Rating: 3.5 starsThis was so imaginative and whimsical, it is certainly a fun read with wonderful characters. I found it to lag a little in the middle, so it a slower read despite the length of the book.

I found this picture some time ago but had no idea how fitting it would be for this review (the text as well as the little girl pictured)! :DIn fact, I only decided to buy and read this book because of Brad's raving review and the fact that I was able to get it for my Kindle for just 99 Cents! Sometimes it really does seem as if some books were meant to be with me and are willing to do anything to make that happen!Anyway, this is the story of a girl called September who lives in Omaha and wishes...

Well devil if I know what to do with it.Never complain that you are bored, ladies and gentlemen. Say such a thing and you might find that the universe has a couple tricks up its sleeve. Let's say, for example, that a certain children's librarian was getting bored with the state of fantasy today. Maybe she read too many Narnia rip-offs where a group of siblings is plunged into an alternate world to defeat a big bad blah blah blah. Maybe she read too many quest novels where plucky young girls have...

This book just wasn't for me. The writing style is so different, so whimsical, so fancy, that I can tell the author had a lot of fun stretching her vocabulary to the utmost and rolling around and playing in it till it came out in wonderfully wrapped paragraphs and pages. But I just didn't like it. There are so much things I had to remember, keep track of, and all that stuff that I just got so lost and became disinterested.Don't get me wrong, the world building is creative and all sorts of fabulo...

WINNER: BESTest, BRILLIANTest, most EXCELLENTest, YA Novel in HistorYA!!!  I know, I know, that comes as a bit of a shocker, what with Potter, Percy and those Hunger Gamers running from all those Sparkly Emos and bumping into Bartimaeus hiding inside His Dark Materials waiting for some Giver of an Abhorsen to find their Wrinkle in Time to send them all back to Wonderland. Not to mention that AMAZO Genesis I read earlier this year (sorry I couldn't work it in above). However, despite all of th...

I really am not a huge fan of fantasy novels like this. However, I think it was written very well and the level of creativity was astounding. The details of each creature and environment in Fairyland is so vivid that you really do feel like you're standing there with the main character, September. Basically imagine a mixture of Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz, and that's the general feel of the story. Even fans of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis would probably have a blast reading this, too.

I didn't properly finish the book because I couldn't bring myself to care about what happened to the main character. Or, rather, I feel like I already know: September is going to keep encountering a string of creatures, except [creature] is totally different from any other rendition of [creature] in literature, and will spend some time pedantically explaining itself and its neuroses, there'll be a lot of forced wackiness, and she'll pick up clues and bits of string and solve whatever at the end

I am generally one for simple, blunt truth. My brain doesn’t like to decipher complex and ornate metaphors and I hate reading through layer upon layer of language. I’m usually just waiting for the author to get to the point. But then, something like this comes along and just makes me question everything that I thought I knew about myself. The writing here is highly imaginative and odd and funny and a bit absurd. It’s descriptive and clever and maybe occasionally just a bit fussy. But, all this s...

This 5* review has been moved to Shelf Inflicted.It's superb, jaw-dropping writing. I'll be very surprised if this isn't a lot of people's favorite childhood read in the year 2040. (Which I hope to be around to see.)

My favorite thing about this book is, of course, Wyverary A-Through-L. What's a wyverary, you ask? Well, when a wyvern and a library love each other very very much......blush... you know the spiel.--------------------------------------------------------------But do I sense some skepticism, my cynical friends? Do you maybe insist on thinking there is an infinitely more prosaic explanation for the existence of Wyverary, an alphabetizing-loving fire-breathing half-library? Let him rebuke your doubt...

The first two pages and I'm in love. It's going on the "must buy" list, as well as the "must give" list.The Girl sets all fairy tale conventions on their heads while managing to retain the spirit and charm of the best. In the tradition of the door-in-the-hedge fantasy, the trip through the closet into Fairyland is inventive and whimsical. Valente perhaps pokes fun at times, but always gently: "you will either perish most painfully or be forced to sit through a very tedious tea service with sever...

This is a portal fantasy in the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz/The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe tradition, where a young girl goes to a magical land and tries to Right What's Wrong. Twelve year old September, bored with her life and washing pink-and-yellow teacups and dealing with mostly-absent parents, gets talked into a trip to Fairyland by the Green Wind, who settles her into the saddle of his flying leopard and whisks her away to new adventures. Because--like most children--September is mor...

growing up, i loved the Oz books (the Baum ones, at least). i read all of them multiple times - i think there are 14 or so - and have enjoyed rereading them here and there as an adult. i love how the fancifulness and frequent absurdity of Baum's creations are anchored down by prosaic reality. i love their no-nonsense child heroines (and occasional heroes) - precocious but never precious, cute but never cutesy-poo. i love the transparency of Baum's prose, the layering of meaning and metaphor, the...

For full feelings on The Fairyland Series, check out my video review.This book is my favorite book in my favorite series. I'll front load this review with reasons it might not be for you: Valente is known for her dense, flowery writing. It is very descriptive and a lot of the charm is in just-because magic, backwards places and wild creatures that rely heavily on tropes created by other fairytales. It is also earnest and dispenses little nuggets of wisdom for people who appreciate a good quotabl...

I walked into the bookstore in a bit of a mood. Wait, that's my Midwestern nature talking. We tend to understate. The truth is I walked into the bookstore furious at the world. I can't remember why. I am prone to dark moods, and when I'm in the middle of one, I tend to rumble through the world like an angry old-testament god. I went directly to the Sci-Fi Fantasy section. That's where I live for the most part. That's where I go when the world gets to be too much for me. I looked at the titles. I...

This is easily one of the most delightful and magical YA titles I've ever read.I know people do like to compare it to Alice in Wonderland, but in a lot of ways, it's better. There's more than a basketful of clever, more than a truckload of beautiful language, and a whole ocean of delight.The darkness doesn't overwhelm and there's no overt or subtle religious messages. A lot happens, but it's friendship that carries the final day. I'm going to be reading this to my daughter when she is a little o...

This is surely a whimsical and wonderful take on a classic fairytale. Valente also writes beautifully and challenges the reader (particularly young readers, the intended audience) with big words and big themes. I appreciated the grittiness of this story too. September, our heroine, faces some difficulties that you don't often find in children's literature. However, the middle of the story really lagged for me. There were a few chapters that didn't seem to contribute much to the plot other than t...

I'm so freaking mad, I just knew I would love this book to death. I only liked it but it seemed like it was right there waiting for me to love it. I'm definitely going to re-read this one before going on to the other ones that I own because I usually love this kind of book!And the pictures were so cute. I loved A-Through-L, the Wyvern. Well, the Wyverary since his father was a library. Don't ask! I love that so many of my friends loved this book and like I said, I'm going to read it again maybe

There is an audience for this sort of thing among the sort of fully grown women who grew up reading George MacDonald, Frank Baum, James Barrie and all the other sentimental, precious fiction of an earlier era. And perhaps some of today's 21st century girls will grow up to be part of that audience.Sorry fans, this is too derivative and too damn "twee" for me, and once more I am pissed off at librarians and other reviewers who review for the child in themselves rather than for the child actually s...

It's hard to express in words just how lovely this book is, well, in my words that is; Valente's words are beyond magical.She certainly did not see Death stand on her tip-toes and blow a kiss after her, a kiss that rushed through all the frosted leaves of the autumnal forest but could not quite catch a child running as fast as she could. As all mothers know, children travel faster than kisses. The speed of kisses is, in fact, what Doctor Fallow would call a cosmic constant. The speed of children...