Tuesday, July 12, 2005

I have been up since before 6 a.m. Now, when I can sleep in, I don't. Go figure! So I will go in to Montessori today and finish shifting books since we moved the bookshelves around. Also, to see if the new L-shaped desk for the automated system has been put together. I have the library open for 3 hours this Saturday. Will be interesting to see if anyone shows up as I discovered that a good portion of the families go off island for at least part of the summer.

Finished reading Holly Black's Valiant a few days ago and was enthralled with it, as I was with Tithe, her first urban fantasy about faeries living in the city. I am a fantasy freak, but prefer the high fantasy, with author created lands, etc., but urban fantasy certainly has a draw to it - at least Holly Black's does. I was immediately drawn into the contemporary realistic portion of the story about Val running away to the city after discovering her mother with her boyfriend. Fascinated and repulsed by the weird street teens she is adopted by, Val finds herself drawn further and further into their life, including doing potion delivery for the troll Ravus. You see, faeries do not do well around iron and need an antidote to counteract the iron sickness. Valiant becomes a bit of a Beauty and Beast story when Val and Ravus fall in love and she must fight the evil faerie Mabry for his heart, literally! Black's tale is so well written that you suspend your disbelief of faerie folk living in Manhattan and cheer for Val as she becomes the warrior, inside and out, that we knew, but she wasn't so sure, she could be.

I'm outa here! :-)