Kate DiCamillo has done it again. As she did first with The Tale of Despereaux and then The Tiger Rising, her latest literary gem The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane has made me cry. The good soul-lifting, “man that felt good” kind of cry that one needs once in awhile to clear the head and the heart. Yes, I’m a sap, but I get into reading…its just me!

Some writers are good, some are entertaining, some talented, and some are truly gifted. Kate DiCamillo is a truly gifted writer. If you have children or ever will have children you owe it to them to purchase DiCamillo’s books now, in their nice hardback editions, as they should be shared and treasured. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane is no exception.

The School Library Journal calls this story “achingly beautiful” and those two words are as apt a description as you can get. It is a story that both hurts and heals as you read it. Edward Tulane is a self-centered, vain, heartless china rabbit owned and loved fiercely by 10 yr old Abilene Tulane. Edward spends his days appreciating Abilene’s attentions but for all the wrong reasons and does not return any of her love. A bedtime story fraught with symbolism and a whispered admonishment in Edward’s ear of “you disappoint me” from Abiline’s grandmother foreshadows Edwards’ loss overboard on a boat bound for England. It is there, at the bottom of the cold, dark ocean that Edward first begins to feel. The rest of the tale tells of Edward’s growing love and appreciation for those who love him and his profound loss as tragedy takes him away from one kind hearted person after another. And while all this sounds way too sad to read to small children the story itself has such powerful messages about loving and appreciating those we love that it’s target age of 4-8 year olds can learn so very much from hearing this story. And believe me, adults can learn something as well.

While the ending is not a total surprise for an adult reader, Kate DiCamillo’s skill with the written word is so good that the end is tear-jerkingly satisfying in the extreme. I love, love, LOVE her books and it is not without merit that her books have been nominated for and won so many awards for children’s literature. These books are destined to be classics. Because of Winn-Dixie was such a satisfying film adaptation of DiCamillo’s work that I really hope they make more of her books, this one included, into movies. I was excited to see on her website that Kate DiCamillo will be speaking at a local library here in September and I have marked my calendar to attend.

The book itself is wonderfully designed and the black and white illustrations and the color plates by Bagram Ibatoulline are stunning.

Even if you do not have children, I encourage you to partake of this wonderful story. It is 228 short pages (big words, few words to a page) and it goes by far too quickly. I read it from start to finish this morning. Good literature is simply that…its good…and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane is a complex piece of literature presented in a simple, yet profound story that I know you will love. Get to the library or the bookstore and read it. It is wonderful.

Many of the writers whose work I cherish, across different genres and through different media, have captured my attention because of something they do and do well: they craft marvelous tales out of the folklore, mythology and fairy tales of past generations. Mike Mignola mines folklore for his creation Hellboy; the Coen brothers borrow heavily from Homer’s Odyssey for their film Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?; Neil Gaiman has used all three in many of his novels. The newest member of this group to excite my reading interest is Shannon Hale.

The Goose Girl is Shannon Hale’s first published novel. She currently has 3 young adult novels on the shelves with a fourth due soon. Shannon Hale has taken the very short tale by the Brothers Grimm, of the same name, and used it as the foundation upon which to build her fascinating fairy tale The Goose Girl. The story follows the life of Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Ani for short, who is born the Crown Princess of Kildenree. Early intervention from an outcast aunt provides Ani with the knowledge that many people are born with different gifts. Some, like her mother the queen, have the gift of people-speaking and can influence others with their words. Crown Princess Ani appears to have the gift of being able to talk with animals and understand their language. In other rare instances there are those born who can develop their gift of being able to speak the language of the very elements of the earth. Like all fairy tales there are early indications that happily-ever-after will be a journey away and it is not long before the reader discovers, along with our heroine, that said journey may be an arduous one.

The fairy tales and folklore of the Brothers Grimm and those who have gone before are often entertaining, slightly to extremely dark tales meant to convey some lesson while spending precious little time on characterization. What makes Shannon Hale’s take on these stories unique is that she has a knack for giving these characters flesh and making them real. Princess Ani is a very real young woman with real faults and real struggles and Hale makes it easy for the reader to empathize with her plight. You can see yourself in Hale’s characters, both the good and the bad. Hale’s “bad guys” are also very real. There is a recognizable quality to their deceit and selfishness. Shannon Hale has also created a very realistic world for her characters to live in. For The Goose Girl Hale researched the writings of the Roman historian Tacitus as well the old world Germany that was home to the Brothers Grimm. She based her fictional world of Bayern loosely on this research to give a sense of place and time, and a depth, to her world. The research pays as you feel like you are reading a tale told by successive generations about a very real place. Another strength of Hale’s writing style is she does not write down to children. This is a very intelligently written tale and Hale works some of the darker parts of the original story into this tale in a way that is serious but not frightening. The language is rich and attractive to readers both young and old. You will like Ani and the people she befriends, you really will. This is a delightfully engaging story.

Shannon Hale has a wonderful website, something not enough authors take the time to do. Her professed love of movies shows in that each of her books on her site has “extras” including background on how the story came about, the original Grimm fairy tale, deleted scenes, a “lost chapter”, discussion guides, book quizzes. It is a very fun place to go especially after you’ve read the story. Shannon Hale has incorporated a blog into her site and also has an entire section devoted to writing that is fascinating and very down to earth. One feels very encouraged after reading her advice to writers and those who want to be writers. The presence of games and quizzes makes this a fun site to visit for both adults and children.

