Posted on by TracyC

A Hugga Bunch Hello

HuggaBunchHello

A Hugga Bunch Hello by Phyllis Fair Cowell, illustrated by Ron C Lipking, 1985.

Bridget likes having her grandmother living with her and the rest of her family. Her grandmother always has time for her and is willing to give her a hug. Her parents are often too busy, her brother thinks hugs are just for girls, and her Aunt Ruth is too fussy.

Then, Aunt Ruth tries to persuade everyone that Bridget’s grandmother should go live in a nursing home. Bridget doesn’t want her grandmother to leave, but she doesn’t know what to do about it.

While she worries, a strange little person steps out of her bedroom mirror. This little person is Huggins, one of the Hugga Bunch. She says that she knows about Bridget’s problem and thinks that she can help. She invites Bridget to come with her to Huggaland.

HuggaBunchHelloMirror

In Huggaland, the Hugga Bunch take Bridget to see the Book Worm, who may have the solution that Bridget seeks. Both the Hugga Bunch and the Book Worm say that aging can be slowed by affection and “the knowledge that they are needed,” but Bridget thinks that the only solution is to find a way to actually make her grandmother young again.

The Book Worm says that if that’s what Bridget wants, then her grandmother must eat fruit from the Youngberry Tree. Unfortunately, the tree is in the territory of the Mad Queen of Quartz. Although the Hugga Bunch are afraid of her, Bridget is willing to face her for her grandmother’s sake.

Getting there involves going through a few obstacles, including walking sideways on a sideways sidewalk and facing a frightening beast who turns out to be a baby elephant who was under a spell. When they reach the tree, the mad queen takes them prisoner and turns Bridget into a statue. Fortunately, the others manage to break free and save her.

HuggaBunchHelloTree

Bridget is happy at being able to bring the Youngberries to her grandmother, but as she passes through the mirror into her room, she accidentally drops them, and they disappear.

Not knowing what else to do, Bridget runs to give her grandmother a hug before she leaves, encouraging her brother to do the same. Bridget’s father wasn’t happy about her grandmother leaving, either, and seeing how much the children will miss her, he declares that she should stay.

This book was made into a made-for-tv movie.  It is currently available on YouTube.  It follows the plot of the book pretty closely.

Posted on by TracyC · 2 Comments

Jumanji

Jumanji

Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg, 1981.

Judy and Peter, a brother and sister, are left home alone while their parents go to an opera. In spite of their parents’ warning not to make a mess because they’ll be bringing guests by later, the kids scatter all of their toys around while playing. Then, the kids go to the park to play for awhile, and they find a board game labeled Jumanji with a note that the game is free to anyone who wants to play it. Judy and Peter decide to give the game a try and take it home.

JumanjiPark

Jumanji turns out to be a kind of race game. Players are supposed to make their way down a path through a jungle, facing all kinds of dangers, until someone reaches the golden city of Jumanji. The instructions warn them that once a game has begun, it will not be over until one of the players reaches Jumanji.

JumanjiGameStart

At first, Peter thinks that the game is boring and easy, but it soon becomes apparent that things that happen in the board game are starting to happen in real life when a live lion suddenly appears after an encounter with one on the game board.  Peter is scared and wants to stop playing, but Judy reminds him that they can’t stop because the game won’t end until one of them reaches the end of the path on the game board. Until the game ends, they’re stuck with the lion and anything else that happens to appear because of the game. They have no choice but to keep playing, facing each danger as wild animals rampage through their house.

JumanjiLion

Chris Van Allsburg books always have amazing illustrations, and the pictures in this book are especially good!  At the end of the book, the children see two other children find the game, which leads to the sequel, Zathura.

JumanjiRhino

There is a movie version of this book, but the movie differs greatly from the original story. In the movie, the two kids were friends, not brother and sister, and the boy ends up trapped in the game for a period of years until, finally, a new set of kids starts playing and helps the original players to finish their game.  When their game ends, the original children are returned to their own time, and no one but them knows that they were ever gone.  Things turn out better for the future children as well because the older players make things better for everyone in their own time.  There were no players stuck in the game in the original book, and everything takes place during a single day.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

JumanjiParents

Posted on by TracyC · 4 Comments

Magic Elizabeth

MagicElizabeth

Magic Elizabeth by Norma Kassirer, 1966.

