Short but delightful children's fantasy

books:


	• An Exchange Of Gifts Anne McCaffrey Wildside Press, 2006 - 96 pages average customer review:based on 21 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Short but delightful children's fantasy

The lady who taught ships to sing and dragons to fight thread turns to children's fantasy ...

This is a novella rather than a full length novel, the book only runs to 92 pages of which 84 tell the actual story. It has a beautiful cover illustration, and each page of the story is framed with an illustrative border showing drawings of scenes from the book.

"An Exchange of Gifts" is a romance set in a fantasy world not too dissimilar from our own feudal age except that many of the inhabitants have a special ability or "gift." The title refers to a phrase which has a special meaning in the local culture, which is revealed in the last paragraph of the book.

Princess Anastasia, who prefers to be called Meanne, runs away from her father's castle because her father the King intends to marry her to one Baron Estevan de Bolivarre, who she has never met. His portrait shows a handsome man, and he is supposedly a fine and generous man, but instinct tells her there is something wrong about the Baron.

Having run away to hide in a cottage in a nearby forest, making it look as though she has been murdered, Meanne finds a fellow-fugitive, a boy called Wisp, who from the stripes on his back appears to have run away from a cruel master.

Together they seek to make a living in the forest - until both their pasts come looking for them ...

A beautiful story for a child aged between about eight or twelve to read. Adults will also enjoy it but will not find it as challenging a read as most of the rest of Anne McCarreey's books. But it is beautifully told.

Pat Morrisey painted the beautiful cover of the book, and also drew a line drawing frontispiece illustration showing one of the most important scenes in the story, and the illustrated border.

Don't judge this book by the kind of story it is not meant to be. If you are looking for a full-length novel for adults, look elsewere. If you are looking looking for a delightful novella to introduce a young reader to romantic fantasy or provide half and hour's light diversion for a grown-up, this book works very well.

for more information click here

It is what it is

Well, I picked this little number up years ago because my local bookstore had reduced it to a dollar in its post-holiday sale, and it languished on my shelf for nearly a decade before I finally decided to look into it. It wasn't quite I was expecting, which is not necessarily either a good or bad thing.

My initial observation: it's shorter than it looks, which, since it resembles a pamphlet, is really saying something. The print is large, and the pages are elaborately, though repetitively, decorated. The result is that what one might assume is a short novel (given the trade paperback format) turns out to be a long short story, and the bottom line is that it isn't really worth it. For a story this short, the visual presentation would have to be more elaborate and outstanding than it is to justify the price.

Oh, the story? It's not bad. Some of the reviewers are referring to it as a children's story. That's a little ambiguous; I, at least, never got the impression that it was intended solely for children. It is a fairy tale, no question about that, though a little longer and more involved than most, and it's generally nonironic and therefore is susceptible to the predictability of the form. For what it is, though, it's well-done. My understanding is that McCaffrey has a few more of these sorts of books. I think the reader would react more positively if they had all been combined into a single volume and appropriately priced.

In short: read it, but don't buy it at full price.

for more information click here

The Best of Anne McCaffrey

This was the first Anne McCaffrey book I read. It's my favorite book by her so far. The plot is absorbing and different. Meanne and Wisp both hide their pasts from each other (for good reason), and yet if they had revealed their histories things might not have turned out better after all. The language and art are intricate yet delicate. Absolutely stunning.

If I had only known ...

Very good book for kids - and quite pleasant for adults but If I had understood it was a kids book I might not have bought it.

another great

This is one of McCaffrey's shorter stories for juveniles. It is about a princess who runs away to avoid an arranged marriage with a much older man. The princess uses her knowledge of flora and fauna in order to escape and survive - but her knowledge is all gleaned from books, so it is more difficult than she believes. However, she perseveres, and she is joined by a waif of a boy who has been beaten and starved. They form a friendship that enables them to survive in the woods on their own - but without either knowing the other's past. I took this to be a story about trust, faith, and love.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

When Meanne, a princess of the realm, runs away from her father's castle and an unwanted suitor, little does she realize the hardships and difficulties that lie ahead of her. Loneliness is the worst part - until she finds a fellow refugee, a boy named Wisp. Together they must make new lives for themselves. Yet they both have secrets - hidden pasts and magical powers that can tear them apart!

hot