SOLVED. YA Fantasy / Fairytale, boy gets shrunken down, has talking crow companion, ~2009-2012. Spoilers. [s]

[Micah]

Read around 2009-2012ish, though it may have been published years earlier. The protagonist is shrunken down at the start of the book by a murder of crows, which are commanded like an army by the antagonist. The protagonist himself has a talking crow companion. Throughout the story, characters receive memos from the Fairy-Tale Bureau regarding their situation, which fairy-tale it is, and (I think) something about how the fairy tale is supposed to go. At some point the boy commandeers a grey horse -- spoilers about that horse and later events below.

SPOILERS





(view spoiler)[The horse was a girl who was turned into a horse by her neighbour's wish; later she is returned to her human body. Around the same time, there is a group of 7 princes (? I think) who are turned into seven swans and are brought to the antagonist's castle with the intent of cooking them for a feast.
Not sure if this part is spoilers or not, but the antagonist's crow army is actually shape-shifted people -- their forms are (I think) controlled by the antagonist, not by their own choice.
At the end, the neighbours who wished the girl into a horse demanded someone that their horse be returned to them, and some underling of the antagonist is turned into a horse for them to take home. (hide spoiler)]

[Becca]

That sounds like the Tom Trueheart series by Ian Beck. The first book is The Secret History of Tom Trueheart but I think the second book, Tom Trueheart and the Land of Dark Stories, is the one where he's shrunk.

[Micah]

I think this is it, thank you so much!!

[Kris]

Glad you found your book, Micah.

"Tom Trueheart" series by Ian Beck - https://www.goodreads.com/series/6116... - Becca's find.

Amazon's "Look Inside" preview:
https://www.amazon.com/Tom-Trueheart-... There are different cover images. Contains unique black-and-white illustrations.