Book Review: The Islands of Chaldea by Diana Wynne Jones

Aileen has failed her initiation as a Wise Woman, but she's still being sent on a quest to save The Islands of Chaldea by bringing down the transparent wall that blocks one of the four islands from the others and saving the captive prince held there.  She's not feeling up to the challenge, but when her famous Wise Woman aunt ends up under a curse, Aileen's going to have to make it work somehow.  Helped along by a odd crew, including a large pink cat that can turn invisible, a prophetic parrot, and a spoiled prince, she'll face the many plots against them and the evil magic worker behind it all.

I love that the animals have so much personality in this story.  And while you'll see some similarities between these islands and some real-life countries, the Islands of Chaldea are very much their own countries, filled with different magics and wonders.  This was the Godmother of Fantasy's last book and it had to be finished by Ursula Jones after Diana died.  Diana inspired countless children and adults alike with her books and she'll be missed.

~ Book Ninja

Magic and the Mafia

 White Cat, by Holly Black, is part mystery, part dark urban fantasy, part twisted romance, and part mob story.  I hope you like your fiction dark and bruised, because this story doesn't pull any punches.  It takes place in a world very much like our own, except everyone has to wear gloves to protect themselves from curses.  And our dubious "hero," Cassel Sharpe, knows a little more about working curses than your average Joe.

Cassel wakes up on the roof of his fancy high school dorm and nearly falls to his death. He's been sleepwalking again, and now the school is threatening to expel him as too much of a liability.  Was he really sleepwalking, or was he cursed? He dreamed of following a white cat....

Cassel is the only nonworker in a family of curse workers.  Since curse working was outlawed in the 1920s, most curse workers are employed by the mob.  At first, Cassel thinks he's only got to con his school into letting him back in.  Then he begins to think that the dream about the white cat might be related to the girl he loved when he was fourteen; the girl he killed. At least, that's what his two brothers told him after they dumped the body.  Cassel doesn't remember why he killed her, only that he was standing over her bloody body.  Now Cassel thinks his brothers are hiding something from him, something important.  To learn the horrible truth, he'll have to find the white cat from his dream. But the truth is a dangerous thing when the mob is involved, and Cassel finds himself caught between murder and treachery in the underbelly of curse worker society.

If you like White Cat, the curse workers series continues with Red Glove and Black Heart.

Happy reading.
~gothbrarian

The Silver Bowl

To keep silver looking shiny and beautiful you must polish it vigorously and in this story something magical happens when this is done.  The Silver Bowl by Diane Stanley has adventure, magic, treachery, and a bit of romance. 

In her seven years of life Molly has had no guidance; she is crude and harsh with no evidence of manners.  Everything she knows she has learned from the streets.  Only now that she is old enough does her father notice her and quickly sends her to the castle to labor for the King.  Her mother is unstable and kept behind locked doors.  Molly sees her before her father takes her away and it is then that her mother realizes that Molly has visions.  Like many mothers she gives her daughter advice but also a special silver chain to aid her in times of need. 

At the castle Molly befriends donkey boy who teaches her about expected behavior in the castle.  She must never look any of the royalty directly in the eye but instead look down.  He explains that servants are as "common as lice and just as interesting".  Changes are coming for Molly when she improves her position and is put in charge of polishing the king's precious ceremonial bowl.