September is a twelve-year-old girl, Somewhat Grown and Somewhat Heartless, and she longs for adventure. So when a Green Wind and a Leopard of Little Breezes invite her to Fairyland - well, of course, she accepts (mightn't you?). When she gets there, she finds a land crushed by the iron rule of a villainous Marquess - she soon discovers that she alone holds the key to restoring order. As September forges her way through Fairyland, with a book-loving dragon and a boy named Saturday by her side, she makes many friends and mistakes. But while she loses her shadow, her shoe and her way, she finds adventure, courage, a rather special Spoon, and a lot more besides . . .
--This text refers to the
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Review
A glorious balancing act between modernism and the Victorian Fairy Tale, done with heart and wisdom. (Neil Gaiman )
An Alice in Wonderland for the 21st century... So effortless, so vivid, so funny. Every page has a phrase or observation to savour and her characters are wondrous creations. (Sunday Telegraph )
A charming modern fairytale...with a knowing twinkle in its eye (Telegraph )
Bundles of imagination and wry wit... This is a sophisticated world of forfeits, paradoxes and tricks. (Financial Times )
A mad, toothsome romp of a fairy tale - full of oddments, whimsy, and joy. (Holly Black )
If you haven't heard of Catherynne Valente, give it time. She's only 32, and she's writing at a furious pace. Valente brings fathomless inventiveness to her fiction... A book for young adults, rich and strange enough for grown-ups, too. (Lev Grossman )
A whole esoteric world of whimsy - Alice meets the Wizard of Oz meets the Persephone story with a whiff of Narnia. (Independent on Sunday )
...it is in fact one of the most extraordinary works of fantasy for adults or children so far this century. (Lev Grossman Time )
Sweet fairytale, shot through with salty tears - magic! (Cory Doctorow )
Get swept away by this charming book (Vogue )
Pure escapism (Bliss magazine ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
An Alice in Wonderland for the 21st century... So effortless, so vivid, so funny. Every page has a phrase or observation to savour and her characters are wondrous creations. (Sunday Telegraph )
A charming modern fairytale...with a knowing twinkle in its eye (Telegraph )
Bundles of imagination and wry wit... This is a sophisticated world of forfeits, paradoxes and tricks. (Financial Times )
A mad, toothsome romp of a fairy tale - full of oddments, whimsy, and joy. (Holly Black )
If you haven't heard of Catherynne Valente, give it time. She's only 32, and she's writing at a furious pace. Valente brings fathomless inventiveness to her fiction... A book for young adults, rich and strange enough for grown-ups, too. (Lev Grossman )
A whole esoteric world of whimsy - Alice meets the Wizard of Oz meets the Persephone story with a whiff of Narnia. (Independent on Sunday )
...it is in fact one of the most extraordinary works of fantasy for adults or children so far this century. (Lev Grossman Time )
Sweet fairytale, shot through with salty tears - magic! (Cory Doctorow )
Get swept away by this charming book (Vogue )
Pure escapism (Bliss magazine ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Book Description
Prepare to be swept away to a land unlike any other, with a cast of friends you'll have for life. A charming modern fairytale with crossover appeal, full of 'oddments, wisdom and joy' (Holly Black)
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Catherynne M. Valente is a name it's hard to miss in the SFF community. She's been twice nominated for a Hugo, won both the Tiptree and the Andre Norton Award and has won or been nominated for numerous other awards. She's also one of the SF Squeecast regulars, a podcast I listen to with pleasure every month. I follow several bloggers who adore her writing, such as The Booksmugglers and The Little Red Reviewer. Still, despite reading rave reviews and having my interest peaked every time I did so, I never got around to reading any of Valente's work. Until now that is. And after having finished The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, all I can say is "WOW!" and "Now I get it." I was blown away by this book and Valente's writing and story-telling.