Young Sally’s parents are away on a business trip, so she’s been staying with Mrs. Chipley, but now Mrs. Chipley has a family emergency to tend to. Mrs. Chipley’s daughter is ill, and Mrs. Chipley needs to go and help her with her children. While Mrs. Chipley is gone, there is only one other person for Sally to stay with: her Aunt Sarah, an elderly woman who Sally doesn’t really know. Aunt Sarah moved to California when Sally was just a baby, and the only reason why she has returned is that she has decided to sell her old house.

MagicElizabethArrival

Sally is a rather shy girl. She’s uneasy around Aunt Sarah, who is obviously unaccustomed to spending time with children, and Aunt Sarah’s creepy cat, Shadow. The house is old, chilly, and filled with strange things. However, Sally is enchanted with the bedroom that Aunt Sarah gives her and the portrait of a girl and her doll that hangs on the wall. The girl looks very much like Sally herself, and Aunt Sarah tells her that the girl was also called Sally and lived in that bedroom as a child, many years ago.

MagicElizabethKitchen

Fascinated by this earlier Sally and her beautiful doll, modern Sally decides to try to find the doll. Although her aunt tells her that she shouldn’t go poking around in the attic, Sally can’t help herself. She finds a trunk with Sally’s name on it full of girls’ clothes, just the right size for modern Sally to wear. There is a doll in the trunk also, but it’s not the same doll as the one in the portrait. When Sally reads the diary in the old trunk she learns the reason why. The doll in the picture, Elizabeth, was lost many years ago, when the earlier Sally was still young. As modern Sally plays dress up with the earlier Sally’s old clothes and studies herself in the mirror, she finds herself taken back in time, seeing the house through earlier Sally’s eyes. In the past, it was a busy and happy household with parents, an elderly aunt, earlier Sally, Sally’s little brother, and Sally’s pet cats.

A short time later, Aunt Sarah wakes modern Sally on the floor of the attic, and they assume that it was all a dream, but this look into the past changes Sally’s feelings about the house and her aunt’s cat, who suddenly seems friendlier and reminds her of the mother cat she saw in the past. Aunt Sarah also seems a little less stern as they discuss earlier Sally and her lost doll. Aunt Sarah says that no one ever saw the doll again after it disappeared on Christmas Eve all those years ago.  Earlier Sally had put the doll on top of the Christmas tree, like an angel, and after the family finished singing Christmas carols, the doll was gone.  They could never figure out what happened to her.  Modern Sally thinks that sounds very sad and wants to investigate the mystery of the missing doll, although Aunt Sarah isn’t very enthusiastic. She says that if the doll could be found, it would have been found long ago, and the earlier Sally has long since grown up and no longer needs it. Although, oddly, Aunt Sarah remarks that the earlier Sally had always thought that Elizabeth was “a little bit magic.”

Modern Sally continues to look for the doll anyway and also continues having moments when she sees the past as the earlier Sally did many years ago, especially when she looks into the mirror in the attic. One day, she invites a neighbor girl named Emily over, and while the two of them are looking around the attic, Emily finds Elizabeth’s old doll bonnet. The girls are excited because they now know for certain that Elizabeth is still in the house, waiting to be found. The girls are running out of time to find her. If Aunt Sarah agrees to sell the house, it will be torn down to build apartments. But, Sally falls ill with the flu, and it isn’t until Shadow gives her an important clue that Sally realizes where Elizabeth must be.

This book is currently out of print, but it’s one that I’d dearly love to see in print once more!  It is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction and Spoilers

Adults reading this story will probably realize before the children do (spoiler) that Aunt Sarah herself was the earlier Sally, the one who lost her favorite doll many years ago. “Sally” is a nickname for Sarah, like “Molly” can be for Mary and “Peggy” can be for Margaret, although any of those names can also be used by itself.  (In the Middle Ages, it was common for popular names to get different variations of nicknames by changing one sound in the original name and then changing one more sound in the first nickname to get another one, and sometimes even moving on to change one more sound to get yet another nickname that was very changed from the first. Those nicknames that look significantly different from their original names are a holdover from that practice, having lasted even into modern times.  John/Jack works on the same principle.  Fun fact!)  When Aunt Sarah grew up, she stopped using her childhood nickname, but the name was passed on to modern Sally.

