Hush by Donna Jo Napoli

It was a new type of story for me. I prefer the fun adventures and then a happy ending. This is a reason to cry every few pages, although I did not...much. The plot is rather easy to sum up; an Irish princess is kidnapped and put into slavery. Such things happened all the time, but the little twist of this is that the girl stays silent all throughout her slavery and is thought to be an enchantress. This is based on a true story, one from 900 AD. Melkorka is her name but it is hardly said because most of the people in the book don't know that is her name.
I loved this book. It drew me into the story so much that I would go away and feel the need to keep silent myself. The beginning of the book has such a different girl than the one at the end, which is right but is also painful. It made me think about human nature and how different we can be and how the differences happened. As a historical fiction book, it drew me into a time that we don't know all too much about. I like history but I couldn't think of what was going on in 900 AD other than it being the Dark Ages.
Some of the things the people in the story did made me wonder what they were thinking; some of it was explained as wisdom but I'm afraid that the rest was pulling at straws in desperation. Honestly I haven't been to the point of desperation so I have nothing to judge their actions against. All of the slaves she knows well really teach me how to do any kind of good a person is capable of, even if they aren't allowed to do anything at all. A great book for anyone to read and learn from.

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

This was a fun book, it makes me eager to read the rest of the series. Although many of the main characters are fairies and such creatures, this is not a fairytale. Now a highly advanced, underground civilization they are bound by their own laws. It's a fun twist to see these magical beings worry about how they have to use an older model of machine.
The fairies and motley company were interesting, my attention went most (as it should) to Artemis. He is a complicated hero because the entire book he is in it only for the gain of himself and his family. But it was obvious a few pages into him that he is not an evil kid. Not completely. The fact that he is a genius makes him respectable even if he's only twelve. Then the fact that his family has been theives and him being so young gives me great hope for his rehabilitation.
In greek mythology Artemis is a girl's name, so I had to keep reminding myself that this Artemis is a boy. Dwarves are traditionally small human size, but fairies are either the size of flowers or the size of humans. In this book they are about three feet, I also had to keep reminding myself about that.
A great book even for techies I think, except that there was no romance, not yet anyway.

The Reluctant Heiress by Eva Ibbotson

Three other books have I read from this author so I'm familiar with the way she writes. The books are all romances, with large obstacles to wedded bliss such as social barriers, prior engagements or wars. I love these books because of the way she tells not only the story of the boy and girl but also nearly everyone around them. Also, it is a romance and even though it does have allusions to sex, the books are not in the least pornographic. I recommend these books to any young adult and up.
To be more focused on this book now, I enjoyed it greatly and stayed up until 1:30 to finish it. I found the two main characters likeable but the three I loved were the three women who had had guardianship of Guy and Tessa. The story had me a bit confused because I don't understand a slavish devotion to opera, so I could not understand some of their motives. To cut off your hair for free to make a wig for an actress to wear goes over my head.
As a love story, it had the all-important meeting and final coming together of the couple, but it seemed to me that the middle had some parts missing. Their attraction and love came a bit sudden. I enjoyed his anger and contained violence. When his violence was first mentioned, it scared me, but then it was pointed out that he only used it for protecting the weak. Or protecting his foster mother. A bit like a superhero would.
The story was fun with its twists and plots as well as quite a few misunderstandings and secret love. One has to laugh at the picture created by the fiancee shrieking because they were taking away her mirrors.

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

Most of the books I read are simpler stories with a happy ending and characters that are easy to love or easy to hate. This book is much more real. The story is haunting and the heroine, Mattie Gokey, is confused. The plot goes back and forth in time to end with the day that changed her life.
I want to say that I love this book, and mostly I do, but it is just so real that I'm wincing at what she shows. It is about real life and doesn't gloss over much but instead shoves the ugly into your face. At the end when Mattie makes her decision I wanted to cheer but then again I still see the problems that await her and knew why she didn't choose that earlier. The fact that the right decision is still complicated makes it all the more true.
As a book for young children, I do not recommend it. I believe a child has to have a chance to believe in Charlotte's Web and Beauty and the Beast. There is much swearing in it as well as a few physical scenes and of course it is about a murder. A youth that is beginning to see more of the world and has to start living in it will find a thought-provoking story. Who am I kidding, adults of any age will find a thought-provoking story. Plus tons of new words that are happily defined for the reader.

A Knot in the Grain by Robin McKinley

This is a collection of five stories. They would be called fairy stories because they delt with magic. Reading them reminded me of Grimm's collection much more than Disney-fied versions, but they were not like those stories in many ways. Grimm's stories pass over the thoughts and feelings of the characters most of the time, which McKinley does not do. Still, something about the mood did not welcome me into the story.
The five heroines were unlike the modern heroines who are brave and foolish. All except the last ends up married to a man she loves. All are humble and willing to do what they must. The first four are set in a time and place unlike ours- the normal setting for a story including magic; the last, Annabelle, has to battle a highway coming through her new little town. At first I didn't understand that she was staying in our time and thought her magic might be time travel or something, but it wasn't. Magic is usually a very big part of a fairy tale, but these had normal people that come into contact with a bit of magic that they didn't expect. Except for Erana, whose childhood was spent with a witch and a troll.
I liked this book mainly for the two stories of Lily and Coral, the other three didn't seem to finish up right to me. All of the stories were creative and new to me, and would be good stories to tell at bedtime.