fiction Archives - Page 252 of 708

Sisters of the Neversea
by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: In this Indigenous retelling of Peter Pan, twelve-year-old stepsisters (Muscogee Creek) Lily and (English) Wendy embark on a high-flying journey of magic, adventure, and courage to a fairy-tale island known as Neverland . . .

Lily and Wendy have been best friends since they became stepsisters. But with their feuding parents planning to spend the summer apart, what will become of their family–and their friendship?

Little do they know that a mysterious boy has been watching them from the oak tree outside their window. A boy who intends to take them away from home for good, to an island of wild animals, Merfolk, Fairies, and kidnapped children, to a sea of merfolk, pirates, and a giant crocodile.

A boy who calls himself Peter Pan.

Snippet: Belle had tasked herself with quickly categorizing Human children so they could be properly distributed, but this family confused her. Yes, of course Belle had studied Peter’s old storybooks as a guide. But the illustrations never matched up with real-life humans.

“What do you mean by ‘we’?” Lily asked. “Who’s with you?

Belle replied with a question of her own. “What are you, Lost or Indian?”

Not surprisingly, the questions struck Lily as terribly rude, intrusive, and presumptuous.

“We’re Creek!” Michael explained. “Muscogee. Muscogee Creek.”

“Is that a ‘yes’ for Indian then?” Belle inquired.

“Yeah.” Pointing to Lily, Michael said, “Me and that Sissy.” Pointing to Wendy, he added, “Not that Sissy.”

The Beatryce Prophecy
by Kate DiCamillo (Author) and Sophie Blackall (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: In a time of war, a mysterious child appears at the monastery of the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing. Gentle Brother Edik finds the girl, Beatryce, curled in a stall, wracked with fever, coated in dirt and blood, and holding fast to the ear of Answelica the goat. As the monk nurses Beatryce to health, he uncovers her dangerous secret, one that imperils them all–for the king of the land seeks just such a girl, and Brother Edik, who penned the prophecy himself, knows why.

And so it is that a girl with a head full of stories–powerful tales-within-the-tale of queens and kings, mermaids and wolves–ventures into a dark wood in search of the castle of one who wishes her dead. But Beatryce knows that, should she lose her way, those who love her–a wild-eyed monk, a man who had once been king, a boy with a terrible sword, and a goat with a head as hard as stone–will never give up searching for her, and to know this is to know everything.

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