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making - hereafter referred to as The Girl Who... - is gorgeously written. Its prose is stunning and was made for reading aloud, chock-full of alliterations, rhyming and just generally beautiful passages. And that is just the words on the page; the text is heavily layered with different meanings. Plus there are lovely allusions to other classical works such as The Wizard of Oz, The Chronicles of Narnia, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. I had a lot of fun spotting these and making the connections. The Girl Who... would probably be a very rewarding book to reread, as I'd guess you'll find new things in it every time. The narrative is also quite self aware, with a narrator that addresses the reader directly and talks about the conventions of story-telling and warns the reader when he is about to break them. I really liked this aspect and the narrative voice, which was warm and at time gently mocking the goings-on in the book.... Read more ›
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making - hereafter referred to as The Girl Who... - is gorgeously written. Its prose is stunning and was made for reading aloud, chock-full of alliterations, rhyming and just generally beautiful passages. And that is just the words on the page; the text is heavily layered with different meanings. Plus there are lovely allusions to other classical works such as The Wizard of Oz, The Chronicles of Narnia, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. I had a lot of fun spotting these and making the connections. The Girl Who... would probably be a very rewarding book to reread, as I'd guess you'll find new things in it every time. The narrative is also quite self aware, with a narrator that addresses the reader directly and talks about the conventions of story-telling and warns the reader when he is about to break them. I really liked this aspect and the narrative voice, which was warm and at time gently mocking the goings-on in the book.... Read more ›
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Lfletcher
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Very occasionally, a book comes along which grabs you from title to blurb and this was one of them.
I am a sucker for a twisted fairytale, and in a sense I suppose this qualifies as that. It's narrated in an utterly delightful and direct fashion and is much more realistic (if that's possible) than most fairy stories.
I adored every second of it, and highly recommend it.
I am a sucker for a twisted fairytale, and in a sense I suppose this qualifies as that. It's narrated in an utterly delightful and direct fashion and is much more realistic (if that's possible) than most fairy stories.
I adored every second of it, and highly recommend it.
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Every child wants to be whisked away to a magical land, have adventures, and set out on a fantastical quest against a tyrant.
It's a pretty typical fantasy storyline as well, and it takes something special to make such stories stand out. Catherynne Valente's "The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making" is an enchanting example, filled with delightful nonsense, wryly witty prose, and a wonderfully oddball world that reminds me of a more lyrical Lewis Carroll.
A young girl named September is whisked away from her boring Nebraska home by the Green Wind, who takes her to Fairyland. But September soon finds herself traveling through Fairyland herself, encountering a soap golem, a half-library wyvern named A-Through-L, a wairwulf, the Perverse and Perilous Sea with its golden beaches, The House Without Warning, gnomish customs agents, a jeweled key, a migration of bicycles.
She also is given a quest by a pair of witches -- find the magical spoon that the cruel Marquess stole from their dead brothers. So she and the Wyverary set out to the city of Pandemonium, but soon find themselves (and a flying leopard named Saturday) on a new quest, with overwhelming results for all the people of Fairyland.
Normally, Catherynne Valente has a lush, lyrical, sensual writing style, and there's a fair amount of that in this book ("... the moon slowly fall down into the horizon and all the dark morning stars turn in the sky like a silver carousel"). Her Fairyland is a weird, sometimes dangerous place filled with countless oddball creatures (migrating bicycles!), making her story feel like a more plotcentric "Alice in Wonderland.... Read more ›
It's a pretty typical fantasy storyline as well, and it takes something special to make such stories stand out. Catherynne Valente's "The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making" is an enchanting example, filled with delightful nonsense, wryly witty prose, and a wonderfully oddball world that reminds me of a more lyrical Lewis Carroll.
A young girl named September is whisked away from her boring Nebraska home by the Green Wind, who takes her to Fairyland. But September soon finds herself traveling through Fairyland herself, encountering a soap golem, a half-library wyvern named A-Through-L, a wairwulf, the Perverse and Perilous Sea with its golden beaches, The House Without Warning, gnomish customs agents, a jeweled key, a migration of bicycles.
She also is given a quest by a pair of witches -- find the magical spoon that the cruel Marquess stole from their dead brothers. So she and the Wyverary set out to the city of Pandemonium, but soon find themselves (and a flying leopard named Saturday) on a new quest, with overwhelming results for all the people of Fairyland.
