Sonderbooks Book Review of The Fairy's Return

*****The Fairy's Return*

by Gail Carson Levine

Illustrated by Mark Elliott

Reviewed December 21, 2002.
A Sonderbooks' Best Book of 2002 (#5, Young Adult and Children's Fantasy and Science Fiction)
HarperCollins, New York, 2002. 104 pages.
Available at Sembach Library (JF LEV)

Here’s the second new Princess Tales adventure. This one takes off from a fairy tale I had forgotten, where a boy carries a golden goose. Anyone who touches the goose can’t let go, and anyone who touches that person can’t let go and so on. Gail Carson Levine puts the idea into a fun story of a baker’s son who falls in love with a princess. She’s the only one who appreciates his jokes, and he’s the only one who treats her like a normal person.

I love the little humorous touches she inserts in these stories. For example, in this book the boy’s father believes himself to be a masterful poet—but none of his poetry rhymes when it should.

“A joker is a fool,
Who never went to a place of learning.”

This silly little motif is repeated without comment. Later, the boy hears a normal poem and thinks, “How odd. It rhymes.”

Another silly and fun delight of a book. Most refreshing.

Other books by Gail Carson Levine:
*****Ella Enchanted
****For Biddle's Sake
Fairest
Fairest audiobook
Ever

Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund

****The Fairy's Return

by Gail Carson Levine

Illustrated by Mark Elliott

*****The Fairy's Return*