Margi Preus

Poor Astri. She's a feisty Norwegian girl who can't catch a break. Her father has gone to America. Her mother has gone to heaven. She and her little sister have been sent to live with uncaring relatives who sell Astri to the horrible Goatman. Is it any wonder Astri tries to imagine that she's a heroine in a fairy tale?

Astri is nothing like typical fairy tale princess, though. She lies, she cheats, she steals. We're used to seeing essential goodness in characters like her, so it's interesting that she's no angel. You will not believe how she escapes from the Goatman! It's crazy.

This story has an old fashioned feel to it and (like a lot of old fairy tales) it has both a hopeful side and a dark side. Astri's reality is a combination of painful, gritty realism and fantastical legend.

I thought the writing was splendid and the whole package seemed original and fresh to me (it's rare for me to read a children's book nowadays and not be immediately reminded of some other children's book, but this one has a flavor that stands out--if I had to compare it to something I'd probably say [b:Far Far Away|16030663|Far Far Away|Tom McNeal|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1366106300s/16030663.jpg|21800322] or maybe [b:Pipi Longstocking|19302|Pippi Longstocking|Astrid Lindgren|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388180714s/19302.jpg|2056462] meets [b:Out of the Dust|25346|Out of the Dust|Karen Hesse|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328867076s/25346.jpg|808243]).

My only criticism is that I was confused by the dream sequence at the end of the book. Maybe if I just read it over again it would be clearer to me, but I felt thrown off by it, like the rules of the story suddenly shifted and I was thrown off balance as a reader.

This will certainly be a challenging read for ages 9-11 because of the style and tone of the story. There are definitely parts that feel a little PG-13, e.g. when the Goatman says he's going to marry Astri and take her to his bed and then she cuts his fingers off and later watches him die from the wound. Still, this feels like it has a good shot come awards season. It feels Distinguished.… (mehr)

In Tag's world, children must not step outside for fear of being swept away by the wind, never to be seen again. Tag's sisters were taken when she was very young, and now she lives in a house without laughter, where even the windows are boarded up and a knothole is her only connection to the outside world. When a strange boy slips her a note though the knothole inviting her to a secret meeting, she wants to attend -- but how will she manage to leave the house? With a tiny bit of magical help, she finds a way, and joins a group of other children intent on finding and rescuing their windswept siblings and friends. But the quest won't be easy, and as people keep telling them, they'll get there too late or not at all. Still, sometimes you have to keep going in the face of the impossible...

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: fairy tale retellings are my jam. This one is delightful, drawing on several Nordic tales as well as a few from other traditions. It's also set in a post-apocalyptic future of a world very like ours, so there are artifacts of the previous civilization (mostly plastics) and a strong, occasionally preachy environmental message. The ending wraps up pretty neatly, as you might expect from a fairy tale retelling for kids. I enjoyed the whole quest and the people and creatures they met along the way. I'd recommend this to kids who love it when authors play with fairy tales, and adults who enjoy reading this sort of juvenile fantasy.… (mehr)