Sep. 16th, 2009

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Joan Elizabeth Goodman. The Winter Hare (Houghton Mifflin, 1996)

This juvenile historical is fairly straightforward, I'd rate it for grades 4-8 (SLJ says 6-9), but fine for us adult historical enthusiasts. Set in the period when England was torn between King Stephen and Empress Matilda. Will Belet is a poorly-grown younger son wants to be a knight and goes as a page to his step-uncle's house, where his brother already serves. A certain amount of political suspense and tension in the Margaret Frasier style, and excellent attention to historical detail. Horn Book calls it formulaic, but it doesn't seem to treat the coming-of-age themes in the usual formulaic way, more a narrative way. I think the average (read: non-SCAdian, non-history fan) young person will find this rather dull, but for any of our kids who are interested in how they might have lived in period, this will be rather more fascinating. Personally, I liked it in a non-specific way.
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Patricia McKillip. The Bell at Sealey Head. (New York: Ace, 2008)

I love Patrician McKillip's many layered, textured, ornate, and beautiful writing and world creation, but I breathed a sigh of relief that she has finally written another novel that begins at a beginning and goes on to the end. Many of her later works have been so intricately coiled that it was almost impossible to work out what was going on (McKillip makes Diana Wynne Jones' Fire and Hemlock look like the work of a piker!) This one has the usual fascinating multilayered, iron-willed characters, but at least most of them know who they are. As usual the writing reads very much like the romantic fantasy art on the cover looks-- a small glimpse into a magical realm where things may be what they seem, or something else entirely, or both. Nobody knows what causes the Bell to ring at dusk over the small seaside town of Sealey Head, but as the last denizen of a historic house fades slowly into death, a scholar comes to town in search of the bell's mystery, a failing innkeeper speculates, a rebellious young woman spins tales, a housemaid investigates mysterious rooms, and local society is somewhat convulsed by visit from the fading landowner's heir and her raucous companions. While not everything is explained-- you're clearly plopped down in the middle of a story and only allowed to see the bits relating to this section, leaving the magical structure to your imagination-- the worldbuilding is consistent enough to make loose ends unjarring. Funny in spots, and very classic McKillip.

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