Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix is a continuation of the famous Cinderella story. It starts shortly after Cinderella has tried on the glass slipper and has been whisked off to the castle with Prince Charming. It's like a dream come true, for just a short while. Ella has escaped the clutches of her wicked stepmother and stepsisters and is now free to do whatever she likes... As long as she doesn't lift a finger to do work except for needlework, finds time to do anything outside of her many sessions with her tutors who are there to teach her everything from etiquette to religion, and never steps outside the castle. She longs for the day when she can marry the Prince and live her real happily ever after. Right now, she only gets to see the Prince for a few moments every other day with a chaperone.
Life grows boring, until the day that one of her tutors suddenly collapses. She is astounded when her other tutor Madame Bisset seems unfazed by this incident. She says that women shouldn't be told about things like that, but Ella is worried about her tutor. She finally hears news from one of the young maids that works at the castle, Mary. The following day, she wonders if her tutor is well enough to come teach her lessons. Just when she thinks she might have an hour to herself to do whatever she pleases, a young man shows up to teach her lesson. His name is Jed, and his father was her previous tutor. Jed is the only tutor who will actually talk to her like a normal person without all the "Yes, Princess," "No, Princess."
She soon grows to realize that she doesn't even like the Prince. She finds him to be boring, but how will he react if she tells him what she thinks?
This story brings an all new look to the well-known Cinderella story. After a short while of her stay at the castle, Ella is surprised by the rumors she hears about how she came to be in the castle. There are rumors of magic and a fairy godmother among other things. None of them are true. This is the story of a girl who does what she can to accomplish what she wants. This was a great new look at the story of Cinderella.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Dragon's Milk - 2012 Book #5
Dragon's Milk by Susan Fletcher was a good read. The main character, Kaeldra, has always known she was different. She looks nothing like her sisters, which makes sense, because she was adopted, but she looks nothing like any of the other people in the village either. Her hair and skin are much lighter in color than anyone's in the village, and she is much taller than the average person in the village as well; but the most distinguishing feature is her green eyes. No one in the village has green eyes.
Kaeldra lives with her adopted family which includes her two sisters, her step-mother, and her grandma. She helps watch the sheep with her sisters to provide for her family. One day, her youngest sister gets sick. She doesn't get any better, but continues to get worse. They call for the doctor, and the doctor tells them there is nothing he can do about it; no one knows a cure for this illness. It turns out that this is not true: the grandma has heard of a cure, and she tells Kaeldra a story of a girl who had the same illness many years before. Her parents left her in the mountains, expecting to never see her again. Months later, she climbed down out of the mountains perfectly healthy, as good as new. The only difference was her eyes were green. Just like Kaeldra's. The story says that the girl had been fed dragon's milk, and that afterward, she could talk to dragons. Kaeldra's grandma believes that Kaeldra is descended from this girl, and that is why her eyes are green.
Kaeldra decides to go out and try to find the dragon. She finds the dragon and makes a deal with the dragon. She will watch the dragon's babies in exchange for some milk for her sister. As she returns home with the milk, a visitor arrives. It's a young boy named Jeorg, who claims to be a dragonslayer come to slay the dragon that has been eating the villages sheep. At first, Kaeldra thinks this might be a good idea, until she realizes that her sister needs a lot more milk before she'll be fully recovered. She soon grows to enjoy spending time with the baby draagons, Embyr, Pyro, and Synge, but still fears the mother dragon.
But then, everything changes. Jeorg keeps asking her where the dragon is. Rumors are being spread about the girl with the green eyes, and Kaeldra fears for the lives of the three young dragons. Her grandma tells her of a man named Landerath, who is against the slaying of dragons. Kaeldra believes that if she can just find him, she can stop worrying about the dragons she is protecting. She doesn't know who she can trust, or how she is supposed to continually feed the quickly growing young dragons.
After Kaeldra finds the dragon for the first time, the story gets a little bit slow for a while, but then it picks up more a more as Kaeldra tries to find Landerath while she's also trying to find herself and someplace where she'll fit in.
Kaeldra lives with her adopted family which includes her two sisters, her step-mother, and her grandma. She helps watch the sheep with her sisters to provide for her family. One day, her youngest sister gets sick. She doesn't get any better, but continues to get worse. They call for the doctor, and the doctor tells them there is nothing he can do about it; no one knows a cure for this illness. It turns out that this is not true: the grandma has heard of a cure, and she tells Kaeldra a story of a girl who had the same illness many years before. Her parents left her in the mountains, expecting to never see her again. Months later, she climbed down out of the mountains perfectly healthy, as good as new. The only difference was her eyes were green. Just like Kaeldra's. The story says that the girl had been fed dragon's milk, and that afterward, she could talk to dragons. Kaeldra's grandma believes that Kaeldra is descended from this girl, and that is why her eyes are green.
Kaeldra decides to go out and try to find the dragon. She finds the dragon and makes a deal with the dragon. She will watch the dragon's babies in exchange for some milk for her sister. As she returns home with the milk, a visitor arrives. It's a young boy named Jeorg, who claims to be a dragonslayer come to slay the dragon that has been eating the villages sheep. At first, Kaeldra thinks this might be a good idea, until she realizes that her sister needs a lot more milk before she'll be fully recovered. She soon grows to enjoy spending time with the baby draagons, Embyr, Pyro, and Synge, but still fears the mother dragon.
