It’s time to summarize the books I read for the Once Upon a Time Challenge.

In addition to what’s listed below, I read several books I originally thought would fit into this challenge but which, on reflection, did not. As such, I merely completed Quest the First to “read at least 5 books that fit somewhere within the Once Upon a Time IV criteria.” The six books I read were:

• The Collected Tales of Nurse Matilda (fairy tale)
• The Necromancer (mythology)
• Queen Zixi of Ix (fairy tale)
• The Red Pyramid (mythology) (review TK)
• Savvy (folk tale)
• The Sorceress (mythology)

While I liked all of the books I read, I’d have to say that the highlight was the first one I read, Savvy. I’d recommend it for anyone.

My other goal for the challenge was to re-read A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I made it partway through the play within the early June time frame, but ultimately failed to finish before the Solstice.

As always, this was a fun read-along and one I’ll be doing again next spring.

The Collected Tales of Nurse Matilda, by Christianna Brand

From the jacket: “Once upon a time there was a huge family of children; and they were terribly, terribly naughty…”

My take: After the large and ever-growing brood of Brown children terrorize their nannies, tutors, nurses, governesses, and maids with their horrible behavior (although their mother believes them to be misunderstood angels), the help quits en masse, declaring that only Nurse Matilda could sort out those children. Every staffing agency in town agrees — there’s no one left to help, but Nurse Matilda.

And, oh! Nurse Matilda is quite a handful herself. Only able to work where she’s needed but not wanted, she’s dressed in dour clothing, is ugly with a nose like a potato and a snaggle-tooth, and carries a big black stick. And woe to those misbehaving when Nurse Matilda bangs her stick on the floor. The miscreant might find him- or herself unable to stop doing the same awful thing, no matter how much he or she might want to. Or if you were pretending to be sick, you might legitimately start to be ill and have to go into the hospital. Somehow, the fear of the fate that big black stick might force upon you might make you rethink your behavior, at least for a minute.

Slowly, the children go from willfully being as bad as can be (bordering on malevolent) to periodically misbehaving to eventually understanding how to avoid getting into trouble in the first place. And as they make this transition, it occurs to them that Nurse Matilda is looking less and less ugly…

This particular book included all three of the Nurse Matilda fairy tales originally published in the 1960s and ’70s, which provided the (loose) source material of the 2005 film Nanny McPhee.

While I liked the stories well enough, I did feel that putting them all together in one volume probably diminished their effect as all three are quite similar in both scope and execution. Cute enough to read through to the end, but I certainly wouldn’t do more than take it out of the library if you’re curious about it.

Pages: 300

This is one of the books I read for the Once Upon a Time Challenge.

I am not on Carole’s official list of participants in the Ten on Tuesday party, but since this week’s topic took a literary bent, I’m gate crashing:

10 Books on Your Summer Reading List*

1. Matilda by Roald Dahl — Other people my age were fed a steady diet of Dahl growing up, but he wasn’t part of our household canon. Plus the main character really likes to read, judging by the cover.
2. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum — I’ve read two of the later Oz books (and a more modern adaptation), but never the original.
3. The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall — A book about summer vacation. I’m hoping for something Eageresque. (These first three are part of getting caught up on the Top 100 Children’s Books from the School Library Journal.)
4. Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright — Karen rightly pointed out that you can’t very well get caught up on the 100 best kids’ books without re-reading a few favorites. This is another great summer read.
5. At Home by Bill Bryson — This was on my list as soon as I heard he had a new book coming out (and has catapulted toward the top now that I have my hands on an ARC (advanced reader copy). He’s my favorite non-fiction author.
6. Greenwitch by Susan Cooper — The next installment in the Dark Is Rising series. (Yes, I know in a year when people are eagerly waiting for new books to come out in favorite series that it’s funny that the sequel I’m most excited about was published the year I was born.)
7. Sun in the Morning by M.M. Kaye — One of Karen’s recommendations (which are nearly always good) and one of the books I’m reading for the Nonfiction Five challenge this summer
8. The Invisible Kingdom: From the Tips of Our Fingers to the Tops of Our Trash, Inside the Curious World of Microbes by Idan Ben-Barak — Another one of the nonfiction summer reads. I started this back in February as a work assignment but it actually seemed interesting!
9. Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link — Already in my Goodreads queue, this got bumped up when it was recommended based on the previous five books I’d read.
10. The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver — I bought this last winter when I heard her read from it just after it was published. It’s been sitting next to the computer waiting for me to feel epically inclined. Hopefully soon!

