Cinder and Ella by Melissa Lemon

What if the story of Cinderella has been wrong all this time?  What if all this time no one has gotten the details right?  The author writes this as being the real Cinderella story.  This is a story about a very happy family which consists of:  a dad, a mom and 4 little girls (Katrina, Cinder, Ella, and Beatrice).  Then something in the story happens that breaks up their happy family.  There is a change.  Soon things are not happy.  Cinder finds herself in a position to try to save her family and she’ll also have to save the entire kingdom from a very dark and evil prince.  That’s a heavy burden for anyone to bear but, Cinder will find she can do much to help.  I really liked this book.  It wasn’t the typical happily ever after book and yet it had a very satisfying ending.  It was a book that really makes you think about real life troubles and of family.  It was very hard to put down.

Calamity Jack by Shannon & Dean Hale, Nathan Hale

This book is like one big beautiful comic and I don’t even usually like comic books. It’s technical name is called a graphic novel. The story here is fun. It is also a bit of continuation of “Rapunzel’s Revenge.” It also tells about Jack’s life before he met Rapunzel. The book is basically Jack and the Beanstalk with a twist. I thought this was such a fun book and the illustrations are wonderful. It was easy to just sit and read such a fun tale.

For some fun little paper dolls about the book: http://www.squeetus.com/stage/books_rap.html and also on Dean Hale’s site for newer ones for this book about Jack: http://spacestationnathan.blogspot.com/ look in the right column under Activities for Calamity Jane Paper Dolls.

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

On the acknowledgements page at the end of the book it says: "This story is based on the fairytale "Maid Maleen" as recorded by the Grimm brothers, though I took many liberties with the original in my quest to find Dashti's story."

This is a story about Dashti. Dashti is a mucker. She has a talent of singing and with that song she can heal. When she sings to a mistress to ease her aches, the mistress decides to train Dashti to be a maid for Lady Saren. So, Dashti learns to read, write, and care for her. It takes many months to just train.

So after her training, and barely becoming Lady Saren's maid, she goes to a very busy house and meets Lady Saran. Lady Saran right away makes her pledge to serve her.

Next, She finds out Lady Saren's father is going to lock her up into a tower for seven years because she would not marry the man her father had decided on for her. Lady Saren had another man in mind.

Dashti finds her self having to take care of Lady Saren in a cemented tower and writes it all in a book day by day. I couldn't help but want to keep reading this book. They have many adventures and I really liked discovering them for myself and I think you will too!

Loved this book, and I'd love to read it again.

Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon & Dean Hale

Shannon & Dean Hale (are married)

Illustrated by Nathan Hale (not related)

This is a graphic novel. It is a fun adventure with Rapunzel in Western Style. It's fun how Rapunzel uses her braids like a rope and lasso just like the Wild West.

Rapunzel is living with Mother Gothel. At first Rapunzel doesn't know that Mother Gothel isn't her real mother. She decides to take a view over the gigantic wall and notices that life is much different than her little world.

The pictures here are great. It is fun to just to look at the pictures alone. The story is intriguing and they just get into one adventure after another. I couldn't stop reading.

My sons age 14 and 11 both read this fun book and really enjoyed it too.

If you have a reluctant reader--this would be a great book.

I look forward to the continuation called Calamity Jack.

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

I am officially a Shannon Hale fan. This book was wonderful and I want more. Fortunately, there are more books about this same place called, "The Books of Bayern." I will be reading them.

I was hooked on his book by page 2. I recounted what had happened so far from page 2 to my husband. When I said it aloud I realized that everything was intriguing and so much happens even by page 2. I relished every word and couldn't put the book down.

Ani is born with her eyes closed. She doesn't open them until her Aunt comes and tells her stories in the middle of the night. She is close to her aunt and her Aunt teaches her many things and stories that come in handy later on in the story. I don't want to say too much because there's much to be discovered on your own.

I highly recommend this book and would love to read it again--if I didn't have more of her books to try.