The Lioness and Her Knight

The Lioness and Her Knight

The Lioness and Her Knight by Gerald Morris; 343 pages

Ah! These books are so good and it's so much fun to re-read this series. I've always called them the "Terence and Gawain Books" in my mind, but the series is actually called "The Squire's Tales" and this is Book 7. The first few books in the series heavily feature Terence, squire to Gawain, and his adventures questing with Gawain, who comes to be known as the Maiden's Knight. All of the books are retellings of the King Arthur tales. The author, Gerald Morris, is an excellent scholar of these tales and at the end of each book he discusses the original tale or inspiration that he has rewritten and what he changed in his version. Most of the characters are based on people described in the original tales, but Terence is Morris' own invention. All of the tales feature memorable characters and the plot generally involves the growth of the characters as their personalities evolve and change over the course of the book as they learn lessons from their adventures. And there are so many funny lines, likeable characters, unlikeable villains, tender love stories, and epic battles. And magic and sorceresses and a lot of fun!

In "The Lioness and Her Knight" Luneta travels to Camelot with her cousin Ywain and a court jester, or fool, named Rhience. She's been fighting with her mother quite a bit recently, like any teenager, and jumps at the chance to leave home. Camelot is just a stop (her uncle is Gawain, The Maiden's Knight and she is introduced to Terence and even the intimidating Morgan Le Fay, among other well-known Camelot characters) as Luneta's true destination is the castle of her mother's friend Lady Laudine. On the way to meet Laudine, Ywain hopes to earn a reputation as an excellent knight and ends up involving Luneta and Rhience in adventures they weren't expecting, while Luneta, upon meeting Laudine, can't help but interfere to help Laudine grow a backbone and ends up an apprentice to none other than Morgan Le Fay. And that's just the beginning of all the adventures! I haven't even mentioned the Lioness! Or the Storm Stone! 

This book is an excellent part of the series and I can't wait to get my hands on the next one. It was long enough ago that I read this series for the first that I'm rediscovering them again and enjoying every minute. Boys or girls will love these stories and Morris features a lot of great female characters in all of his books. These books are written for a middle-grade audience and Morris also writes a series of King Arthur tales for elementary readers called The Knights' Tales. I can't recommend his writing enough.

Dealing with Dragons

Dealing With Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede     212 pages

Cimorene is everything a princess is not supposed to be: headstrong, tomboyish, smart - and bored. So bored that she runs away to live with a dragon - and finds the family and excitement she's been looking for.

I loved this book when I was a child. It was one of my favorite fantasy books. Listening to the audiobook, it's now one of my favorite audios! It has a full cast and all the voices are great. I highly recommend this book to fantasy lovers or those who love a strong, bad-ass female character, especially one that breaks the mold (aka: not your typical princess). Cimorene is amazing and one of my favorite book characters of all time. Give the book a listen or read it, it's a great adventure story.

Tom's Midnight Garden

Tom’s Midnight Garden, Edith, 94 pages

In this graphic novel adaptation of the book by Philippa Pearce, Tom has been shipped off to his aunt and uncle’s house to hopefully avoid catching measles from his younger brother. At first, he is excruciatingly bored – he’s in quarantine, so he can’t go out, and the mysterious landlady allegedly dislikes children, so he must stay quiet. But at night, the old clock in the hall chimes thirteen, and Tom creeps downstairs and out the back door, to a beautiful garden that isn’t there in the daytime, and a girl named Hatty from long ago, his new friend.

A beautiful, atmospheric graphic novel about time and memory. There’s never any explanation given for how or why Tom travels back in time to the garden, and the book would suffer if there were. The art is gorgeous, lush and expressive. This is a must-read for anyone who likes graphic novels.

Charmed Life

Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones     218 pages

Cat doesn't mind living in the shadow of his sister, Gwendolen, the most promising young witch ever seen on Coven Street. But trouble starts brewing the moment the two orphans are summoned to live in Chrestomanci Castle. Frustrated that the witches of the castle refuse to acknowledge her talents, Gwendolen conjures up a scheme that could throw whole worlds out of whack.
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This book reminded me a lot of other fantasy novels I read as a child - especially Dealing with Dragons. It has a similar style of writing and the way magic is handled, and characters that are a bit quirky or off in some way. I enjoyed how this book is so matter of fact about the world it explores that you just sort of take everything in and you just have to accept that that's the way it is. I will say, for the whole book, all I could think about was how much I hate Gwendolyn. I hated her through the whole thing and the entire time I was hoping she'd finally get what's coming to her. I can't say whether or not she does, but I'm just putting it out there - if you read this book, be prepared to read about one of the most insufferable characters ever written. This book is rather fun, for the most part. It's light fantasy, light magic (even though it's about magic). It definitely feels a bit surface level on the whole, so hopefully the other books in the series bring more bite to them. The book itself gets wrapped up quite quickly (in just the last few chapters), where most of the book is spent not really providing any directional plot, just a bunch of sequential events in the life of the Chant siblings. In this case, I would not recommend it to any struggling readers - there is not enough oomph to propel anyone through the story, you just kind of have to like the writing style and be vaguely interested in finding out how it will end up. I will read the rest of the series, though, as I am intrigued by the idea of Chrestomanci.

The Golden Twine

The Golden Twine, Jo Rioux, 111 pages

Suri is a stowaway in a traveling fair, dreaming of being a monster tamer. But her dreams might come true sooner than she realized – there’s a strange caravan with a massive creature inside, and rumors of a shapeshifting caitsith (a cat-like monster) nearby. When she buys a dragon-tooth necklace and ties it around her neck with a strand of golden twine she finds, Suri’s luck changes dramatically – and her life with it.

I really enjoyed this graphic novel. The art style is delightful, and the worldbuilding was intriguing. Unfortunately, it’s very clearly the first in a series, and no more have been published (The Golden Twine was published in 2012). That would be my only hesitation in recommending this book.

The Nameless City

The Nameless City, Faith Erin Hicks, 232 pages

Kaidu has come in search of his father to the Nameless City – so called because every nation that captures it (every nation, at some point – it is a massive trading hub due to its geographical situation) renames it. To the Dao, the current occupying force, it is Dandao. But to the people who live there, the Named, it is only ever the Nameless City. Kaidu’s father is a general in the Dao army, an idealist who believes that the city should not be controlled by the Dao only, but by everyone who trades there. When Kaidu befriends Rat, a Named orphan girl who runs across the roofs of the city faster than anyone could follow, he is forced to reconsider his beliefs in Dao supremacy.

What a great graphic novel! Hicks grapples with questions of colonialism and historical revisionism while telling a thrilling, beautifully drawn coming-of-age story. I would definitely recommend this to anyone, and I can’t wait to read the next book in the series, The Stone Heart.