But then, everything changes. Jeorg keeps asking her where the dragon is. Rumors are being spread about the girl with the green eyes, and Kaeldra fears for the lives of the three young dragons. Her grandma tells her of a man named Landerath, who is against the slaying of dragons. Kaeldra believes that if she can just find him, she can stop worrying about the dragons she is protecting. She doesn't know who she can trust, or how she is supposed to continually feed the quickly growing young dragons.
After Kaeldra finds the dragon for the first time, the story gets a little bit slow for a while, but then it picks up more a more as Kaeldra tries to find Landerath while she's also trying to find herself and someplace where she'll fit in.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Pendragon #9: Raven Rise - 2012 Book #4
Raven Rise by D. J. MacHale is the ninth book in the Pendragon series. The tenth book came out a while back, and I decided to reread all the other books before reading the last book, and I finally finished the ninth one. According to D. J. MacHale, it's the Penultimate Pendragon, or the next to last book in the series. In this book, the main character, Bobby Pendragon, is having a good time. He's working to help restore the island of Ibara to it's previous beauty after the disaster with the attack of the dados on the shores at the end of the previous book. Bobby, as the lead Traveler, thinks the struggle is finally over between the Travelers and Saint Dane. He destroyed the flume from Ibara, trapping Saint Dane there with him. Yeah, there was a big mess he needed to clean up from the battle that had been fought on the island, but Bobby was enjoying a rather stress-free life.
While Bobby spent a peaceful time on the beach, Patrick, the Traveler from Third Earth - which is Earth 3000 years in the future - wakes up to find the world has changed drastically overnight. The world is in disarray, pollution is terrible, buildings have fallen down, and there is a strange group called the Ravinians who identify themselves by the tattoos on the arm. The part that is most strange is these Ravinians's tattoos are the same stars as those that mark the flumes which enable the Travelers to travel back and forth between the various territories, and the Ravinians are nothing like the Travelers. After Patrick witnessed Ravinians beat a helpless old man, and light a library on fire, Patrick decides to travel to Second Earth to see if he can find out what happened in Earth's past to cause all these strange changes to happen in what used to be his practically perfect world.
Courtney and Mark are also in for a shock when they return home to find the same group, the Ravinians in their home town, where the leader of this group claims to be the Traveler from Second Earth and lives on top of the flume they use to return home.
Alder returns to his home after the adventure in the last book, to find that the Beedowans are preparing for war with another tribe that lives over the mountain, and to be accused of being a traitor. Alder is confused at how things could change so drastically in such a short amount of time. When he left, his people were living in peace with each other and the other tribes and getting used to living together with the Milago, and now they were plotting the overtaking of other tribes.
Everyone knows that it is getting closer and closer to the event that Saint Dane has been talking about through the entire series: the Convergence. The only problem is, no one really knows what that means. They only know that whatever it is, it must be bad, because it's what Saint Dane wants. As the world seems to be falling apart Patrick, Courtney, Mark, Bobby, and Alder do all they can to stop the events from happening. The question is: can they stop Saint Dane before it's too late?
This book is very fast paced and has many many unexpected things happen as the tension rises throughout the book. The ending leaves the reader with many many questions that still need to be answered, that, hopefully, will all be answered in the tenth and final book.
While Bobby spent a peaceful time on the beach, Patrick, the Traveler from Third Earth - which is Earth 3000 years in the future - wakes up to find the world has changed drastically overnight. The world is in disarray, pollution is terrible, buildings have fallen down, and there is a strange group called the Ravinians who identify themselves by the tattoos on the arm. The part that is most strange is these Ravinians's tattoos are the same stars as those that mark the flumes which enable the Travelers to travel back and forth between the various territories, and the Ravinians are nothing like the Travelers. After Patrick witnessed Ravinians beat a helpless old man, and light a library on fire, Patrick decides to travel to Second Earth to see if he can find out what happened in Earth's past to cause all these strange changes to happen in what used to be his practically perfect world.
Courtney and Mark are also in for a shock when they return home to find the same group, the Ravinians in their home town, where the leader of this group claims to be the Traveler from Second Earth and lives on top of the flume they use to return home.
Alder returns to his home after the adventure in the last book, to find that the Beedowans are preparing for war with another tribe that lives over the mountain, and to be accused of being a traitor. Alder is confused at how things could change so drastically in such a short amount of time. When he left, his people were living in peace with each other and the other tribes and getting used to living together with the Milago, and now they were plotting the overtaking of other tribes.
Everyone knows that it is getting closer and closer to the event that Saint Dane has been talking about through the entire series: the Convergence. The only problem is, no one really knows what that means. They only know that whatever it is, it must be bad, because it's what Saint Dane wants. As the world seems to be falling apart Patrick, Courtney, Mark, Bobby, and Alder do all they can to stop the events from happening. The question is: can they stop Saint Dane before it's too late?
This book is very fast paced and has many many unexpected things happen as the tension rises throughout the book. The ending leaves the reader with many many questions that still need to be answered, that, hopefully, will all be answered in the tenth and final book.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