At first, modern Sally sees her stern aunt as being witch-like, all dressed in black and fussy, but gradually, the memories of the past, her new relationship with young Sally, and the finding of her slightly-magical doll soften her. There are hints of Aunt Sarah’s youth in the attic, although Sally at first dismisses thoughts that some of the lovely things there could have belonged to her cranky old aunt because she has trouble thinking of her aunt as once having been young, pretty, and sweet. However, part of the theme of the story is that everyone was young once. Aunt Sarah is is bent and achy from arthritis, giving her the witch-like appearance and making her short-tempered at times. She also hasn’t been around children much for years, and part of her fussiness comes from forgetting what it was like to be young herself. Modern Sally, with her resemblance to her elderly aunt, and Elizabeth the doll both work their magic on her, reminding her what it was like to be a young girl and helping to revive a more youthful spirit in her.

I was happy that (further spoiler) Aunt Sarah decides not to sell the house after all, not just because she and Sally will get to spend more time together, but because old houses like that are rare these days. I like the idea that the old family heirlooms in the house will now be preserved, like the sleigh out in the old barn and the melodeon, a type of small organ.  I liked the way the book described the melodeon making musical sounds as people walk past it because of the way the floor boards move.  I also loved the description of the gas plant that Sally sees in earlier Sally’s memories.  If you’d like to see what a gas plant looks like when it’s lit, have a look at this video on YouTube.MagicElizabethMelodeon

Posted on by TracyC

Strega Nona

StregaNona

Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola, 1975.

Strega Nona is a witch who lives in a small town and uses her magic to help people in various ways, everything from small cures or love potions.  However, she runs into problems when she hires Big Anthony to help her around her house.  Big Anthony is helpful, but he doesn’t always pay attention or follow orders.

StregaNonaAnthonyPot
Strega Nona has a magical pot that makes pasta.  To get it to make a never-ending pot full of pasta, she recites a certain rhyme.  To get it to stop making pasta, she recites a different rhyme and blows three kisses to it.

Big Anthony is forbidden to use the pasta pot himself, but he can’t resist telling people in town about it.  At first, no one believes him because it sounds so strange.  Everything thinks he’s just making it up.  Big Anthony is offended that no one believes him, so one day, while Strega Nona is gone, he sets out to prove to everyone that this magical pot exists.

Big Anthony knows the rhyme to get the pot to start making pasta, and he uses it to make pasta for everyone in town so they will know that he was telling the truth.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t really know how to get it to stop because he didn’t know that Strega Nona blows kisses to the pot.  With the pot now sending a massive river of pasta through the town, what can Big Anthony do?

This is a Caldecott Honor Book.  It is currently available online through Internet Archive.

StregaNonaPastaRiver

Posted on by TracyC · 2 Comments

Midnight Magic

midnightmagicMidnight Magic by Avi, 1999.

The story takes place in Italy, toward the end of the Middle Ages.  Mangus, a formerly wealthy scholar and philosopher, is living under house arrest because the king believes that he has practiced black magic. Mangus was merely performing magic tricks to earn extra money, and in fact, does not believe in real magic.  However, the king is very superstitious and easily influenced by his scheming advisor, Count Scarazoni, who needed a scapegoat to distract everyone from his schemes.  Unfortunately, many people in the kingdom of Pergamontio believe that Mangus is a real magician with frightful powers.  Even Fabrizio, an orphan who is Mangus’s only remaining servant, believes that magic really exists.

When a messenger arrives, summoning Mangus to the castle to see the king, they are afraid that the king has reconsidered his decision to spare Mangus’s life. However, it turns out that the king is in need of Mangus’s help. He believes that his young daughter, Princess Teresina, is being tormented by a ghost, and he wants Mangus to use his magic to get rid of it.

