The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There

Starred review from January 28, 2013
In Valente’s second Fairyland book, with her father away at war in France, a girl named September lives in Nebraska with her mother. But what she really wants is to return to Fairyland and visit the friends she made there on her first adventure. When she finally does get back to Fairyland, all is not well: the land’s inhabitants are losing their shadows to the world of Fairyland-Below and Halloween the Hollow Queen. Narrator S.J. Tucker captures the book’s bedtime-story quality and delivers an enchanting performance. In addition to softly spoken narration—that is soothing and almost musical—the narrator produces an entertaining range of voices for the book’s strange and wonderful characters. Tucker’s narration will easily keep young listeners enthralled. Ages 10–14. A Feiwel & Friends hardcover.

Starred review from September 1, 2012
In this sequel to The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (2011), heroine September embarks on another quest, this time to Fairyland-Below, where her shadow rules as queen. It's been a year since September saved Fairyland after sacrificing her shadow and returned home to Nebraska, where she carries the secret of her adventure "with her like a pair of rich gloves which...she could take out and slip" on. On her 13th birthday, September chases a peculiar boat across the wheat fields and falls into Fairyland-Below, a dark region without rules. There, everything's "upside down and slantwise," shadows are siphoned from Fairyland and September's shadow, Halloween, orchestrates wild nightly revels. September resolutely pledges to recover all missing shadows, including her own, by traveling to the very bottom of Fairyland to awaken the Sleeping Prince. Her deliberate descent into dark, surreal places where she encounters bizarre, fantastical creatures is chronicled by the perceptive narrator whose familiarity with fairy-tale tradition matches September's self-conscious determination to behave "as a heroine." Sophisticated, prodigious blending of familiar and original storytelling elements adds multilayered texture, while the rich prose oozes exotic, imaginative imagery. Juan's black-and-white spot art highlights September's questing. Heartless September sprouts a heart during this remarkable, awesome journey. (Fantasy. 10-14)

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September 1, 2012

Gr 5-8-Leaving her native Nebraska once more, September returns to Fairyland after a year's absence to find it in tumult. Her shadow, Halloween, lost in Fairyland Below during September's last visit, is amassing shadows, stealing their magic away from Fairyland Above. Halloween's agent, the Alleyman, strikes fear into every heart as he ruthlessly separates shadows from fairies. Resolving to correct the imbalance, September soon discovers that shadows are tricksome opposites to their corporeal counterparts and she undertakes a quest to reestablish the balance of magic. This sequel to The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Feiwel & Friends, 2011) is a darker book, full of grief, loss, and the adult realization that even in Fairyland, time does not stand still. September's efforts to undo Halloween's havoc have an uneasy, regretful feeling as she travels in strange, unfriendly lands without the beloved companions that joyfully inhabited her first adventure. The pacing seems even slower without the cheery allusions to children's literature from the first novel, but Valente has not lost the whimsical phrasing that fills her Fairyland with its magical wonder. She possesses that Rowling trick of hiding important details within myriad interesting but as yet heretofore insignificant ephemera that ties up loose ends and creates a tidy resolution. September's steps into maturity and compassion, as well as her new friends and experiences, are memorable, but readers will miss the youthful exuberance that characterized her first visit to Fairyland.-Caitlin Augusta, Stratford Library Association, CT

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 1, 2012
Grades 5-8 *Starred Review* In this stellar sequel to The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (2011), September is 13 years old and in possession of a teenage heart that is raw and new, fast and fierce. It is this heart that guides her sophomore trip to Fairyland. When she literally stumbles into the magical realm, September finds that the inhabitants of Fairyland Above have been losing their shadowssucked Below by the Alleyman, a floating red-feathered hatand, along with them, their magic. As Fairyland Above becomes depleted, the underworld becomes a stronger, darker, increasingly renegade place under the rule of Halloween, September's shadow. Can September return the shadows and reset the equilibrium in Fairyland? On her quest, she's reunited with friends Saturday and Wyverarywell, their shadows at leastbut mostly meets exciting new characters, from Belinda Cabbage, mad scientist, to a soft-spoken Physickist dodo bird named Aubergine. As with the previous title, Valente's inviting, lush, and densely detailed world is evocative of well-traveled lands, such as Neverland and Oz, but, at the same time, is uniquely its own. This is sure to draw new fans, but those familiar with the first book will find the reading a richer experience. Juan's shaded chapter-opening art puts bizarrely wonderful faces to names and sets just the right tone. Let's just hope the Green (or Silver) Wind calls us back to Fairyland soon.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)