The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Fairyland, #1) in Into the Forest

Jun 26, 2012 Norain rated it it was amazing

Shelves: middle-grade, retelling

It was hard not to compare this and the classic Alice in Wonderland: here was also a story about a girl who followed her whim and sought an adventure in a magical land. But the heart of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (here on known as Fairyland) was different from Alice in Wonderland, for to me, the latter was a meandering story written by pedophile while he was not quite right in the mind. Fairyland had a more coherent flow and was very neat at that, too.

I wa It was hard not to compare this and the classic Alice in Wonderland: here was also a story about a girl who followed her whim and sought an adventure in a magical land. But the heart of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (here on known as Fairyland) was different from Alice in Wonderland, for to me, the latter was a meandering story written by pedophile while he was not quite right in the mind. Fairyland had a more coherent flow and was very neat at that, too.

I was deeply impressed by Valente's imagination and the vividness and richness of her description. Previously to this, I had just finished Cinder and thought that writer Marissa Meyer was very descriptive. After reading Fairyland, I am sorry to say but Meyer's talent dimmed profoundly compared to Valente's. But it was because of the beautiful description that I wrongly expected to see adventure AND laughter in Fairyland, and albeit the many warnings that this was not meant to be a happy frolic, I stubbornly refused to accept the misadventures gone through by September. I hoped against hope that things would right themselves and September could enjoy her journey at Fairyland. I guess that was the reason I found it hard to totally feel September's misery, anger, pain and fear, until she had to kill a fish for meal (and that was quite small compared to her other misadventures), and that was nearly the end.

Still, despite my high applaud for Valente's descriptive narration, there was some scene which was not quite to my liking, like the one with velocipides (living bicycle) which felt too Wild West for my taste. The wedding ceremony of the Squiggles was like Mad Hatter's tea party and the Tsukumogami seemed to be influenced by Japanese ghost stories. And it was because of too much a description at the early part of the book, what with the introduction of so many rules about Fairyland, my focus was not really there.

There was however something quiet and somewhat lonely about this book. And humane too, for none of the character was wholly black or white. This was no fairy-tale, despite the name Fairyland, for the 'bad' had reasons to be bad and the 'good' was not without flaw. This was the quality that appealed to me the most, and the reason I could not hate the Marquess. From the moment September met her, I started to feel that there was something 'weird' about the Marquess that rendered me incapable of passing judgement to her behaviour. I saw her more as a pragmatic leader, one who believed that the end justified the mean, a dictator who could not be understood by her subjects. Maybe you think it is wrong for me to refrain from calling this bad, but really, what is 'evil'?

Hitler and Stalin aside, this was an incredible story. If I were a child and read this book, I was sure the memory of it would remain with me for long thereafter. I believe this will one day be considered as a classic and a must-read-children-book. ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Jun 28, 2013 Kate Forsyth rated it really liked it

Shelves: children-s-fantasy

How to describe this wonderful children's fantasy? Its fresh, whimsical, and a little strange; it shows remarkable daring and playfulness on the part of the author, which delights me. It reminds me of authors like James Thurbur and Mervyn Peake, with less of the darkness and more of the imaginative exuberance. I ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Jul 01, 2015 Eric Orchard rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fairy-tales-and-ghosts, young-adult-middle-reader, fantasy, kids, all-ages, folklore, fairy-tale, literary-fairy-tale

A gorgeous and dangerous tour through fairyland. Very highly recommended.

2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 15, 2011 Katy rated it really liked it

Great story!
Good and evil are a bit more grey, but all's well that ends well still!
...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Dec 27, 2011 Danika Dinsmore rated it it was amazing

Shelves: middle-grade, fairies, childrens-books

Once upon a time, a girl named September grew very tired of her parents' house, where she washed the same pink-and-yellow teacups and matching gravy boats every day, slept on the same embroidered pillow, and played with the same small and amiable dog. Because she had been born in May, and because she had a mole on her left cheek, and because her feet were very large and ungainly, the Green Wind took pity on her and flew to her window one evening just after her twelfth birthday...

Thus begins Sept Once upon a time, a girl named September grew very tired of her parents' house, where she washed the same pink-and-yellow teacups and matching gravy boats every day, slept on the same embroidered pillow, and played with the same small and amiable dog. Because she had been born in May, and because she had a mole on her left cheek, and because her feet were very large and ungainly, the Green Wind took pity on her and flew to her window one evening just after her twelfth birthday...

Thus begins September's adventures, whisked away by the Green Wind upon the Leopard of Little Breezes to Fairyland, because she seemed to him an "ill-tempered and irascible child," where she makes new friends with a Wyverary (a dragon-like creature that is a cross between a Wyvern and a library) named "A-through-L" who travels with her to the fairy city. There she meets the Marquess, Fairylands young dictator, who threatens her and her Wyverary unless she retrieves a "sword" from the Autumn Forest that (for reasons I won't give away here) only September may retrieve.