Mangus again protests that he does not do real magic, but both the king and Count Scarazoni promise dire consequences if he fails to help them deal with the problem.  Mangus isn’t sure why Count Scarazoni has asked for his help because he knows that the count doesn’t really believe in magic, except perhaps as a way of appeasing the king.  The king promises that if Mangus can free the princess from the influence of the ghost, he will not only end Mangus’s house arrest but reward him with a generous pension.  Mangus has little choice but to agree to do his best, and the promise of the pension for his master convinces Fabrizio to do everything he can to make sure that Mangus succeeds, not only to save his master’s life but to restore his family’s fortunes.

But, what is the secret of the ghost?  Fabrizio believes in ghosts, even though Mangus doesn’t.  Princess Teresina insists that the ghost is real, appealing directly to Fabrizio to convince Mangus that it is. Adding to the mystery is the disappearance of the princess’s brother, Prince Lorenzo, and the murder of the princess’s tutor. Danger lurks in the castle, and conspiracies are around every corner. Could the troubled spirit really belong to the murdered prince?

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

My Reaction

I love historical books and spooky mysteries, and this is both! The Italian kingdom where the story takes place is fictional, but it takes its inspiration from real kingdoms of the later Middle Ages and early Renaissance, with Machiavellian intrigue, power struggles, and arranged marriages, even for children, that could influence the balance of power and successions. (There is talk of a potential arranged marriage in the story, but no child marriages actually take place.  If a child is old enough for ghost stories and murder mysteries and isn’t too frightened by them, there is really nothing more concerning than that to prevent them from reading this book.)

Princess Teresina is one of the most intriguing characters in the book.  Although young, she isn’t a shrinking violet or anyone’s fool, and she’s definitely not a tea party and ball gown kind of princess.  Like real life Medieval princesses, she is the product of a family who came to power by the sword and maintains it by the iron fist in the velvet glove and some clever political maneuvering, although some members of the family are more clever about it than others.  Princess Teresina well knows the family she was born into and what’s expected of her as royalty, and she knows to be careful about who she trusts and what the consequences of trusting the wrong people can be.  Although apparently terrified by the ghost, the princess has a kind of toughness and shrewd determination to do what she thinks is necessary.  She seems to be smarter and knows more than most people give her credit, and Fabrizio often wonders just how much she really knows.

One of the best things about the story is that, as soon as you think you know what’s going on, you learn that there is more to the story. There are conspiracies within conspiracies!

Hint: If you like pseudo-ghost stories, spooky stories of the Scooby-Doo variety, where there are logical explanations for the supernatural phenomena … you won’t be disappointed.

Posted on by TracyC

Jenny, the Halloween Spy

JennyHalloweenSpy

Jenny, the Halloween Spy by Lillie Patterson, 1979.

JennySpyWitchOne Halloween, Jenny goes to visit Nancy, a woman who local people say is a witch.  Jenny is curious about magic and, knowing that there are magical creatures abroad on Halloween, she wonders if she might see something unusual at Nancy’s house.

As she arrives at the house, Jenny peeks inside before announcing herself and sees Nancy putting some kind of oil in her eyes.  After Nancy welcomes her inside and offers her some cider, Jenny sneaks a little of this oil and puts it in one of her eyes to see what it does.  She discovers that the oil allows her to see magical beings that are hidden to most people.  There are fairies in Nancy’s house and rich furnishings that appear very ordinary to Jenny’s unaffected eye.

Using her new ability to see magical creatures, Jenny goes to the town market to see what is going on there.  However, when she catches a pixie stealing some fruit, the fairies and other “wee folk” decide to put an end to Jenny’s spying on their activities.  With some magic dust, the pixie removes her ability to see magical creatures and tricks her into getting onto an enchanted horse that takes her on a wild ride ending with a view of the devil!

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

My Reaction

JennySpyFairiesThis is a kind of cautionary story about the dangers of curiosity.  Jenny’s curiosity invites the attention of dangerous creatures and leads her into a frightening situation, something that she never wants to repeat.  For the most part, I think that curiosity is a trait that should be encouraged, but Jenny did deliberately seek out a person with a dangerous reputation and pry into the things she was doing, even trying some herself because she wanted to know more about it, so she could be considered to have gone looking for trouble.

