Top 3 Rare Mythological Creatures (Lizzie)

I hope you've heard that Laurie Lucking and I are part of a new fairytale anthology, Encircled, that releases next week. Laurie's Snow White retelling kept coming to mind as I was trying to come up with an idea for this post. It wasn't the Snow White aspect (though I loved that) that had captured my thoughts, though, but the trees. Or more precisely, the dryads living in the beautiful, mysterious forest. I've not read much about dryads, so I found them fascinating, and I loved Laurie's portrayal of them, especially of the dryad prince. It got me thinking about other beings from mythology that I've only read about a few times. So here are three of my favorite "rarities."

1) Dryads 

These nymphs are tied to their trees and are very graceful. I believe they are mentioned in The Chronicles of Narnia, but I never really thought much about them until reading Laurie's "Edged in Silver." They aren't the same as Tolkien's Ents or Rowling's Whomping Willow (I think it's interesting that Tolkien also has a malicious willow in The Fellowship of the Ring, but willows look innocent enough to me.) They can leave their trees.

2) Naiads

These nymphs inhabit rivers, springs, and waterfalls. In Brandon Mull's Fablehaven, the naiads are extremely dangerous and enjoy convincing humans to join them in the water so they can drown them. One of my favorite characters in Fablehaven (I won't say who to avoid spoilers) was a naiad who fell in love with one of the human caretakers of Fabehaven and left the water, and became a nice person (I'm not sure I'd call her human exactly, but she gained human qualities of compassion and love after leaving the water).

3) Selkies

These Scottish mythological creatures are capable of changing from seals to humans. They are portrayed differently in the three stories I've heard them mentioned in, but my favorite portrayal of them in the animated movie Song of the Sea. A young half-selkie girl has a beautiful, white "selkie coat" that lets her turn into a seal in the sea beside her lighthouse keeper father's house. She must learn to sing the selkie song. So I associate selkies with beautiful white coats and lovely songs, as well as with seals.

Do you have any favorite mythological creatures (beyond dragons and unicorns, that is)?

Calling All Dragon Lovers (Julie)

It doesn't get much better in life than sitting down with the next book of your favorite series. For me, it's the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull. Hands down my favorite. Fairies, magic, cool weapons, narrow escapes, epic battles, dragons, fun characters...the list goes on and on.  In fact, it's that series that got me started on writing my own.

The original series has five books. As with all your favorite stories, you hate to see them come to an end and you wish the author would continue them. Well, I got my wish. Brandon Mull has started a continuation series of Fablehaven called Dragonwatch.


I'm currently finishing up the second book in the Dragonwatch series: Wrath of the Dragon King. And it is full of dragons of all varieties.

Here's a little peak at what you'll find in Dragonwatch:
The dragons have been confined to the secret sanctuaries for magical creatures long enough. They want their freedom. They want revenge.

Several things struck me as I read this book:
-Mull has an incredible talent of weaving in information (characters/objects/etc...) that comes into play later on. It seems so effortless. But it also shows how much planning and outlining he must do to incorporate all those little things to make the story flow smoothly.
-Along the same lines, the world building is very creative. There are several fun weapons that show up in this book: a bag of gale force winds, a sword that can also shoot a bolt of lightening, and a bow that can shoot up to three hundred arrows at one time!
 -Even though this is the 7th book in the whole Fablehaven series, the ideas and action are fresh. One thing I'm struggling with on writing the second book in my series is making sure that I am coming up with fresh ideas. There were definitely some surprise scenes in this one!

So, if your looking for a fun, imaginative fantasy adventure then check out the series (links above).

Merry Christmas (Julie)

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone gets lots of books to read=) I did. I got book two and three of the Nightmare series by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller and Dragonwatch by Brandon Mull (my favorite series and author)!! I'll be spending my Christmas vacation reading and writing!!

I'd love to hear what books you got that you can't wait to read!

