Month: December 2015

A predecessor of J.K. Rowling’s, Eva Ibbotson wrote 16 children’s books and 7 adult / young adult books.  Best known is The Secret of Platform 13 due its parallels with Rowling’s Harry Potter series (published three years later).  On the plus side, The Secret of Platform 13 features a strong, assertive heroine; on the minus…

Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede is a cheeky sequel to Dealing With Dragons (second book in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles series).  Princess Cimorene, who has found a way around the restrictions constraining princess behavior by providing service to Kazul, King of the Dragons, is paired with Mendanbar, who, as the King of the…

The Witches by Roald Dahl was not one of my favorite Dahl books; perhaps it was the physical overlap between the story’s evil witches and breast cancer and diabetes patients – the hero is told by his grandmother that witches (all evil; all female) wear wigs to hide their bald heads and cram their toeless…