Set seventy years before The Various, the second book in the trilogy follows the adventures of young Celandine at the onset of the First World War. Having run away from her detested boarding school, Celandine is too afraid to go home in case she is sent back. As she seeks shelter in the Wild Wood near her home, little does she think she will encounter a world where loyalty and independence is fiercely guarded, and where danger lurks in the most unlikely of places. Celandine’s troubled character finds both refuge and purpose among the secret tribes of little people that she alone believes in.The novels of the Various trilogy are full of mystery, beauty and adventure; this second novel is both page-turning and life-affirming.
Intermediate (ages 9-14)
Material appropriate for intermediate age groups
King Lear
A taut adaptation of Shakespeare’s masterwork by Gareth Hinds — the standard-bearer of graphic-novel retellings of literary classics.In a graceful adaptation, Gareth Hinds transforms Shakespeare’s timeless tale of pride and defiance, loyalty and ambition, betrayal and revenge into graphic-novel format, packing it with visual drama and providing accessible notes. This artful edition — like an extraordinary stage performance — offers a striking new perspective on one of the most powerful and beloved tragedies in the English language. Incorporating excerpts from the bard’s own language, Gareth Hinds’s inventive format opens the experience of KING LEAR to students and fans of graphic literature.
Cinderella
So goes the pronouncement of Cinderella’s fairy godmother as the ragged maiden, now magically transformed into a ravishing beauty, climbs into her magnificent coach and sets off for the prince’s ball.
The Adventures of Pinocchio
Pinocchio has delighted audiences since the late nineteenth century. Now in Graham Philpot’s fresh and lively new version, this sophisticated tale has been simplified into a fast-paced, funny adventure that introduces young readers to the enormous appeal of the original.
Ariadne Awake
Ariadne, Minos’s daughter and the Minotaur’s half-sister, learns love’s price after falling for her father’s handsome prisoner, Theseus, in an evocative, beautifully illustrated retelling of an ancient myth.
Petrosinella: A Neapolitan Rapunzel
A retelling of a classic Italian tale that predates the Grimms’ Rapunzel by nearly two hundred years features a golden-tressed young woman who uses wit and magic to outsmart the wicked ogress and wed her prince.
Cupid and Psyche
Psyche falls in love with her wonderful, yet invisible, host as she finds herself locked away in a castle, but when she betrays his love, she is forced to perform three impossible tasks to win back his trust, in a classic Greek myth of romance and love.
Sleeping Beauty
Amidst light, shadow, and magic emerge the drama of a king’s decision, an angry thirteenth fairy, a prince undaunted by a wall of brambles, and a lovely princess, fast asleep. For at that moment, a thicket of briars grew tall and wide around her court and castle, enveloping it with mystery. A legend began to spread.
Rose Red & Snow White
Snow White and her sister, Red Rose, let a cold bear into their home to rest one night, but as he leaves, he warns them of the dangers of a little man, so when a evil dwarf shows up on the doorstep, the girls begin to get very worried.
Atalanta’s Race: A Greek Myth
In ancient Greece, the gods control every life, from peasant to King. When newborn Princess Atalanta is left to die on a mountainside because her father wanted a son, the gods send a bear to care for her. Adopted by a woodsman, she grows into a great hunter and athlete, and is eventually reunited with her father, the King. But as she gets older, Atalanta has no use for the gods and gives them no credit. When she must run the most important race of her life, on which her future happiness rides, the gods intercede once more–and Atalanta learns they will not be ignored forever.