Joan Aiken, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (1962) And though the house had witnessed many strange scenes, wolf hunts and wine drinking and weddings and wars, it is doubtful whether during its whole history any of its inmates had had such adventures as those of Sylvia and Bonnie Green. Joan Aiken is a true storyteller–a […]
Philip Pullman, The Ruby in the Smoke (1986) Philip Pullman, The Shadow in the North (1988) Philip Pullman, The Tiger in the Well (1990) Before there was Lyra Belacqua, there was Sally Lockhart. Prior to creating the unforgettable Lyra of The Golden Compass and its blockbuster sequels, Philip Pullman was perhaps best known for […]
Laura Miller, The Magician’s Book (2008) I’d be willing to wager that most readers who prowl these pages fell under the spell of words at an early age, finding both enchantment and release in their power to transport us to a different world. Laura Miller can trace her own bespellment to a particular book, […]
Diana Wynne Jones, Power of Three (1976) One of the things I love about Diana Wynne Jones’s books is that they are always thoughtful without being didactic. One never has the sense of being offered a “problem novel” with some topic-du-jour to be chewed on for one’s own good. They always deliver a cracking good […]
Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle (Greenwillow, 1986) Some people just don’t “get” fantasy. They are unable to comprehend the appeal of stories full of people who never existed and never could have, genealogical tables composed entirely of unpronounceable names, and endless endpaper maps portraying craggy coastlines that look like Wales, but aren’t, quite. They […]