April 5, 2011

Tales with a twist


Twelve Impossible Things Before Breakfast
by Jane Yolen


This is an interesting collection of stories from the incomparable Jane Yolen. She has a knack for turning something ordinary into something magical. The twelve tales in this collection are mysterious, scary, funny, sad, and heroic. In other words, there's something for everyone.


Here's a brief summary:

  1. Tough Alice: Alice fights the Jabberwock in Wonderland
  2. Mama Gone: a girl's love for her mother (a vampire story)
  3. Harlyn's Fairy: Harlyn saves a fairy's baby 
  4. Phoenix Farm: a girl finds a phoenix egg 
  5. Sea Dragon of Fife: Robert sets out to avenge his brothers' deaths
  6. Wilding: futuristic story about Zena, who turns into an animal for a night of adventure. Attacked in the park, she's saved by a max, who controls the Wild Things (yes, it's an homage to Sendak)
  7. The Baby-Sitter: classic horror story with a twist
  8. Bolundeers: a family is threatened by monsters
  9. The Bridge's Complaint: a bridge wants a troll to protect it from goats
  10. Brandon and the Aliens: siblings fight aliens
  11. Winter's King: a boy who loves the cold searches for his kin
  12. Lost Girls: In Neverland, Peter has enslaved the Wendys. But when Darla arrives, she gets them to go on strike.




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