Fairest by Gail Carson Levine, 2006

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In the kingdom of Ayortha, who is the fairest of them all? Certainly not Aza. She is thoroughly convinced that she is ugly. What she may lack in looks, though, she makes up for with a kind heart, and with something no one else has-a magical voice. Her vocal talents captivate all who hear them, and in Ontio Castle they attract the attention of a handsome prince - and a dangerous new queen. In this masterful novel filled with humour, adventure, romance, and song, Newbery Honor author Gail Carson Levine invites you to join Aza as she discovers how exquisite she truly is.

(326 pages)

When I was younger, I absolutely adored Fairest. I liked it even more than I did Ella Enchanted, its more successful older sister, and I read it several times out of sheer love of the story.

Now that I'm older, I'm sad to see that this is yet another book that doesn't captivate me the way it used to. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's still good. I love the way Aza ruminates on beauty, inside and out. The juxtaposition of Aza and Ivi (both beautiful, but in different ways) is very striking, and I still love watching Aza interact with the gnome ZhamM, who is the mentor and friend that I wish every protagonist had. But the romance with Ijori, while sweet, is kind of cloying and almost rushed to me now (I guess because they don't have as many scenes together as I would have liked).

Really, I think now that I'm older I mainly just want the entire book to be longer. I want to delve further into the intricacies of court; I want a closer look at Aza's feelings of inadequacy and hideousness; I want a more subtle, beautiful relationship between Aza and Ijori that grows up over time; I want all this, plus more time with the fascinating and kind gnomes. I could happily have spent an entire book just in their underground home, exploring the lifestyle and political system that's so different from our own.

It's still a really good book, though, and I highly recommend it to any and all. If you liked Ella Enchanted, then you need to read Fairest; if you haven't read either book, then you definitely need to read both of them as soon as possible!

Which book do you like better, Ella Enchanted or Fairest? Let me know in the comments below.

The Wish by Gail Carson Levine, 2000

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Wilma Sturtz is invisible and miserable at school. So when an old lady on the subway offers her a wish, Wilma immediately asks for popularity -- in fact, she asks to be the most popular kid at school.
Suddenly, Wilma has more friends than she can keep track of, forty dates to the Grad Night Dance, and a secret admirer writing her love poems. Everything is great, until she realizes there's a loophole in her wish, and her time in the spotlight has almost run out.

(243 pages)

The first time I started this book was probably about five years ago, when I had just finished Ella Enchanted for the first time and was devouring everything by Gail Carson Levine that I could get my hands on. I only "started" it, not "finished," however, because the boy-girl stuff got too icky for me. I put the book down halfway through, told myself never to read it, and moved on to the infinitely superior Fairest.

This summer, however, I forgot just how much I'd disliked The Wish; I figured my disgusted reaction all those years ago was just because of my age (all twelve years olds think romance is icky, right?), and that now I was finally old enough to read and enjoy this book by the author of several of my favorite books.

Then I started reading again, and only finished because it was late and I was at my aunt's house and I didn't have anything else to read. The "girl-boy stuff" truly was too much (Wilma and her new boyfriend - both not even in high school - go to the park, lie on a blanket, and kiss passionately for over an hour after dating for like two days. I can only assume this is where I stopped last time). Reading past that to finishing the rest of the book, though, I also realized that Wilma is frankly just unlikeable. She's so obsessed with being popular that she doesn't even care that people only like her because they're being forced to. She claims to feel bad about it, and apologizes when they find out and are mad, but when given the chance she's still perfectly ready to force them back into being her friends-on-command. How can I like or respect someone like that?

Gah, I don't know what else to say. I really just want to get this review written so I can stop thinking about The Wish. I hate writing negative reviews, but I had to write this one. Please, steer clear of this particular book by Gail Carson Levine. And if you've read it and found more to like than I did, please take the time to explain to me what there is to like here.

Top Ten Books Which Feature Characters Who Learn Something About Themselves

This is a fun one, I chose to do "characters who learn something about themselves" for this week's Top Ten Tuesday because it's such an easy prompt I can take the time to do it properly. Here are my top ten. These are all wonderful books, and I highly recommend all of them!

1. The Shadow Children books by Margaret Peterson Haddix
The kids in this series are illegal. They are third children in a society that only allows two children per family, and they will lose their lives if the population police ever find them. The series revolves around a couple of different "shadow children" as they assume fake identities in order to join the outside world and fight the oppressive government that bans their existence. Several characters learn a lot about themselves as they discover not only how to function in the world outside their sheltered existences, but how to dig deep down and find the bravery needed to win the day.

2. Double Identity by Margaret Peterson Haddix
I love this book so much, which you may have noticed by how often I use it in these lists! I really can't say anything about what sort of identity crisis Bethany comes to, but it's really a doozy and it's one of my absolutely favorites.

3. The Missing books by Margaret Peterson Haddix
I'm not really sure how much I can say about the Missing books, because the first book would be completely spoiled if I explained the overarching premise of the series. All I'll tell you is that it's not a metaphor when I say that the characters "discover their identities."

4. The Candymakers by Wendy Mass
This is a book about many things, including candy and friendship, but it also deals with the stresses of fulfilling expectations versus pursuing your own dream. One character in particular learns to value his/her own abilities because they are what give him/her joy.

5. Tree Girl by T.A. Barron
This is a little book I read when I was younger, and absolutely adored. Looking back it's a little weird, but it's definitely got that aspect of identity crisis as the main character makes her way through the forest, and winds up discovering her own identity.

6. The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen
This is a book about completely losing your own identity, and immersing yourself in another's. Sage doesn't learn anything about his "identity," per se - after all, a false name doesn't erase the past - but he does learn about his own strengths as he slowly comes to accept the fact that he is much better at being royal than he had originally believed.

7. The Sisters Grimm books by Michael Buckley
Poor Sabrina Grimm hates her fairytale detective family, and just wants to go back to her normal life. But as the series progresses Sabrina learns to value the work that her family does, and to appreciate her own power as a Grimm and as a detective.

8. The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester
All of the main characters in The Girl Who Could Fly have talents that tie in with their personalities, but for the first half of the book they don't really respect themselves or their talent. Over the course of the story they learn not only to trust one another, but to trust themselves and their abilities. They learn that they are strong, especially when they work together.

9. Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements
Yeah, this is one of my favorites. Bobby wakes up one morning invisible, and spends the next few weeks trying to figure out how to reverse it, and how to convince DFS that his parents didn't kill him and take his body. He becomes friends with a blind girl named Angela, who helps him to discover things not only about himself, but about the rest of the world as well.

10. The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine
Addie is the shy, clingy sister. It's Meryl who is the fierce one. But when Meryl gets sick with an untreatable and fatal disease known as the Gray Death, Addie sets out on a quest to find the cure. She braves all sorts of dangers and discovers that there are no limits to what she could do, if she was doing it for her sister.

There we go! Have you read any of these, and do you agree that they fit on this list?