Robin McKinley: Girl Reader, Woman Writer (Studies in Young Adult Literature)

, English, Book edition: Robin McKinley: girl reader, woman writer / Evelyn M. Perry. Perry, Evelyn M. Scarecrow studies in young adult literature ; no.
Table of contents

• A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories
• Additional Information
• The Hero and the Crown
• Scarecrow Studies in Young Adult Literature | Awards | LibraryThing
• Works (31)

Young adult fiction, American -- History and criticism. The outlaws of Sherwood Novel-length fairy tale retellings: Beauty and Rose daughter Novel-length fairy tale retellings: Spindle's end Other recent works Conclusion: Notes Includes bibliographical references and index. View online Borrow Buy Freely available Show 0 more links None of your libraries hold this item. Found at these bookshops Searching - please wait When she is twenty, she meets Sahath, a jaded wizard who has lost almost all of his powers, but retains the ability to mindspeak.

Lily is entranced with him, the first person she has ever been able to truly communicate with, although her teacher and friend Jolin fears him: What, she asked herself in fear, might this man do to her, in her innocence, her pleasure in the opening of a door so long closed to her, and open now only to this stranger?

Mages were not to be trusted on a human scale of right and wrong, reason and unreason. Mages were sworn to other things. Her uncle is a man who has grasped power and does not wish to relinquish it to Ruen. So he isolates her, with no friends or family or even servants that she can rely on, and sees to it that she is given only instructions and lessons that are too difficult to comprehend.

Ruen grows up passive, dazed and inadequate.

A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories

Instead Ruen is left chained to stones outside the city, to die as a human sacrifice to the half-man, half-beast monster that lately has been sighted in the kingdom. What happens thereafter that is not at all what either Ruen or her uncle had expected. Luthe once again makes a brief but critical appearance in the tale. The titular stagman is a mysterious shapeshifter that Ruen meets at a couple of key points in her life. Ruen remains passive until the very end, when she suddenly makes an understandable but controversial choice.

In desperation, the woodcutter steals the herb, is caught by the witch, and given the herb a different one than the one he was trying to steal that will heal his daughter. At this point the tale veers off in a somewhat different direction: But Erana has to follow her own path first to decide what she wants in life. This is another quiet tale, simply told, but with some unexpected insights into the various forms that love may take, and showing that winning a kingdom and the hand of a handsome prince might not be the optimal place to find personal happiness and peace.

Awkwardly, he begins to court her, hardly believing that she can be interested in a man twenty years older than she. But Coral treats him with great affection, and agrees to be his wife when he eventually asks her. Transcendently blissful at first, Pos soon discovers two holes in the weave of his happiness: The second is a troublesome hillock on his farm that stubbornly refuses to be cultivated and will grow only buttercups. But the wild magic of Buttercup Hill reacts in a way Pos never expected, and suddenly he has other major troubles to deal with.

High school junior Annabelle has moved with her family to a new town, and Annabelle is feeling rather lost and adrift as the new kid in town, missing her old friends, and wanting to make new friends but feeling too shy and awkward to do so. In her attic bedroom one day, she touches a knot in a wooden beam in the low ceiling, which opens a crack to reveal a narrow set of stairs leading to a tiny hidden room. And in the hidden are shelves, and books, and a mysterious wooden box. The box seems to exude some kind of power, and it somehow seems very anxious to help Annabelle with any problems and concerns in her life.

These stories from earlier in her career have a refreshing simplicity in comparison, evocative of classic folk and fairy tales. View all 4 comments. I've always loved fairytale retellings, and I really like what McKinley does with fairytales, whether she's making them up or bending them to suit her own stories.

This little collection is no different: I'm told the stories are set in the world of some of her novels, Damar, but to be honest I rather preferred them to the Damar novels. I couldn't say why, but They're all rather quiet stories, mostly people living in a world with magic where it's really best if that magic doesn't touch them, an I've always loved fairytale retellings, and I really like what McKinley does with fairytales, whether she's making them up or bending them to suit her own stories.

They're all rather quiet stories, mostly people living in a world with magic where it's really best if that magic doesn't touch them, and when it does, they have to live with it. The first story reminded me of Ursula Le Guin's writing, too, which is always gonna be a good thing. That and the fourth were my favourites, I think. I see the word 'quiet' a lot with reviews of this short story collection, and certainly that is an accurate word.

• Series: Scarecrow Studies in Young Adult Literature.
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The plots of these stories are often muted, the characters quietly rebelling against expectations. In "Healer," the protagonist Lily is literally quiet in that she is born mute and has never uttered a word.

Yet she rebels against expectations by becoming a successful healer in her village. When she meets a former mage, both are changed. In "The Stagman," the princess Ruen's voice and I see the word 'quiet' a lot with reviews of this short story collection, and certainly that is an accurate word. In "The Stagman," the princess Ruen's voice and freedom is quieted by her uncle when her parents die, and then her choice is taken away by a mage she thought would help her.

But again there is a quiet rebellion that occurs, though only after many decades of acquiescence. When a father steals an herb from a witch's garden to save one of his daughters, he promises to give his pregnant wife's child to the witch to raise. But unlike Rapunzel, the witch is not cruel, and she raises her child, Eranu, like she would her own, along with her son a half-troll.

Both the troll and Eranu are quieted by the way society treats them--the troll as a monster, Eranu as a poor woman incapable of choice. When a farmer marries a younger woman, at first they live a happy, productive life together, until the secrets they're hiding from one another threaten their relationship. This story illustrates the power and need of speech in relationships, of not letting the unspoken things come between love. In "A Knot in the Grain," the final story, year-old Annabelle is forced to move to a new town and home, leaving behind her friends and boyfriend. She's silenced in that she's too young to make decisions in the family, but she's also silenced by her shyness and her unwillingness to make others unhappy.

But she finds agency in an unexpected place when she discovers a secret room in her new home. This may be my favorite of the stories. The title "A Knot in the Grain" speaks for all the stories--the grain is smooth until the knot appears--a choice made, a quiet rebellion. A short book of wonderfully smart fantasy short stories. Now must reread everything! I think i am I have never read anything by Robin Mckinley before but i have heard a lot of praise, so i had high hopes of liking this collection of short stories.