Review: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

Title: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making  Author: Catherynne M. Valente  Pages: 247 Audience: Tween Genre: Fantasy (high fantasy/ fairies) Rating: 4-I'd go on a quest with this book

Goodreads Summary

Twelve-year-old September lives in Omaha, and used to have an ordinary life, until her father went to war and her mother went to work. One day, September is met at her kitchen window by a Green Wind (taking the form of a gentleman in a green jacket), who invites her on an adventure, implying that her help is needed in Fairyland. The new Marquess is unpredictable and fickle, and also not much older than September. Only September can retrieve a talisman the Marquess wants from the enchanted woods, and if she doesn’t . . . then the Marquess will make life impossible for the inhabitants of Fairyland. September is already making new friends, including a book-loving Wyvern and a mysterious boy named Saturday.

My Thoughts
This was pretty charming. I hated it for the first few pages but quickly fell into the quirky personification and word play. Everything is alive in Fairylands: the wind, longitude and latitude, a jacket, a lamp, and even death. Those who have read a lot of fantasy will appreciate the faint allusions to other tales and the playful use of traditional structure/ hero's journey. I didn't really care for the first person narrator fading in and out of the story, however. It sort of jolted me and drew me out of the tale, and he/she/it was too self-congratulatory for my taste. I think that style would probably lend itself well to an audio-book format, however.

The characters were familiar yet charming. It was all very much like the wizard of Oz, and purposefully so. September was a typical plucky heroine but likable and a strong female character (loved the wrench). Saturday and Ell were fairly interchangeable, despite one being a dragon and one a Marid (sea Djinn). No one was terribly complex, except the Marquess. I always like the evil characters best. I did like how you were never really sure if she was evil or not.

I really enjoyed the illustrations in each chapter, and the magical descriptions of Fairyland's settings. The land of Autumn was my favorite bit, with all the houses made of bread and the fountains of milk held together with butter. The description of Pandemonium as being built entirely of fabric was pretty enchanting as well.

Overall a fun, tongue in cheek read, though not terribly fast paced. I'm not sure who the intended audience really is. September is 12, but a lot of the vocabulary is far above that, though perhaps in the hopes that readers will learn new words. I'd recommend this to a late tween or early teen.

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All reviews are solely the opinions of Becky and/or Randi. We are not paid in any way for our reviews, and all opinions are 100% honest.