The Fitter, Happier UnLibrarian's Blog of Young Adult Books: Book of a Thousand Days by Hannon Hale

Book of a Thousand Days by Hannon Hale

Book of a Thousand Days by Hannon Hale

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

Publish Date: September 2007

ISBN: 1599900513

Page #: 320pp

Reading Level: Young Adult

Classification: Fiction

Genre: Fantasy

Subjects: Central Asia, Dysfunctional Family, Fairy Tales, Friendship, Love, Magic, Orphans, Secrets, War

Annotation:

Dashti thought life within the tower with her sullen lady was hard, but her real challenge begins when she escapes. A re-telling of the Brothers Grimm tale, Mail Maleen, through the simplistic voice of Dashti, maid to Lady Saren.

Summary:

This is a beautiful retelling of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Maid Maleen. Lady Saren and her lady’s maid Dashti, a common “mucker” from the dirt-poor steppes, are locked up in a stone tower when Lady Saren refuses to marry the cruel Lord Khasar. Lady Saren worries and seems to welcome death, but the illustrious Dashti decides to keep a journal of their imprisonment in between her lady’s maid duties. She sings mucker healing songs to attempt to lift her lady’s complaints, in which seems to not always work. All is dark and depressing within the tower, but Dashti never succumbs to the distressing mental anguish. It is when Dashti leaves the tower that she is faced with an imminent threat by Lord Khasar and his armies. Lady Saren is too scared to do anything, leaving Dashti to pull from her inner strength and simple healing songs, and cultivate courage she never believed possible. Her actions may cost her life, but it might also bring her happiness she never thought was possible.

Megan says:

Book of a Thousand Days is a lovely Brothers Grimm fairytale, Maid Maleen, re-told by Shannon Hale. This is a story about Dashti, a ladies maid to Lady Saren, who during a seven year incarceration in a tower overcomes the tragedies that befall them with unfailing optimism. I liked how the story was told in the form of a journal of sorts, but unlike some books, where this convention has been used awkwardly, this story flowed easily and enjoyably as told from the view of Dashti. I highly recommend this book.

Stars: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Shannon Hale Website

Recently Released: Wings by Aprilynne Pike

Recently Released: Wings by Aprilynne Pike

PLOT: Fifteen-year-old Laurel has led a sheltered, homeschooled life in a very small town, so when her parents decide to move and enroll her in high school, she has trouble getting used to her new life. A life, as it turns out, that’s not at all like those of other kids. One clear sign is a winglike blossom that blooms on her back. Oh, and her new best friend, the scientifically minded David, reveals under a microscope that her cells are more plant than animal. But it takes an encounter at her old home with the handsome but decidedly different Tamani to convince her that she is a faerie. She also learns it’s up to her to save her land from the evil influences that are trying to take it away from her and her family. This first novel is clearly designed to attract the Twilight set, though there’s significantly less edge (and blood). There is, however, a familiar triangle. Will Laurel choose solid, steady David, or will she be unable to resist Tamani’s lure? Stay tuned. Fine escapist fare, this neatly mixes the everyday with the otherworldly.

Recently Released: The Awakening by Kelly Armstrong

Recently Released: The Awakening by Kelly Armstrong

PLOT: If you had met me a few weeks ago, you probably would have described me as an average teenage girl—someone normal. Now my life has changed forever and I'm as far away from normal as it gets. A living science experiment—not only can I see ghosts, but I was genetically altered by a sinister organization called the Edison Group. What does that mean? For starters, I'm a teenage necromancer whose powers are out of control; I raise the dead without even trying. Trust me, that is not a power you want to have. Ever. Now I'm running for my life with three of my supernatural friends—a charming sorcerer, a cynical werewolf, and a disgruntled witch—and we have to find someone who can help us before the Edison Group finds us first. Or die trying.

Recently Released: Cathy's Ring by Sean Stewart

Recently Released: Cathy's Ring by Sean Stewart

PLOT: Plucky, impulsive, go-get-'em-girl Cathy Vickers and her immortal boyfriend Victor are back with a half-assed bang in the series's third and (let's hope) final installment. Fans know the recipe already, with the story taking the form of Cathy's journal, complete with drawings, real phone numbers and websites meant to heighten readers' experience. This time, however, the plot feels thinner on thrills and heavier on convenient twists. The story: Cathy and company vow to take down the evil Ancestor Lu, who plots to destroy her family. The drama: Cathy tests Vincent's love when she's caught making out with Denny, her trustworthy human sidekick and the protective brother of slutty, two-faced Jewel, who stole Cathy's purse in the second book.

