Author Highlights Eight: Gail Carson Levine

The eighth month of Author Highlights is upon us.  Last month we looked at the author Shannon Hale who wrote Princess Academy.  Today we will once again be looking at an author whose books are focused on a younger audience.  The author for Author Highlights Eight is…

Gail Carson Levine

Gail has written over twenty books mostly focused on fairy tales.  I have read about twelve of her books and I greatly enjoyed them.  My favorites are Ella Enchanted, Fairest, The Two Princesses of Bamarre, The Tale of Two Castles, Stolen Magic, and Ever.

 

Ella Enchanted is her most well-known tale.  It retells the age-old tale of Cinderella in a new and unique light.  Ella is accidentally cursed by the fairy Lucinda with the ‘gift’ of obedience.  She must obey what anyone tells her to do.  But with a fiery spirit, she doesn’t crumble under the ‘gift’ or her evil stepmother and stepsisters.  Her intelligence and saucy nature keep her in good stead as she sets out on a quest for freedom and self-discovery as she tries to track down Lucinda to undo the curse, fending off ogres, befriending elves, and falling in love with a prince along the way.

Gail also wrote a series of short chapter books that are a retelling or expanding on fairy tales.  The first story is called The Fairy’s Mistake.  Two very different sisters have two very different encounters with the fairy Ethelinda. Rosella is kind and helpful. Her reward: Jewels and gems tumble out of her mouth whenever she speaks. Myrtle is rude and spiteful. Her punishment: Bugs and vipers slither out of her mouth. The fairy Ethelinda feels she’s meted out justice just right–until she discovers Rosella has been locked up by a greedy prince and Myrtle is having the time of her life!

She also contributed to the Disney’s Fairies series by writing the book that launched it all off, Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg.  The story basically explores Never land’s fairies in more detail.  Fairy Haven is abuzz with news about its latest arrival, Prilla. Prilla is heartbroken that she does not seem to fit in. She desperately needs help from Mother Dove, the most important creature in Neverland, who created and cares for the magical egg that prevents all who live in Neverland from growing old and dying. But tragedy strikes as the island is hit by a hurricane, and the Never egg is destroyed. Mother Dove must pick three fairies to set out on a dangerous quest to repair the egg. She chooses Rani, the best water-talent fairy; Vidia, the most selfish, but fastest fast-flying-talent fairy; and, to everyone’s surprise-Prilla. The three embark on a journey filled with danger, sacrifice, and adventure. The fate of Neverland-and their world as they know it rests on their shoulders.

For more information on Gail Carson Levine visit her website and blog.

 

 

 

 

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Author Highlights Seven

Here is the second Author Highlights I promised for the month of June.  Finally, I will be caught up with this post.  It only took a few months but here we are.  This means that we are in the seventh month of me doing this post.  It’s been over half a year which is weird since it seriously seems like yesterday when I started this blog.  I know I say that a lot but it’s true.  Anyways let’s get this post started.  The author of today is…..

Shannon Hale

Shannon Hale has written over thirty books.  Several are individual books while other are part of a series.  She is most known for her Princess Academy Series.

I have read the Princess Academy series, The Goose Girl,  and the Book of a Thousand Days.  I loved each of these stories and I still treasure them despite the fact that the books are for a younger audience.

Miri lives on a mountain where, for generations, her ancestors have quarried stone and lived a simple life. Then word comes that the king’s priests have divined her small village the home of the future princess. In a year’s time, the prince himself will come and choose his bride from among the girls of the village. The king’s ministers set up an academy on the mountain, and every teenage girl must attend and learn how to become a princess.

Miri soon finds herself confronted with a harsh academy mistress, bitter competition among the girls, and her own conflicting desires to be chosen and win the heart of her childhood best friend. But when bandits seek out the academy to kidnap the future princess, Miri must rally the girls together and use a power unique to the mountain dwellers to save herself and her classmates.

Anidora-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildenree spent the first years of her life listening to her aunt’s incredible stories and learning the language of the birds. Little knowing how valuable her aunt’s strange knowledge would prove to be when she grew older. From the Grimm’s fairy tale of the princess who became a goose girl before she could become a queen, Shannon Hale has woven an incredible, original and magical tale of a girl who must understand her own incredible talents before she can overcome those who wish her harm.

When Dashti, a maid, and Lady Saren, her mistress, are shut in a tower for seven years because of Saren’s refusal to marry a man she despises, the two prepare for a very long and dark imprisonment.

As food runs low and the days go from broiling hot to freezing cold, it is all Dashti can do to keep them fed and comfortable. With the arrival outside the tower of Saren’s two suitors–one welcome, the other decidedly less so–the girls are confronted with both hope and great danger, and Dashti must make the desperate choices of a girl whose life is worth more than she knows.

For more information on the author visit her website at http://www.shannonhale.com/.