When I started college, my mom insisted I pack up almost all of my books. Instead, I hid as many as I could until she relented and let me have one bookshelf full. Since then, the cravings for the books I didn't manage to save have been overpowering. While my mother was out of town last week, I tracked down those boxes and broke into them, ripped the books free and ran away with them to my room until they overflowed my bookcase. Mmmm, books.
My old childhood friends, these books, and I just had to get reacquainted, so, you know, we've been talking.
Fish: Oh my pretties, I have missed you! *stroke stroke*
Books: Purr
Fish: Now which one of you will I read first?
Books: *Wiggle and wag* pick me, pick me!
The one that keened the loudest was The Moorchild by Eloise McGraw, and since it fits nicely with the other books I've read and reviewed lately, being a fairy book as different from Holly Black's books and Knife as they are from each other, and the Newbery Metal and Honors were just announced and The Moorchild was a 1997 Newbery Honor book, and because it's just a really wonderful book, I'm going to remind everyone about it.
Moql is a carefree child of the Folk, running wild on the moors with the other children in the Mound, but when a human catches her and the Folk learn she can't hide, become invitable, like the rest of them, they realize she's only half Folk, and half human. Since she's a danger to the Folk beneath the Mound, the Prince of the Folk has her switched for a human baby. But Moql, now named Saaski, even after she forgets her Folk roots, knows she doesn't belong there either.
( Got eyes on the top of me head like )
Really, The Moorchild lives up to McGraw's dedication, "To all children who have ever felt different."
My old childhood friends, these books, and I just had to get reacquainted, so, you know, we've been talking.
Fish: Oh my pretties, I have missed you! *stroke stroke*
Books: Purr
Fish: Now which one of you will I read first?
Books: *Wiggle and wag* pick me, pick me!
The one that keened the loudest was The Moorchild by Eloise McGraw, and since it fits nicely with the other books I've read and reviewed lately, being a fairy book as different from Holly Black's books and Knife as they are from each other, and the Newbery Metal and Honors were just announced and The Moorchild was a 1997 Newbery Honor book, and because it's just a really wonderful book, I'm going to remind everyone about it.
Moql is a carefree child of the Folk, running wild on the moors with the other children in the Mound, but when a human catches her and the Folk learn she can't hide, become invitable, like the rest of them, they realize she's only half Folk, and half human. Since she's a danger to the Folk beneath the Mound, the Prince of the Folk has her switched for a human baby. But Moql, now named Saaski, even after she forgets her Folk roots, knows she doesn't belong there either.
( Got eyes on the top of me head like )
Really, The Moorchild lives up to McGraw's dedication, "To all children who have ever felt different."