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

by Catherynne M. Valente

‘Is she very terrible?’ The Green Wind frowned into his brambly beard. ‘All little girls are terrible,’ he admitted finally, ‘but the Marquess, at least, has a very fine hat.’

‘The earth, my dear, is roughly trapezoidal, vaguely rhomboid, a bit of a tesseract, and altogether grumpy when its fur is stroked the wrong way!

Any child knows what a witch looks like. The warts are important, yes, the hooked nose, the cruel smile. But it’s the hat that cinches it: pointy and black with a wide rim. Plenty of people have warts and hooked noses and cruel smiles but are not witches at all. Hats change everything.

‘It’s a family name,’ A-Through-L said loftily, scratching behind one horn. ‘My father was a Library. So properly speaking, I am a Lyvern, or . . . a Libern? A Wyverary? I am still trying to find the best term.’ ‘Well, I think that’s very unlikely,’ said September, who preferred Wyverary.

Im really loving this book

‘How I wish I could bring you good news! But late in the golden reign of the Queen, the Marquess arrived and destroyed her. Or made her sit in a corner. Reports vary.

How have you been enjoying Fairyland, September?’ ‘How do you know my name?’ ‘You filed papers, of course. You have a visa. What in the world do you think all that is for, if not to make certain that I know everything?’