“If we don’t tell strange stories, when something strange happens we won’t believe it.” from The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
After hearing about how much some of my friends loved Shannon Hale, I finally checked out some of her books. While browsing what she had to offer, I was first drawn to Book of a Thousand Days because of the title and the cover:
After hearing about how much some of my friends loved Shannon Hale, I finally checked out some of her books. While browsing what she had to offer, I was first drawn to Book of a Thousand Days because of the title and the cover:
I loved it. It was a bit grittier than most fairy tales, but it still had the fairy tale ending. I loved the heroine, Dashti. She kept surprising me with her courage and her growth throughout her story. As soon as I finished the book, I wanted to pick it up and read it again.
Riding on this high note, I checked out Princess Academy. I had never read it despite its Newbery Honor sticker because of the title. I grew up reading fairy tales, but the recent wave of everything pink and princessy has really turned me off to the word “princess.” (I shudder to think of the princess presents my daughter might ask for one day.) I’m sorry to say, I only got about a third of the way through Princess Academy before other books interested me more.
But I wanted to give Shannon Hale one more chance, so I checked out the book that seemed synonymous with her name: The Goose Girl.
I definitely enjoyed The Goose Girl enough to finish it. I only had a couple of criticisms: Even though it was based on a fairy tale I didn’t know, it was a bit predictable at times. But then, aren’t all fairy tales a bit predictable? And I felt that the ending was a little too neatly tied up with a bow. You always know that the heroine will triumph in the end, but Shannon Hale often finds a solution that’s a little too convenient for my taste.
In retrospect I realized that Book of a Thousand Days also had a convenient solution that resolved all the heroine’s problems, but maybe it was easier accept that with a heroine I admired a bit more—I was willing to suspend my disbelief more for Dashti because I wanted so much for her to find happiness (having had more hardship).
When looking to read The Goose Girl, can you guess which cover I sought out?
I know the newer covers of Shannon Hale's books are meant to go together as a set and to attract a certain readership. But I also think that it could potentially deter readers like me.In the end, I do recommend Shannon Hale as an author. She reminded me a bit of Robin McKinley, whose books I adored as an adolescent and still return to again and again as an adult (incidentally, she won a Newbery Honor for The Blue Sword and a Newbery Award for The Hero and the Crown). Shannon Hale is the master of fairy tale retelling for a new generation. I love that she has introduced me to fairy tales I never knew, but I am still wary of the spin offs from The Goose Girl. I think I will return to read more of her books eventually (I must have missed something with Princess Academy because it got so many great reviews and a pat on the back from the Newbery people), but I need a book or two with a little more literary meat on its bones first.
Book of a Thousand Days
by Shannon Hale
Bloomsbury Publishing, 2007
$8.99
Princess Academy
by Shannon Hale
Bloomsbury Publishing, 2007
$7.95
The Goose Girl
by Shannon Hale
Bloomsbury Publishing, 2003
$8.95
No comments:
Post a Comment