The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Lumberjanes: Volume One: Beware the Kitten Holy Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Brooke Allen, 2015 Premise: Collects Lumberjanes #1-4. Alice, Molly, Jo, Mal and Ripley are spending their summer at Miss Quinzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet's Camp for Hardcore Lady Types. They should be learning scouting skills, canoeing, hiking and learning about nature. Instead they’re trying to get to the bottom of some seriously mysterious goings-on. I read the first issue of Lumberjanes a while back, and knew that all the hype is true: this is a really special book. I bought the collection of the first four issues a few months back, and just finally got time to read it. And good timing, too! Lumberjanes just won two Eisners, for Best New Series and Best Publication for Teens (ages 13-17). This book deserves its awards and its laurels. It’s loads of fun, funny and clever and sweet all at once. It stars great characters in an insane, cartoonish world, where exploring a cavern...

Dark Triumph (His Fair Assassin: Book Two) Robin LaFevers, 2013 Premise: Sybella blessed the day she was told she was a Daughter of Death and taken into Mortain’s convent to be taught to kill. Because her human father, the nobleman d’Albret, was the stuff that nightmares are made of. But now she is back in his household, spying for the young Duchess of Brittany, and trying to keep both her life and her sanity intact long enough to kill d’Albret. If you liked Grave Mercy, don’t be foolish like me and allow a few years to go by before you read this sequel. I was intrigued but terribly confused for several chapters before I remembered barely enough of the political plotline to pick up on how this story fits into that story. I remember being very interested in Sybella before, as she was a mysterious side character in book one, and at least the first half of her story lived up to those hints. She was subject to an incredibly dark childhood, but now must face those demons, externa...