Book of a Thousand Days is a retelling of the Grimm fairy tale Maid Maleen set in medieval Mongolia. The novel follows Dashti, maid of Lady Saren, as she tries to keep herself and her mistress alive during a seven-year-long imprisonment. After Lady Saren’s refusal to marry an abusive suitor, her father sent both the Lady and her maid to live out 1000 days in recluse. Days blend into nights and weeks become years. But as food supplies quickly diminish with the arrival of rats, Dashti must find a way to break free from their tower and protect her mistress who has long given up hope of ever escaping her prison.
Shannon Hale, through the diary form, gives a powerful voice to Dashti, a strong, confident, dutiful young woman who carries her story beautifully. As readers experience Dashti’s story through her point of view, we follow her through every hardship and every success as they shape her person. Book of a Thousand Days is a beautiful bildungsroman which masterfully unites a Eurocentric story and the Central Asian steppes. It reminds us that our duty must always first be to ourselves, then to others. Courage and bravery allows us to survive and fight for what we believe in.
Described as Narnia-like with a Canadian Indigenous twist, The Barren Grounds is a story that follows two Indigenous foster kids living in Winnipeg as they embark on a fantastical adventure while navigating their identity, belonging, and reclaiming lost culture.
Nobody Owens is not a normal kid. He lives in a graveyard, his parents are ghosts, and he can fade through walls.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl is a classic tale of love and goodness that has charmed readers for over 50 years. Through his use of vivid characters and a wonderfully crafted imaginary world, Dahl does not shy away from painting the world as an unfair place, where people get what they deserve. This modern day fairy-tale is dark and whimsical, real and fantastical, and at the centre of it all is Charlie Bucket.
Reading the Hobbit felt like a warm hug. The Hobbit tells the story of Bilbo Baggins, a well-to-do hobbit who wants nothing to do with adventures. “Adventures only make you late for dinner”, he once said. But one day, his whole world changes when the wizard Gandalf and his company of dwarves come knocking on Bilbo’s door. Gandalf, along with Thorin Oakenshield and his band of dwarves, invite Bilbo to a quest to help the dwarves reclaim their home under the Lonely Mountain. Bilbo, feeling reluctant at first, eventually agrees. He is whisked away on an adventure that forces him to leave behind all the comforts of the Shire and the life he once knew.
The Girl Who Drank the Moon
tells the story of a young Percy Jackson as he grapples with the news that he is the son of Poseidon, god of the seas. After traveling to a mysterious camp with half-bloods such as himself, he must learn to hone his skills and talents and go on a quest to save his mother from the clutches of Hades, retrieve Zeus’ lightening bold and save the world from a war between the Gods.
