The Perilous Gard

Author	Susan Fletcher
ISBN	0689830513

Originally reviewed on my blog, Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing.

Shadow Spinner by Susan Fletcher is set in Ancient Persia and it is a retelling of 1001 Arabian Nights. The original tale is the story of Shaharazad, the young woman who tells stories each night to the Sultan, ending before...

Author	Barbara Cohen
ISBN	0688135633

In an ancient Arab nation, one woman dares to be different. Buran cannot—Buran will not—sit quietly at home and wait to be married to the man her father chooses. Determined to use her skills and earn a fortune, she instead disguises herself as a boy and travels by camel caravan to a distant city. There,...

Author	Patricia A. McKillip
ISBN	0441004385

Sorrow and trouble and bitterness will bound you and yours and the children of yours...

Some said the dying words of Nial Lynn, murdered by his own son, were a wicked curse. To others, it was a winter's tale spun by firelight on cold, dark nights. But when Corbet Lynn came to rebuild his family estate,...

Author	Franny Billingsley
ISBN	0689844611

She is never cold, she always knows exactly what time it is, and her hair grows two inches while she sleeps. Fifteen-year-old Corinna Stonewall--the only Folk Keeper in the city of Rhysbridge--sits hour after hour with the Folk in the dark, chilly cellar, "drawing off their anger as a lightning rod draws...

Author

Pamela Dean

In the ancient Scottish ballad Tam Lin, headstrong Janet defies Tam Lin to walk in her own land of Carterhaugh . . . and then must battle the Queen of Faery for possession of her lover’s body and soul.

In this version of Tam Lin Janet is a college student, "Carterhaugh" is Carter Hall at the university...

Author	Catherine Cate Coblentz
ISBN	0914378058

You're probably wondering why this book was awarded the Newbery Honor. It's obviously not very popular at all - less than 100 people have rated it! That should tell you something, right?

Wrong. I thought so, too, until I actually tried it for myself.

This is the story of a blue cat who...

Author	Caroline Dale Snedeker
ISBN	1883937795

This treasure of a novel, a Newbery Honor Book, is set on the island of Nantucket just before the War of 1812. Much more than a tale of whaling ships and gentle Quaker eccentricities, it is a tale of friendship-the kind most truly espoused by these 'plain' folk, with all the struggle and complexity one should...

Author

Eloise Jarvis McGraw

Half moorfolk and half human, and unable to shape-shift or disappear at will, Moql threatens the safety of the Band. So the Folk banish her and send her to live among humans as a changeling. Named Saaski by the couple for whose real baby she was swapped, she grows up taunted and feared by the villagers for...

Author	Elizabeth E. Wein
ISBN	0142500143

The story of Medraut - strong, skilled, daring, and never to be king...

Medraut is the eldest son of Artos, high king of Britain; and, but for an accident of birth, would-be heir to the throne. Instead, his younger half-brother, Lleu, is chosen to be prince of Britain. Lleu is fragile, often ill,...

Author

Carol Kendall

The Minnipins have lost their past. Long ago, the hero Gammage led them in war against the horrible Hairless Ones. But now -- Bravery? Forgotten. Courage? No more. Heroes? The stuff of storybooks.
Yet sometimes heroes turn up when they are least expected....

Muggles, Gummy the poet, and...

Author	Nancy Bond
ISBN	0689804458

A String in the Harp by Nancy Bond is one of those novels I love so much it almost hurts. It concerns the Morgan family – Jen, Peter and Becky - who, after their mother is killed in car crash, move from Massachusetts to Wales. Still reeling from the blow, the family is falling apart. Peter, in particular,...

Author	Mary Q. Steele
ISBN	0140305882

Grandfather said they were headed for the Better Place, but Dilar suspected they were headed nowhere, simply following the dark underground river blindly. And so one night he leaped onto a shelf of rock and watched the flotilla of the Raft People disappear. And from there he found his way Outside, into...

Author	Isaac Bashevis Singer
ISBN	0374383162

"In our time, when literature is losing its address and the telling of stories is becoming a forgotten art, children are the best readers."

—When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw & Other Stories, from the Foreward

I have to admit, Isaac Bashevis Singer really has a way with folk tale humor....

Author	Mary Stolz
ISBN	0762418893

At last, Mary Stolz's 1962 Newbery Honor-winning book is back. And now, for the first time, the classic story is brought to life with colorful illustrations in a picture book format. Award-winning illustrator Pierre Pratt adds whimsical new art to this charming tale about two little mice assigned...

Author	Cyrus Fisher
ISBN	0802776930

As read from OpenLibrary, I found this surprisingly charming.

It's mostly about the boy, John (Jean when he's in France) as he faces the challenges of growing from a pampered boy to a stronger and wiser young man. He's sort of forced to 'man up' in just a few weeks, as he's left to live with his 'oncle'...

Author	Cornelia Meigs
ISBN	9997488687

One of five Newbery Honor Books for 1922, the year the award was first established, The Windy Hill is the story of fifteen-year-old Oliver Peyton, who, together with his younger sister Janet, comes to stay with his Cousin Jasper at his home in Medford Valley. Resentful at Cousin Jasper's unprecedented...

Author

Kathryn Lasky

Prolific children's author Kathryn Lasky tells the story of sugaring season - that "time between the seasons... when winter seems tired and spring is only a hoped for thing" - in this beautifully-written work of picture-book non-fiction. Her lyrical but informative text is paired with her husband...

Author	William Bowen
ISBN	9997488679

The Old Tobacco Shop: A True Account of What Befell a Little Boy in Search of Adventure is a children's fantasy novel by William Bowen that was named a Newbery Honor book.

Five-year-old Freddie meets the owner of a nearby tobacco shop, Mr. Toby Littleback; his old-maid aunt, Aunt Amanda; and...

Author	Jamake Highwater
ISBN	0064404374

Anpao is young and Handsome and Brave -- a man any maiden would be proud to call her husband. Any maiden but Ko-Ko-Mik-e-is, that is, who calims she belongs to the Sun alone. And so Anpao sets off for the house of the Sun to ask permission to marry the woman he loves. But Anpao's journey is not an easy one. Before...

Author	Frances Mary Hendry
ISBN	0374461554

QUEST FOR A MAID is the greatest YA novel I have read since THE PERILOUS GARD by Elizabeth Marie Pope. It's a standard YA novel in some ways -- a strong teen girl overcomes self doubt, makes friends, helps others, learns lessons. But it's set in Medieval Scotland, and the historical details and the setting...

Author	Rosemary Sutcliff
ISBN	0525267301

Delightful novel of two young men [one English, one Viking] who become blood brothers and travel as part of the crew of a Viking ship down the Dnieper to Kiev in Rus, thence to Byzantium when they become part of the newly-formed Varangian Guard to the Byzantine emperor. A blood feud hangs over all. The very...