Normally, Catherynne Valente has a lush, lyrical, sensual writing style, and there's a fair amount of that in this book ("... the moon slowly fall down into the horizon and all the dark morning stars turn in the sky like a silver carousel"). Her Fairyland is a weird, sometimes dangerous place filled with countless oddball creatures (migrating bicycles!), making her story feel like a more plotcentric "Alice in Wonderland.... Read more ›
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By Rubbah
Format:Hardcover
Brilliant book. One of those stories which you constantly see compared to classics (modern and traditional)of the genre- Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Neil Gaiman's Coraline and Eva Ibbotson's The Secret of Platform 13- and you think it can't possibly compare. However I've read several of Valente's books and loved them, so I trusted in these grand claims and bought the book, and I;'m very happy I did so. It combines the best of her books. It's lyrical and poetic like 'Labyrinth' and full of great stories and unique, yet recognisable characters such as in the Orphan's Tales. Recommended for all lovers of fairytales and stories with spiritied heroines.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Mark
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
In feel, this has a charm that reminds me of Victorian writing at its very best but without any of the cloying sweetness... well, with very little of it at any rate.
The villains are properly villainous and there heroes are nicely flawed. The use of language is nothing short of beautiful. The plot is strong. The imagination is immense.
This is a wonderful book that deserves a bigger audience. I am not sure that teenage girls can be persuaded to read this and not rush on to Twilight and Twilight clones but I hope that they will find this and love it. Of course, I am not in the target demographic for this book and so I feel free to say that it well worth reading at any age, either gender. Some of the language would be a little challenging for pre-teen but well worth the effort.
The villains are properly villainous and there heroes are nicely flawed. The use of language is nothing short of beautiful. The plot is strong. The imagination is immense.
This is a wonderful book that deserves a bigger audience. I am not sure that teenage girls can be persuaded to read this and not rush on to Twilight and Twilight clones but I hope that they will find this and love it. Of course, I am not in the target demographic for this book and so I feel free to say that it well worth reading at any age, either gender. Some of the language would be a little challenging for pre-teen but well worth the effort.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gorgeous little story
How refreshing to read something so unique, quirky & genuinely special. The author has let their imagination run wild with this story & it is a joy to read, bringing the most... Read more
Published 14 days ago by Andy She
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant
A thoroughly new take on fairy tales. A good read for any age. My 5 year old enjoyed it as much as I did. :)
Published 2 months ago by Inertia_Creeps
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gorgeous, Gorgeous piece of work.
Enthralling from the start, this story tumbles you across the confines of this word and into the clutches of a brilliantly imagined fairyland. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Ruth Hardisty
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pure Magic
My first ever Catherynne Valente title. Made me want to rush online and download everything she has written to date. Look out, Lewis Carroll!
Published 2 months ago by elizabeth anne hepburn
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book!
Really enjoyed this book. Great imagery, great fun, great characters. Its worth noting that this is NOT a childrens book - many kids would find this beyond them to follow I think... Read more
Published 2 months ago by t1a1c1h
5.0 out of 5 stars
Reading this made me feel like a child discovering magic
This book is an enchanting delight, the characters are well realised and there is just the right balance of sinister in our young protagonist's experiences in fairyland.
Published 3 months ago by Katreats
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simply magical
Fantastically, beautifully written and a simple magical fairy tale I will never forget.
I would recommend this book to anyone with a love of fairy tales and a childlike... Read more
I would recommend this book to anyone with a love of fairy tales and a childlike... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Amy Louise
5.0 out of 5 stars
An instant classic!
I can't recommend this book highly enough - for children, adolescents and adults who are young at heart. Any fans of Lewis Carroll's Alice books will absolutely love this. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Julie
4.0 out of 5 stars
The girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making
I like this because it's was really nice and the Dragon was favourite character in the book ! ! !
Published 5 months ago by Georgia
5.0 out of 5 stars
Moonshine and Magic in Kaleidoscopic Hues
Every beautiful dream has to end but having emerged reluctantly from Gaiman's "Neverwhere", I was mesmerized, enthralled and not in the least disappointed to be seduced into... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Anthony Yeulett
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