In some ways, this book is very strange, but I can see where it draws on old folklore.  The end part about seeing the devil (accompanied by headless hounds) is a little bizarre and rather frightening for a modern children’s picture book but in keeping with folklore about Halloween and witches.  Although everything that happens to Jenny is supposedly really happening, part of me did wonder about the oil that she put in her eye because plants with hallucinogenic properties are used in folk medicine.  As far as the story is concerned, though, the magic and supernatural creatures are real.

The pictures are colorful and fascinating, but this book may be frightening for very young children.  Some of the fairies remind me a little of the pictures that inspired the Cottingley Fairy hoax.

Posted on by TracyC

Old Black Witch

OldBlackWitch

Old Black Witch by Wende and Harry Devlin, 1963.

OldWitchChimneyA boy called Nicky and his mother are looking for a new place to live somewhere in New England.  The mother wants to buy an old cottage with the idea of turning it into a tea room.  At first, they have trouble finding a place, but finally they buy an old house that badly needs fixing up, not knowing that there is an old witch living there.

The witch (whom they call Old Black Witch, since she’s dressed all in black and sooty and doesn’t seem to have any other name) has been sleeping in the chimney of the house for about a hundred years, and they wake her the first time they try to start a fire in the fireplace.

The witch is furious to discover that the house has new owners and worried about where she’s going to live because she needs an old house to haunt.  Nicky and his mother invite her to stay and live in the attic, which has enough dust and cobwebs to satisfy her tastes, while they clean up the lower part of the house for the tearoom.

The locals have heard stories about the house being haunted, but the nice tearoom soon becomes popular with ladies in the area, especially after Old Black Witch decides to help out Nicky’s mother in the kitchen.  Old Black Witch’s blueberry pancakes are wonderful and win many fans for the tearoom.

Then, one night, a couple of burglars break in.  Since Old Black Witch is kind of evil herself, she can’t really fault them for wanting to rob the place . . . until she suddenly realizes that they’re stealing from her, too, and uses her magic to fix the burglars for good and give herself the pet toads that she’s been wanting.

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

OldWitchToads

My Reaction

One of the things that I like about this story, which was a favorite of mine when I was a kid, is that Old Black Witch isn’t particularly evil although she isn’t too nice, either.  She’s as bad and disagreeable as a cranky old witch who’s lived in a chimney for over 100 years ought to be, but not so bad that she can’t make some new friends and help them out once in a while.  Friendly enough for the kids, but not too sweet to be a real witch.  It’s part of a short series, although I haven’t managed to find any of the other books yet.  Some of the pictures are in full color and some are in black and white.  Don’t ask me why she has a spoon in her hat because I’ve never been completely sure, either.  Somehow, on her, it looks good.

The back cover of the book has the recipe for the blueberry pancakes.

OldWitchPancakeRecipe

There was a short film version of this story from 1969 called Winter of the Witch.  It follows the book fairly well, but with some variations (there were no burglars).  In the film, the pancakes have the power to make people happy, and that’s what gives Nicky’s mother the inspiration to open a pancake parlor in their house.  The witch finds a new sense of purpose, although she still plans on going back to her old, wicked ways once the world is happy enough to need a good, old-fashioned scare.  I don’t think that it was ever released on dvd, but it is possible to see it on YouTube and Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC · 1 Comment

Journeyman Wizard

JourneymanWizardJourneyman Wizard by Mary Frances Zambreno, 1994.

This book is the sequel to A Plague of Sorcerers.

Jermyn Graves has finished his apprenticeship and is ready to move onto his Journeyman studies.  As a Spellmaker, an especially rare type of wizard, he really needs to study with a Master Spellmaker, and for years, there has only been one in the Wizard’s Guild: Lady Jean Allons.  Jermyn’s current teacher, Theoretician William Eschar, once studied under her himself.

Mistress Allons is a formidable old woman, and Jermyn is nervous about going to live with her and completing the next part of his training. Master Eschar says that she is strict but an excellent teacher, and he has fond memories of her from his own youth.  However, much has changed for Mistress Allons since those days.