What’s on your summer reading list?

*This is all non-binding, of course.

Queen Zixi of Ix; or The Story of the Magic Cloak, by L. Frank Baum

From the jacket: “When the renowned author of the wonderful Oz stories surpasses himself with a full-blown fairy tale, complete with magic wishes, palace life, an evil hag, and a poor boy and girl, we know we are in for something exceptional in story-telling.”

My take: In this lesser known tale by L. Frank Baum, the good fairy queen Lulea and her band of fairies decide to alleviate her boredom with dancing by creating a magical wishing cloak that will grant each wearer a single wish unless they have come by the garment in an underhanded means. The Man in the Moon suggests they give to the first unhappy person they encounter. After all, he points out, “The happy mortals have no need of magic cloaks.”

They dispense the cloak by messenger to the land of Noland, where the king has just died without an heir. After several days of hand-wringing by his cabinet, they remember eventually that they had a book of laws to refer to for occasions just such as these. The book decrees that the 47th person to enter the capital city’s eastern gate at dawn shall be declared ruler of the kingdom.

Approaching the city of Nole are three miserable travellers: the newly orphaned Margaret (known to all as Fluff) and Timothy (called Bud) and their stern guardian, Aunt Rivette. Bud and his aunt butt heads constantly, leaving Fluff in an endless stream of tears.

These three events conspire to land Bud on the throne of the land and Fluff in a more cheerful state of mind. They are whisked off to the castle, where they live happily for a good while, enjoying the periodic and accidental dispensing of odd wishes — from wings to a talking dog — to various people who unknowingly come into contact with the cloak.

It is not a perfect life in Noland, though, for there are enemies gathered outside the boundaries of the land. Queen Zixi of the adjoining Ix was not on speaking terms with her neighbors. A 683-year-old enchantress who had found a way to appear eternally youthful, she immediately coveted the magic cloak when she heard tell of its existence. She yearns to use it to turn the wrinkled visage she sees in the mirror to the same outward beauty her subjects see. And she’s not above using both trickery and force to try to get her hands on it.

Along another border, the Roly-Rogues, a quarrelsome, ball-shaped, bouncy people, have discovered the existence of the Nolanders and seek to invade and take over the land and its people.

Will the cloak be able to save them? Or will its wishes be squandered by foolish mortals?

This fairy tale is sweet and would make a good read-aloud bedtime book for families. And apparently Baum also created a silent film version of the story, which is available on dvd.

Pages: 231

This is one of the books I read for the Once Upon a Time Challenge.

The Necromancer, by Michael Scott

From the jacket: “Josh and Sophie Newman are finally home. And they’re both more confused than ever about their future. Neither of them has mastered the magics they’ll need to protect themselves, they’ve lost Scatty, and they’re still being pursued by Dr. John Dee. Most disturbing of all, however, is that now they must ask themselves, can they trust Nicholas Flamel? Can they trust anyone?”

My take: Taking up where The Sorceress left off, the Newman twins and the Flamels have returned to San Francisco. They haven’t even made it in the house, though, when Sophie is kidnapped by their friend Scatty’s less upright twin sister, Aoife. In order to reclaim his sister, Josh must put aside his misgivings about the Flamels and unite at least temporarily with the rapidly aging couple. And they must somehow do this quietly, as Macchiavelli and Billy the Kid have returned to Alcatraz to unleash the monsters and John Dee, now branded an outlaw with a Gods-given price on his head, has united with fellow immortal Virginia Dare to also reach San Francisco. There they hope to find a way to rule the world themselves by reanimating a hideous monster from the past. And on another plane in another time, Scatty, Joan, Saint-Germain, Will, and Palamedes have all been reunited with a hook-handed, hooded man who has a different mission for them.

In fantasy series, the middle book is always supposed to be where things really start going downhill and where the tone becomes much darker, and this tome does not vary from the standard fantasy format. Unfortunately, I also worry this is the book in the series where the ambition has not lived up to execution. Because there are now four distinct storylines, the story occasionally feels a bit disjointed and I, at least, never felt like I was getting enough of one thread before being whisked off to the next. The book is still good (just less good than some of the earlier books), and I’m eager to read what happens in the next installment.

Pages: 403

This is one of the books I read for the Once Upon a Time Challenge.

Dystopian fiction: Fantasy? Science Fiction? Neither?