A lovely read-aloud book for parents, it has the tone and feeling of a classic fairytale, but with the modern imaginative twist of the author. What I enjoyed about this book is that it reads like a middle grade book (there's a narrator), the character is a middle grade character, and the plot is a middle grade plot (i.e. one clear adventure, no subplot) but the language is so rich and the writing so lyrical that it never condescends. It's rare that I'm drawn to read passages in a middle grade book multiple times just to feast on the language. There's a Phantom Tollbooth quality of word-play in the story, as well, and no shortage of interesting vocabulary.

I am in awe of Valente's creativity. Her world seems to grow without effort, strangely and surprisingly, but never randomly. Some authors seem to pile on the fey just to put something in their protagonist's way. Valente's creatures grow authentically, originally, from someone who in my estimation was born to be a writer. And judging by her education an experience, she's been steeped in myths and folklore for some time. She probably oozes it from her pores and I'm quite jealous.

Now, this is the kind of story where the protagonist is battered about by the fates and is sometimes not the instigator of her own rescue. It falls into the "non-believable" side of middle grade literature. That would normally not be to my taste, but here Valente has gotten me, and I can't help but be tickled by her humour and drawn to her world.

"Tell me the rules," Said September firmly. Her mother had taught her chess when she was quite small, and she felt that if she could remember which way knights ought to go, she could certainly remember Fairy Rules.

"First, no iron of any kind is allowed. Customs is quite strict on this point. Any bullets, knives, maces, or jacks you might have on your person will be confiscated and smelted. Second, the practice of alchemy is forbidden to all except young ladies born on Tuesdays --"

"I was born on a Tuesday!"

"It is certainly possible that I knew that," the Green Wind said with a wink. "Third, aviary locomotion is permitted only by means of Leopard or licensed Ragwort Stalk. If you find yourself not in possession of one of these things, please confine yourself to the ground. Fourth, all traffic travels widdershins. Fifth, rubbish takeaway occurs on second Fridays. Sixth, all changelings must wear identifying footwear. Seventh, and most important, you may in no fashion cross the borders of the Worsted Wood, or you will either perish most painfully or be forced to sit through a very tedious tea service with several spinster hamadryads."

And, of course, all these rules are addressed within the story...

My one criticism is that the Wyverary's story doesn't come to any conclusion. He wants to meet his Grandfather, the Fairyland Library. Perhaps this happens in the sequel. If not, it's a small thing, but it did niggle at me just a bit.

I wish this book had been around when I was a child, so I would have had the luxury to read it again and again, becoming part of me like the other books I entered over and over when I was young and impressionable. ...more

Like · see review

Feb 01, 2012 Ali rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2012, fairytale, favorites

What a perfect book. The author is basically a combination of C.S. Lewis and Lewis Carrol with a sprinkling of Lemony Snicket. I quite cannot properly express my love for this book. It so perfectly blends classic fairytales with ancient myths contains absurd, quirky details and incredibly unique characters. It is most definitely a book written for children that anyone of any age would be able to enjoy. And now I list some of my favorite quotes for the novel (I doggeared so many pages):

"Stories h What a perfect book. The author is basically a combination of C.S. Lewis and Lewis Carrol with a sprinkling of Lemony Snicket. I quite cannot properly express my love for this book. It so perfectly blends classic fairytales with ancient myths contains absurd, quirky details and incredibly unique characters. It is most definitely a book written for children that anyone of any age would be able to enjoy. And now I list some of my favorite quotes for the novel (I doggeared so many pages):

"Stories have a way of changing faces. They are unruly things, undisciplined, given to delinquency and the the throwing of erasers. This is why we must close them up into thick, solid books, so they cannot get out and cause trouble."

"Those were all big words, to be sure, but as has been said, September read often, and liked it best when words did not pretend to be simple, but put on their full armor and rode out with colors flying."

"She sounds like someone who spends a lot of time in libraries, which are the best sort of people."

"When you are born, your courage is new and clean. You are brave enough for anything: crawling off of staircases, saying your first words without fearing that someone will think you are foolish, putting strange things in your mouth. But as you get older, your courage attracts gunk and crusty things and dirt and fear and knowing how bad things can get and what pain feels like. By the time you're half grown, your courage barely moves at all, it's so grunged up with living. So every once in awhile, you have to scrub it up and get the works going, or else you'll never be brave again."

"For wishes of one's old life wither and shrivel like old leaves if they are not replaced with new wishes when the world changes. And the world always changes. Wishes get slimy, and their colors fade, and soon they are just mud,mike all threat of mud, and not wishes at all, but regrets."

"Death is not a checkmate... It is more like a carnival trick. You cannot win, no matter how you move your Queen."

"That's what a map is you know. Just a memory. Just a wish to go back home--someday, somehow."

"She did not want to sniffle--what was a little hair? She had already lost it once after all. But that was magic, which could be undone, and this was scissors, which could not."

All in all, I desperately want to read the sequel! ...more

Like · see review