Mistress Allons lives in her manor house in the small town of Land’s End with her widower son-in-law, Duncan, and her granddaughter, Brianne, who is only a little younger than Jermyn himself. Since the death of her only daughter, Annalise, in a mysterious accident during a magical experiment, Mistress Allons has not really practiced magic and no longer even keeps a familiar.  As Jermyn soon learns, everyone in Land’s End is still haunted by Annalise’s death.

Although Brianne has magical talent, both her father and grandmother refuse to let her study magic.  In defiance and because her talent will not allow her to leave magic alone, Brianne has taken to studying magic with a local Hedgewitch, Maudie.  Hedgewitches, or Wise Women as they call themselves, practice a very natural form of magic, but it can also be very dangerous because of its raw, undisciplined nature.  Although magical accidents are usually rare, that type of magic is more prone to them than the more formal kind that Jermyn is studying.  Jermyn tries to convince Brianne of the danger, but Brianne sees it as her only hope for learning anything, in view of her father and grandmother’s opposition.

Jermyn is not there for very long before Mistress Allons herself dies, the victim of another strange magical accident. Was it really just a terrible accident, or was it actually murder?  Jermyn struggles to find the answers while some people believe that he may have been responsible for Mistress Allons’s death himself.

I enjoyed the fascinating combination of mystery and fantasy in this short series.  While Jermyn’s magical studies are fictional, the book has some interesting insights into cross-disciplinary studies as Jermyn comes to understand something that Mistress Allons was trying to explain to him about using lessons from art and science to solve magical problems because different fields of knowledge are connected and the principles of one discipline have some bearing on the other.

There is also something interesting that Jermyn says to the evil wizard who is responsible for everything about how he can’t really do all the things that he thinks he can do (specifically flying) because the kind of drugs that evil wizards use to boost their powers also cause hallucinations.  When I was in college, I did a report about witchcraft trials, and some of the plants used by supposed “witches” in their potions also had hallucinogenic properties, which is probably the origin of the belief in flying witches.  Just an interesting little cross-over from real history.

Posted on by TracyC

The Mysterious Queen of Magic

KleepQueenMagicThe Mysterious Queen of Magic by Joan Lowery Nixon, 1981.

This is part of the Kleep: Space Detective series.

Kleep and Till meet a strange young man who is looking for Kleep’s grandfather, Arko.  The young man, Mikkel, tells them a wild story, that an evil wizard is after him.  He is controlling Mikkel’s people on the planet Durth, putting them under a spell and forcing them to become his slaves. Mikkel believes that Arko may have the key to getting rid of him because an old wise man told him to ask Arko how to find Queen Stellara.  Queen Stellara was a legendary queen who could do magic, and Arko has some old write-rolls, scrolls of the kind people used to use before people began using computers alone for learning, that talk about her and her kingdom.  However, Arko doesn’t believe in wizards or magic spells or anything of the kind.

Kleep remembers Arko telling her the old stories from the write-rolls when she was little, and unlike her grandfather, she believes that wizards and magic may be real and wants to try to help Mikkel.  When Arko says that he doesn’t believe in magic and can’t help Mikkel, Kleep and her friend Till decide to use the scrolls to try to help Mikkel find Queen Stellara.  Taking Kleep’s robot, Zibbit, with them, they journey to the planet Loctar, where Queen Stellara was supposed to live.

Although this series is mostly sci-fi with a bit of mystery thrown in, this book is more fantasy.  When Kleep and her friends arrive on the planet Loctar, they discover that they must face a series of challenges to reach the legendary queen’s palace, like heros in a fairy tale.  Magic is real, and they must prove themselves worthy in order to meet the queen and ask her for the solution to the problem of the evil wizard.  But, their ordeal doesn’t quite end there because, while Queen Stellara provides them with the means to fight the wizard, they must face him themselves!

A little corny, but fun, although it’s not my favorite book in the series.  The others were more sci-fi, and this is more fantasy.  Also, for a “detective” series, there isn’t much mystery, more adventure.  It sort of reminds me of the original Star Trek episode Catspaw, except that the magical beings in this one are apparently really magical and not just aliens.  Like the other books in this series, I like the pictures, too.

KleepQueenMagicPic3

Posted on by TracyC

A Wizard’s Dozen

WizardsDozenA Wizard’s Dozen: Stories of the Fantastic edited by Michael Stearns, 1993.