Recently Released: Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alender

Recently Released: Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alender

PLOT: Alexis thought she led a typically dysfunctional high school existence. Dysfunctional like her parents' marriage; her doll-crazy twelve-year-old sister, Kasey; and even her own anti-social, anti-cheerleader attitude. When a family fight results in some tearful sisterly bonding, Alexis realizes that her life is creeping from dysfunction into danger. Kasey is acting stranger than ever: her blue eyes go green sometimes; she uses old-fashioned language; and she even loses track of chunks of time, claiming to know nothing about her strange behavior. Their old house is changing, too. Doors open and close by themselves; water boils on the unlit stove; and an unplugged air conditioner turns the house cold enough to see their breath in. Alexis wants to think that it's all in her head, but soon, what she liked to think of as silly parlor tricks are becoming life-threatening--to her, her family, and to her budding relationship with the class president. Alexis knows she's the only person who can stop Kasey -- but what if that green-eyed girl isn't even Kasey anymore?

Waiting for Mind-Rain by Scott Westerfeld Publish Date: June 1, 2009

Waiting for Mind-Rain by Scott Westerfeld Publish Date: June 1, 2009

PLOT: In Extras, the last book in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series, Aya tells us that when Tally Youngblood made the mind-rain fall, it cured all the pretties and changed the world forever. But Tally and her friends did more than change their world; they changed ours too. Mind-Rain continues what Tally started, with startling, funny and insightful essays on the world, characters and ideas of the Uglies series, plus the short story that inspired Westerfeld to write the books in the first place. Think you know everything about Tally's world? After Mind-Rain, you'll never look at the Uglies series the same way again.

Waiting for Generations Dead: Kiss of Life by Daniel Waters Publish Date: May 12, 2009

Waiting for Generations Dead: Kiss of Life by Daniel Waters Publish Date: May 12, 2009

PLOT: The phenomenon that's been sweeping the country seems to be here to stay. Not only are the teenagers who have come back from their graves still here, but newlydeads are being unearthed all the time. While scientists look for answers and politicians take their stands, the undead population of Oakville have banded together in a group they're calling the Sons of Romero, hoping to find solidarity in segregation. Phoebe Kendall may be alive, but she feels just as lost and alone as her dead friends. Just when she reconciled herself to having feelings for a zombie -- her Homecoming date Tommy Williams -- her friend Adam is murdered taking a bullet that was meant for her. Things get even more confusing when Adam comes back from the grave. Now she has romantic interest in two dead boys; one who saved her life, and one she can't seem to live without.

Waiting for Fairy Tale by Cyn Balog Publish Date: June 23, 2009

Waiting for Fairy Tale by Cyn Balog Publish Date: June 23, 2009

PLOT: A captivating and witty dark fantasy that will have girls lusting after it. Morgan Sparks has always known that she and her boyfriend, Cam, are made for each other. But when Cam’s cousin Pip comes to stay with the family, Cam seems depressed. Finally Cam confesses to Morgan what’s going on: Cam is a fairy. The night he was born, fairies came down and switched him with a healthy human boy. Nobody expected Cam to live, and nobody expected his biological brother, heir to the fairy throne, to die. But both things happened, and now the fairies want Cam back to take his rightful place as Fairy King. Even as Cam physically changes, becoming more miserable each day, he and Morgan pledge to fool the fairies and stay together forever. But by the time Cam has to decide once and for all what to do, Morgan’s no longer sure what’s best for everyone, or whether her and Cam’s love can weather an uncertain future.

Waiting for Cathing Fire by Suzanne Collins Publish Date: September 01, 2009

Soon to be reviewed: The Beats: A Graphic History

Soon to be reviewed: The Beats: A Graphic History

PLOT: In The Beats: A Graphic History, those who were mad to live have come back to life through artwork as vibrant as the Beat movement itself. Told by the comic legend Harvey Pekar, his frequent artistic collaborator Ed Piskor, and a range of artists and writers, including the feminist comic creator Trina Robbins and the Mad magazine artist Peter Kuper, The Beats takes us on a wild tour of a generation that, in the face of mainstream American conformity and conservatism, became known for its determined uprootedness, aggressive addictions, and startling creativity and experimentation. What began among a small circle of friends in New York and San Francisco during the late 1940s and early 1950s laid the groundwork for a literary explosion, and this striking anthology captures the storied era in all its incarnations—from the Benzedrine-fueled antics of Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs to the painting sessions of Jay DeFeo’s disheveled studio, from the jazz hipsters to the beatnik chicks, from Chicago’s College of Complexes to San Francisco’s famed City Lights bookstore. Snapshots of lesser-known poets and writers sit alongside frank and compelling looks at the Beats’ most recognizable faces. What emerges is a brilliant collage of—and tribute to—a generation, in a form and style that is as original as its subject.