{"id":2959,"date":"2012-05-27T18:16:49","date_gmt":"2012-05-27T22:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=2959"},"modified":"2021-06-03T17:47:13","modified_gmt":"2021-06-03T21:47:13","slug":"the-girl-who-circumnavigated-fairyland-in-a-ship-of-her-own-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2959","title":{"rendered":"The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making<\/a><\/em> (2011) Catherynne M. Valente<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This started coming up as recommended for me pretty much as soon as it was published. But it was hardback, and a hardback price even for the Kindle, and it seemed straight-up fantasy, which I just haven’t been in the mood for, so I added it to my wish list and kept checking on it.<\/p>\n

In March, I read the short story\/novella The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland\u2013for a Little While<\/a><\/em> and quite enjoyed it. But then I read Deathless<\/a><\/em> and didn’t like it at all. But, when I saw that the paperback version of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making<\/em> was out in paperback–and the Kindle price had dropped to the paperback price, I decided to try it.<\/p>\n

I’m glad I did.<\/p>\n

First, unlike Deathless<\/em>, this is a kids\/young adult book. So no boinking. Second, there were all kinds of references to all kinds of fairy tales and stories. I loved all the references. Third, it’s simply a good book. Fun and enjoyable.<\/p>\n

And very, very good.<\/p>\n

“When you are born,” the golem said softly, “your courage is new and clean. You are brave enough for anything: crawling off staircases, saying your first words without fearing that someone will think you are foolish, putting strange things in your mouth. But as you get older, your courage attracts gunk and crusty things and dirt and fear and knowing how bad things can get and what pain feels like. By the time you’re half-grown, your courage barely moves at all, it’s so grunged up with living.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So. Wow. Yeah.<\/p>\n

…though you can have grief without adventures, you cannot have adventures without grief.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s so fascinating to see it put so simply, because it’s true. To be true to yourself and truly live your life, bad things are going to happen. It’s just the way things are.<\/p>\n

Apparently, there are people who are complaining that this book is too “hard” for kids. There are quite obviously people who have absolutely no memory of being kids themselves.<\/p>\n

But there are plenty of things for adults to get as well.<\/p>\n

All children are heartless. They have not grown a heart yet, which is why they can climb tall trees and say shocking things and leap so very high that grown-up hearts flutter in terror. Hearts weight quite a lot. That is why it takes so long to grow one.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I highly recommend The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making<\/em>, for children and adults.
\nRating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by Square Fish<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (2011) Catherynne M. Valente This started coming up as recommended for me pretty much as soon as it was published. But it was hardback, and a hardback price even for the Kindle, and it seemed straight-up fantasy, which I just haven’t been in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,2,6,3,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-5-10","category-fantasy","category-folk-fairy-tales","category-kids","category-young-adult"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-LJ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2862,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2862","url_meta":{"origin":2959,"position":0},"title":"The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland–for a Little While","author":"Michelle","date":"March 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland--for a Little While (2011) Catherynne M. Valente Mallow is content to live with her cast iron ducks doing the occasional magic for those in need, but mostly she prefers to be left alone. But then the King of Fairy calls a for a Foul in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Girl-Who-Ruled-Fairyland.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4711,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4711","url_meta":{"origin":2959,"position":1},"title":"Hellboy: The Midnight Circus","author":"Michelle","date":"July 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Hellboy: The Midnight Circus (2013) Mike Mignola, Duncan Fegredo, Dave Stewart Couple things about this: 1) It came out as hardback. 2) I purchased the kindle version, because it was cheaper than the hardback (and by now we should all know my feelings about hardback books). 3) This is more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"HellboyMidnightCircus","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/HellboyMidnightCircus.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2983,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2983","url_meta":{"origin":2959,"position":2},"title":"The Lies of Locke Lamora","author":"Michelle","date":"June 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006) Scott Lynch This is a re-read. I remembered enjoying this book when I read it, and I bought the sequel, but both are in hardback, and I just dislike reading hardback book. So I broke down and bought both for the Kindle. I am\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "eBook"","block_context":{"text":"eBook","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/ebook"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":545,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/545","url_meta":{"origin":2959,"position":3},"title":"All Together Dead","author":"Michelle","date":"April 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"All Together Dead (2007) Charlaine Harris It's been awhile since I read a new Sookie Stackhouse story. They're now published in hardback first, and as much as I enjoy her stories and her writing, I don't much care for hardback books. I also wasn't sure they were worth $25. 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First there was the fact that I own Spirits in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Widdershins.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1478,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1478","url_meta":{"origin":2959,"position":5},"title":"Blood Lite","author":"Michelle","date":"November 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Blood Lite (2008) edited by Kevin J. Anderson This anthology came out in hardback last year, but considering the theme, I was more than content to wait until it came out in paperback. Which it recently did. As with most anthologies, there are good stories and bad stories, but there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/Blood-Lite.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}