This is a collection of fantasy stories (roughly middle school level) by different authors.  The tone of the stories varies from light and humorous to dark and serious.  The stories in this collection are:

The Sixty-two Curses of Caliph Arenschadd by Patricia C. Wrede

Caliph Arenschadd has a temper, but unlike other rulers, who have been known to cut off people’s head when they’re angry, Arenschadd is also a wizard.  Because he likes to show off his magic, he has thought of something more creative than executing people: a list of curses to inflict on those who anger him.  As people get him angry, he progresses through the curses in the order that he thought of them, each one worse than the last.  Worse still, he also inflicts the curses on the families of people who annoy him, which is how Imani, the young daughter of the caliph’s vizier has experienced so many at her young age.  However, the caliph has made a serious miscalculation in his latest curse.  This time, he has turned the vizier and his family into werewolves without being able to remove the curse.  As far as anyone knows, it’s impossible to cure lycanthropy.  As the vizier and his family find themselves becoming a threat to those around them, can Imani and her friend Tumpkin find a way to break the curse?

Fairy Dust by Charles De Lint

When Marina’s friend Jason manages to catch a real, live fairy in a jar, she tries to convince him to let it go, but he refuses.  He wants to keep it, just overnight.  But, the fairy ends up dying, and suddenly, Jason himself is severely ill.  Marina is sure that Jason is suffering from a fairy’s curse, but is there anything she can do to save him?

This experience touches on Marina’s absent father, an impractical dreamer, although it does turn out that he has taught Marina an important lesson, and she learns for herself that when she sees someone doing something that she knows is wrong, it is also wrong for her to keep silent.

The Princess Who Kicked Butt by Will Shetterly

In a mystical kingdom, people’s names tell everyone something about their destiny and character.  When a new princess is born in the kingdom, the Fairy Who Was Good With Names comes to bestow a new name on her.  However, the fairy sneezes and no one clearly hears the name that the fairy gave her.  Thinking that the fairy said the princess was “the Princess Who Read Books,” the king and queen make sure that she has plenty of reading material while she’s growing up and don’t give it much more thought.  Later, when the Evil Enchanter tries to force the princess to marry him and her parents to hand over the kingdom, the princess’s true name and her real skills become known.

The Sea Giants by Betty Levin

A great-grandmother translates whale songs for her family to tell them an ancient story: There was once a family that was barely surviving on small fish, small prey, and the little berries that they were able to forage for themselves.  The father wished that he were bigger, stronger, and more powerful so that he could catch bigger prey for his family.  One day, the father and mother paddled out to sea in search of food, and they met a group of giants in their own canoe.   The giants took them back to their own village and gave them food, but although the food they were offered was much larger than anything they could catch themselves, next to the giants, it was about as small as the small prey that the people ate back home.  After while, the couple returned home to their children, guided by a strange gray dog which turns out to be a porpoise.  From then on, the family’s luck begins to change, and they do become more prosperous.  However, the father is unable to forget about the giants, and he feels called to join them again.

Efrum’s Marbles by Joy Oestreicher

Efrum is a giant, but he’s no ordinary giant.  Although Efrum is big (being a giant), he hasn’t grown at all since the age of six.  He is over 30 years old, and he is still a child, which is weird, even for a giant child.  He spends his days playing with other giant children, and his favorite game is marbles.  In fact, he has a favorite marble.  No one knows quite what this marble is made of because no one has ever seen another like it.  It’s strange, and it kind of looks like . . . an eye?  Then, a young giant girl named Brinda plays marbles with Efrum, and for the first time ever, Efrum is tempted to let someone else win his precious, mysterious marble, which clever Brinda realizes may be the first step in helping Efrum to grow up.

“Come Hither” by Tappan King

Meg hates being the middle child in her family.  Her older sister is praised for being responsible, and her younger sister is pampered.  Meg feels like getting into trouble is the only way that she can get attention.  When she gets into trouble and is grounded from her older sister’s birthday party, she decides to amuse herself by messing with her sister’s computer.  She makes a mistake while typing and ends up receiving an invitation from a mysterious elf to join her for a party in his land.  Has Meg just made a serious mistake?

