he is worthy of marrying her.

It is in meeting Rosamund’s challenge, taking care of her goats in the mountains for a year, Raphael learns humility from the Wolf.  While he’s away from the palace, Rosamund tends to the kingdom, ruling more compassionately than Raphael had.  When Raphael returns, he is humble enough that he doesn’t think that he is worthy of marrying Rosamund, but his humility is precisely what makes him worthy, and they do marry.

My Reaction

Overall, I liked the story, although I wish that we could see a little more of the conversation between Rosamund and Raphael when she explains to him who she really is. They still get married, so whatever Rosamund told Raphael must have persuaded him, but it’s left to the imagination how she explains it. How I picture it is partly based on the fact that, during the last year, Rosamund has lived as a princess, even though she was originally a goatherd, and Raphael has lived as a goatherd, even though he is really a prince. By the time the year is over, they have each lived in the other’s place, and that is what really makes them each other’s equal. Raphael was callous and arrogant because he never thought about how other people lived until he tried it himself.

I don’t know if Rosamund really learned anything from her experiences as a princess, which bothers me a little because I think that she really should have because it was so far outside of her experience. We don’t really hear about that because the focus is on Raphael’s changing character. Personally, I’d like to think that part of what Rosamund may have learned is that running a country is a big, difficult job, and that, while her rule was better than Raphael’s for being more compassionate, it’s not a job that she would like to do alone, emphasizing that she and Raphael would be better ruling as a team than either of them would be by themselves. If Rosamund and Raphael really both need each other, it would be fitting for a story about equals.