If you are looking for something magical to read to yourself or to your children I highly recommend a visit to Shannon Hale’s Bayern via the pages of The Goose Girl. Her second book, Enna Burning, is a sequel of sorts featuring some of the characters of The Goose Girl but is a stand alone story in and of itself. Shannon Hale’s latest is an unrelated story entitled Princess Academy which has recently been recognized as a Newbery Honor Book. All three of Hale’s stories have won multiple awards and if the rest are as good as the first I can unequivocably declare that the awards are well deserved. Shannon’s next book, River Secrets, will return readers to the characters and world of Bayern. The great thing about The Goose Girl is that if you love the characters, and you will, they continue to live on in these future stories. I poured through the 384 pages quite rapidly as it was a book I did not want to put down. The Goose Girl is a wonderfully put together volume with terrific cover art by Alison Jay and will be a book that you want to own, to treasure, and to share.

I came across a mention of Kai Meyer’s The Water Mirror on the Endicott Studios website in their Young Adult Book Recommendations for Autumn/Winter 2005/2006. I was at once struck by the artwork of Jonathan Weiner. The cover art, including the creepy back cover image of a sharp toothed mermaid, instantly made me want to pick up this book to see what it was about.

In The Water Mirror a medieval Venice is in the midst of a 36 year seige by an Egyptian mummy army who has decimated the rest of the known world. Venice has thus far escaped destruction due to the beneficence of an unseen entity known as the Flowing Queen. This Venice is not quite the same one that exists in our world. In Meyer’s Venice, stone lions patrol the city, mermaids with razor sharp teeth inhabit the canals, and the denizens of Hell itself are edging ever closer to the surface. Into this world two teenage orphan girls, Merle and Junipa, are apprenticed to a magic mirror maker. Each girl is, of course, more than what she seems, having a destiny that only just begins to unfold in this first of a trilogy of novels known as the Dark Reflections series. At 250 pages this book is a quick read, but Meyer manages to pack an amazing amount of story and detail into those pages. Magic mirrors, mermaids, flying lions, plots to usurp the Flowing Queen, thieves, phantoms, mummys, pharoahs, creatures from the underworld…The Water Mirror has these and more. The story is filled with mystery, suspense, adventure, magic, treachery…and all the while the symbolism of mirrors and reflections is interwoven making you realize that you know very little about the characters and are bound to discover interesting and possibly terrifying truths about them as the series continues. The book is filled with plot twists and enough unresolved issues to ensure many more surprises before this series is completed.

This book is translated from the original German by Elizabeth D. Crawford and I can only assume that she does a marvelous job as the story flows very well and is highly entertaining. On a few occasions sentences seem slightly odd and I wonder if this is due to translation issues. By and large though the book makes me understand why Kai Meyer is so popular in his native Germany.

The Water Mirror is indeed a young adult book but despite that has some fairly creepy descriptions of the few beings from the netherworld who make an appearance. The descriptions, though brief, instantly brought to mind the eerie, dark art of Brom. I would suggest an appropriate starting age for reading this to be 12 and it is definitely well written enough to be thoroughly engrossing to adults who love their fantasy laced with sinister suspense. Very engaging!

An apprentice clockmaker facing failure…a writer with a story he can’t control…a girl whose courage will need to match her kindness…a prince whose mechanical heart is winding down…a clockwork knight with murderous tendencies…and a doctor who just may be the Devil.

Their stories come together piece by piece in this chilling tale where nothing is as it seems, but like the gears of a strange and wonderful clock, everything fits together.

And so reads the summary on the back of the multiple award winning 1996 children’s tale, Clockwork, or All Wound Up. Written by Philip Pullman (of His Dark Trilogy fame) and wonderfully illustrated by Leonid Gore, Clockwork tells a story within a story of adventure, deceit, clockmaking, storytelling, the high cost of failure and the triumph of love. Clockmakers, a writer, a royal family, clockwork beings, a mysterious doctor, a courageous heroine, a dying prince…all are contained within a scant 107 pages. It is actually quite amazing how much storytelling is done in such a small book.

Pullman sets his tale in “old” Germany and writes under the inspiration of the tales of the Brothers Grimm, Frankenstein, and Dr. Faustus. The story opens on a cold snowy night in a tavern on the eve of two special occurrences-Fritz’s latest tale of suspense and the revelation of Karl’s apprenticeship-ending edition to the town clock. The element of suspense is set immediately due in part to Pullman’s excellent storytelling ability coupled with the lush, gothic imagery of Gore’s illustrations. In the tradition of the fairytales of old, Clockwork has its share of dark, macabre moments that will appeal to children and to those adults who remember the childlike thrill of a good ghost story.

I sat and read this book cover to cover in about an hour and have to admit that I was disappointed when it all came to an end. While on the surface Clockwork has a deceptively simple, straightforward story there are hidden depths and meanings put forth in the tale that make it an intriguing read for an adult. I picked up this book in a used bookstore on our vacation earlier this summer and am thrilled to realize now just what a bargain I received. This book is wonderful. A perfect balance of suspense, creepiness, heriosm, and romance make it a great book to read yourself or to read aloud to your children. For some inexplicable reason Pullman includes one instant of cursing in the book which is my only real complaint as its wholly unnecessary and takes away from rather than adds to the book.

Clockwork is a great tale to read in the fall/winter when darkness descends early and the nights turn cool. Enjoy.