With His Head Tucked Underneath His Arm by Bruce Coville

In a kingdom constantly at war, few young men survive to become old.  Young Brion escapes for a time by pretending to be crippled, but one day, his pretense is exposed, and he is executed for refusing to fight.  However, Brion’s death doesn’t prevent him from returning to end the suffering of his land and hopefully save more people from his fate.

The Queen’s Mirror by Debra Doyle and James D. MacDonald

This is a re-telling of the story of Snow White.  An older servant tells the young princess about the history of the magic mirror, which belonged to the princess’s grandmother, who ordered her own daughter’s death because she feared and resented her beauty.  There are no dwarves in this version, and it’s a slightly different take on the story.  There are hints that the events in the story repeat with the generations.

The Breath of Princes by Alan P. Smale

When Stephanie is kidnapped from her town by a dragon, the dragon tries to convince her that being a dragon’s prisoner is a much better fate than the one that awaits her in small-town life: drudgery, boring marriage, children, etc.  Of course, he plans to eat her eventually, when he gets tired of her.  Young men try to rescue her, but in a way, Stephanie fears that one of them will succeed.  If they do, she will no doubt be obligated to marry the rescuer, and considering what some of them are like, it might even be worse than being eaten by a dragon.  The man she has always dreamed about is a prince she was lucky enough to meet once, but no prince has come to save her.  There may be a way for Stephanie to save herself from either fate, but she has to sacrifice her innocence in the process.

Harlyn’s Fairy by Jane Yolen

Harlyn lives with her Aunt Marilyn, and when she spots a fairy in the garden one day, her aunt begins to worry about her.  Harlyn’s mother is mentally unstable and prone to paranoid delusions, so Aunt Marilyn keeps a close eye on Harlyn.  She discourages her from reading fantasy stories (although Harlyn loves them) for fear of the effect they might have on her mind.  But, Harlyn really did see a fairy.  The question is, what is she going to do about it?

Lost Soul by Vivian Vande Velde

A young man meets a beautiful, mysterious woman by a stream.  She charms him so much that he no longer loves the woman he was going to marry.  In fact, he is so obsessed with her that he can think of nothing else.  What will he do when he realizes that she doesn’t feel the same?  Is she even . . . human?

The Way of Prophets by Dan Bennett

The royal family of the Stuard Isles has a tradition.  At the age of seventeen, each of them must make a journey alone along an old road known as The Way of Prophets.  The things that they see and the things that happen to them along their journey tell them what their destinies are.  They learn what really matters to them and find a focus for their time as rulers.  So many centuries have passed that no one can be quite sure where the original Way of Prophets was, so mostly, the journey takes on a kind of symbolic meaning, but there are stories that say that, every once in awhile, a young ruler finds their way to the true Way of Prophets, and the kingdom changes in some important way.  When Prince Ransom sets out, he hopes to find the true path himself.  However, when he does, it doesn’t turn out to be quite what he imagined, and it makes him question what he really wants most from his destiny.

I love this story for what the prince’s father told him, “When I am gone, when you take the throne, you will be powerful.  That is guaranteed.  Your knights and armies will make sure of it.  And you will be loved and respected.  That, too, is guaranteed.  No matter what you say and do, there will always be those ready to smother you with love and respect, if you let them, simply because you wear the crown.  Because of who you are, Ransom — because of who you will become when I am gone — you need never be hungry or alone.  But there is no guarantee that you will matter.”  If what Prince Ransom wants most is to matter, can the Way of Prophets make it happen?

Faith by Sherwood Smith

Faith tells her friends fantastic stories all the time.  She comes from a poor family with a lot of problems, so most people assume that she just makes up stories to try to make her life sound better than it really is and avoid thinking about the problems.  Usually, her two best friends don’t mind much, but lately, Melissa has been getting tired of hearing Faith talk about how her dog can talk or how her radio can tune in to Middle Earth.  She’s growing up and losing patience with fantasy stories.  Even the girls’ other friend wishes that Faith would stop asking them to believe these wild stories.  Then, after a visit to the trailer where Faith lives, she begins to change her mind.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.