Top 3 Book Series (Julie)

This year at my school, admin decided to try something new-D.E.A.R. time. Drop Everything And Read. Many of us middle and high school teachers were like what? We have to tell our students we have 30 minutes of D.E.A.R. time every week? I was already envisioning the jokes that would come from that one. Nevertheless, once a week, the students literally set everything aside and read whatever they want (within reason of course). Here’s the best part...even teachers have to stop doing "teacher stuff" and read. Whatever we want! I'm excited, not sure about all my students though. Then came the bad news...no electronic devices. My elation deflated rather quickly and here’s why. When I lived in the States, I was always at the local library selecting new books to read. Then I moved to a foreign country that doesn’t speak my language. Finding English books became a real problem. So I turned to my Kindle for my reading fix.

Life is tough at times and when you’ve read all the interesting books in your school library, your reading choices become a bit slim. To solve the dilemma of what to read since my Kindle isn’t an option at school, I turned to my own small selection of books that I managed to squeeze into my suitcase when I moved. Why not re-read some of my favorite books? And if I’m feeling particularly generous, I’ll even loan them out to my students, on pain of you will clean my classroom from top to bottom for the next 180 days of school if lost or damaged. (only kinda kidding)

So for this post, I've decided to compile my top three favorite book series from my meager collection. 

1. Fablehaven by Brandon Mull. My all time favorite series. This is the one that spurred me to write my own story. It’s full of magic and fairytale characters, humor and mystery. It’s the tale of a sister, the reliable one, and her younger brother, the not so reliable one. Since their parents are off on vacation, they get dropped off at their grandparent’s house in the middle of nowhere. Neither sibling is excited as they barely know these grandparents, and to make matters worse, they are given lots of rules and there’s no tv! What’s a kid to do? Fortunately for them, they discover their grandparents are the caretakers of a hidden preserve for magical creatures. But unfortunately for them, the newfound knowledge also brings about danger that deepens with every book, and then finally bringing about the exciting climatic end in book 5. Once I turned the last page of the last book, that deep disappointment set in that this was the end of the series. It was a satisfying ending, but it was finished. Then, a few years later, much to my delight, Brandon Mull decided to continue the series. I can't wait to see what is in store for my favorite story.

2. The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann. Categorized as dystopian, this one is choke full of creativity. Alex lives in a society, Quill, where people are put into three categories: wanteds, necessaries, and unwanteds. Those who are labeled as unwanted, as with Alex, are sent to their deaths because, well, they aren’t wanted. These are usually those who display some type of creative ability. As Alex and the other unwanteds arrive at their final destination where they are to die, something unexpected happens. They aren’t eliminated but transported to a magical place called Artime where creativity lives and thrives. Throughout the seven books, we see Alex grow in his creative abilities and lead the people of Artime against those who wish to destroy them. Lisa McMann has done an amazing job building a world where what you can imagine in your mind can come to life through your magic. I especially love the sculpted creatures that come to life to teach the unwanteds at their school.

3. The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman. Okay, I'm cheating a bit on this one. It's not technically a series although there is a companion book to this one, and she also wrote another one using one of the characters from The Grimm Legacy. But I'm going to include it anyway. Fairy tale lovers will love this one. It's set in a circulating material repository-a lending library of objects. Not all of these objects are what they seem as Elizabeth, the main character, soon discovers after she gets a part-time job there. A magic mirror, seven-league boots, and a flying carpet are just a few of the magical items hidden away at the library. In the midst of the amazement and excitement of discovering that magical artifacts really exist comes the terrible news that some of those very items are being stolen. It's up to Elizabeth and her new friends to figure out the mastermind behind the thefts. The Grimm Legacy is full of humor and high flying fantasy as Polly Shulman delves into the magical world of the Brothers Grimm. 

Just writing about them makes me want to read them again! But what about you? Have you read any of these? What is your favorite series? Drop me a line. I’d love to hear your thoughts!