Book Journal 2015: 9
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship Of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente
Wow and Ow and Wow again. This is a good book. I am not young and cannot be sure, but I think it hits that perfect balance where it is written for children and their parents and will be pleasing to both. It has this feel to it of a children’s story (and I don’t mean a Young Adult story, I mean quite younger than that) with wide eyes and simple pleasures and lemon ices (I did not major in English, and don’t have the training to know how this works). But even while that is happening it is filled with symbolism and references and simple sideways discussions on things that we don’t expect children to think on, and is a compelling read for an adult. And then there’s the language! It is so evocative and descriptive, specifically building with the stories and tropes and descriptions that are more real to children than the real world, pierced with lines like “Autumn has a hungry heart-September is the beginning of death” that left me struck dumb with “wow” for a moment.
The end is a strange and wonderful thing and I don’t know how people will feel about it at all. I am pretty sure it will not be nearly as complicated for children as for adults. It tells you you can’t have certain things, and then gives them to you. It points out how some famous children’s stories have been quite deeply cruel to their little girls (not the first nor the last author to address this problem) and then says that maybe it has found a way around it. (Maybe.) It brings to my mind The Yellow Door and Celephais and all those Guillermo del Toro movies where the heroine dies and lives happily ever after, but stops short of asking for that reading.
My biggest complaint is the illustrations, which directly conflict with the text at several points.
Will definitely get a copy for my sister or her eventual children.
Wow and Ow and Wow again. This is a good book. I am not young and cannot be sure, but I think it hits that perfect balance where it is written for children and their parents and will be pleasing to both. It has this feel to it of a children’s story (and I don’t mean a Young Adult story, I mean quite younger than that) with wide eyes and simple pleasures and lemon ices (I did not major in English, and don’t have the training to know how this works). But even while that is happening it is filled with symbolism and references and simple sideways discussions on things that we don’t expect children to think on, and is a compelling read for an adult. And then there’s the language! It is so evocative and descriptive, specifically building with the stories and tropes and descriptions that are more real to children than the real world, pierced with lines like “Autumn has a hungry heart-September is the beginning of death” that left me struck dumb with “wow” for a moment.
The end is a strange and wonderful thing and I don’t know how people will feel about it at all. I am pretty sure it will not be nearly as complicated for children as for adults. It tells you you can’t have certain things, and then gives them to you. It points out how some famous children’s stories have been quite deeply cruel to their little girls (not the first nor the last author to address this problem) and then says that maybe it has found a way around it. (Maybe.) It brings to my mind The Yellow Door and Celephais and all those Guillermo del Toro movies where the heroine dies and lives happily ever after, but stops short of asking for that reading.
My biggest complaint is the illustrations, which directly conflict with the text at several points.
Will definitely get a copy for my sister or her eventual children.