The Girl Who...

[sawyl]

No, not that girl. Rather The Girl Who Navigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, Catherynne M. Valente's charming and witty fairytale for children of all ages. The story follows September, the girl of the title, as the Green Wind carries her away from her humdrum life in Omaha, Nebraska to the enchanting world of Fairyland. Except that Fairyland turns out to be a rather less magical and rather more bureaucratic place than expected.

As befits any young girl who is Somewhat Heartless, was born on a Tuesday, and is only possessed of one shoe, September soon finds herself on a valiant quest to recover a witch's spoon from the Marquess of Fairyland (who rules by dint of her black hat and, also, her formidable sleeping lions). Along the way she makes friends with a wyverary — a wyvern whose father was a library — and a Marid for whom all time happens at once and who can grant wishes to anyone who can beat him in single combat, meets a disgruntled post-doctoral alchemist, rides a wild velocipede, and encounters some very disagreeable centenarian pieces of furniture.

The story is wise and charming, the narration knowing but never arch, and the whole book is acutely aware of its antecedents. There are plenty of nods to Baum and Lewis and Swift and Carroll and Juster, to Greek myths and traditional fairy tales, but none of these detract from the book's originality and appeal. And the ending? Clever and beautiful and bittersweet and perfect — just how every fairy story really ought to end.