Written in the 1800s, this little story has some elements of 鈥淪leeping Beauty鈥� and 鈥淭he Princess and the Goblin鈥� and 鈥淩apunzel.鈥� A prince is born perfWritten in the 1800s, this little story has some elements of 鈥淪leeping Beauty鈥� and 鈥淭he Princess and the Goblin鈥� and 鈥淩apunzel.鈥� A prince is born perfect but he gets dropped by a nanny and never walks. He gets named by a lot of godmothers and godfathers, but the last one to arrive wasn鈥檛 invited. This godmother is good, though, and watches over him all his life. When his uncle usurps the throne and puts the boy in a Rapunzel-like tower, the godmother appears and gives him a magical traveling cloak so he can see the world. She also turns into birds a few times.
What struck me as odd was, although this is mostly a gentle story, there is a revolution scene that talks about all these atrocities being committed in the streets. I was like, 鈥渉ang on! Kid鈥檚 story?鈥� and then it went back to being gentle again. ...more
Like the other books in this series, it鈥檚 tough to pinhole it as a children鈥檚 book although it is a fantastic adventure like a good children鈥檚 book. HLike the other books in this series, it鈥檚 tough to pinhole it as a children鈥檚 book although it is a fantastic adventure like a good children鈥檚 book. However, the language is advanced and he does use a few swear words and the occasional 鈥渙rgy.鈥� I read it aloud to my 9-year-old and left just a few words out. Otherwise, I often explained what big words meant and hopefully she has a richer vocabulary now.
The story deals with a Crat (a talking cat who can speak to all animals and people) on the brink of starvation because his mistress has died. Ghoulion, the Alchemaster of Malaisea, offers to feed him the best meals for a month but then the Alchemaster gets to kill him and extract his fat. Terrible deal, but the Crat agrees because a month of life is better than the day or two he would have had before starving.
Over the course of the month, little Echo the Crat explores the castle, learns everything there is to learn about alchemy, gets treated to amazing and magical dishes, collects moss from a toad鈥檚 back, and makes friends with a cyclopean tuwituwu, a thousand leathermice named Vlad (no one understands the leathermice! Not even the leathermice!) and the last Uggly in town, Izanuela. He also gets some trippy esoteric guidance from a hallucination of a golden squirrel. He tries to run away, but he can鈥檛. He and Izanuela use magic to try to sway the Alchemaster, but it goes sideways, too.
I won鈥檛 spoil the end but it was not what I expected. Satisfying, though!
I鈥檓 so glad there are more in this series for me to read! I鈥檝e read 鈥淩umo鈥� so far and it didn鈥檛 make a difference that I read them out of order. There were only some shared references to things and places....more
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