This first novel's cover, picturing a sumptuously dressed girl who holds viewers in a steady gaze, resembles that of Karen Cushman's Catherine, Called Birdy (1994) and Gail Carson Levine's lla Enchanted (1997). But Coriander's story is more intricate than either of these, challenging readers with casual interpolations of fantasy into Commonwealth-era English history. When Coriander's Royalist father flees political enemies, she is left with an odious stepmother and a wrathful Puritan minister. After a particularly harsh punishment, Coriander awakens in another world, where she discovers that her real mother was a fairy princess and that her human guardians serve a destructive fairy queen. Coriander must be the first to locate a hidden object of power and use it to restore fairyland to health (and, as implied, prompt the Restoration back home).

Grade 6-8–Known for her picture and chapter books, I, Coriander (Dial, 2005) is Sally Gardner's first venture into YA fiction. Written in the first person, Coriander Hobie describes both the ordinary and extraordinary events that occur in her life in 17th-century London. The unexplained appearance of a beautiful pair of silver shoes that fit Coriander perfectly set into motion an inexorable chain of events. Traveling via her silver shoes between the puritanical time of Oliver Cromwell and her mother's mystical fairy kingdom, Coriander's voice is strong and true. The juxtaposition of Puritan and fairy, fear and fantasy, make this detailed tale come to life. A strong sense of setting pervades the novel; London Bridge and the Thames River are lovingly described, as is the Summer Palace of the fairy king. Truly a book meant to be read aloud, British stage actress Juliet Stevenson does the story justice with her wonderful sense of timing and cadence, easily differentiating between the characters with different inflections and tones. An interview with the author rounds out this audiobook that's sure to be a hit with fantasy as well as historical fiction lovers.–Charli Osborne, Oxford Public Library, MI Copyright ? Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

PART ONE

1 A Tale to Tell

2 The Stuffed Alligator

3 The Silver Shoes

4 Raven's Wings

5 The Heat Within

6 The Pearl Necklace

PART TWO

7 The Shadow

8 What Will Be

9 The Power of Bindweed

10 Bad News

11 Farewells

12 The Hand of Wrath

PART THREE

13 Medlar

14 The Blue Light

15 The Fox Prince

16 Embroidered Eyes

17 The Lost Land

PART FOUR

18 The Terrible Scream

19 Stitches in Time

20 Hester

21 The Strange Lady

22 Green Fire

PART FIVE

23 Confessions

24 The Storm

25 A New Suit of Clothes

26 Toothmarks

27 The Invisible Rope

PART SIX

28 The Night of the Fox

29 The Light of Shadows

30 Bittersweet

PART SEVEN

31 Homecoming

32 The Sweetest Little Fingers

33 To the King his Own

34 The Perfect Wife

35 A Fool and his Periwig

Some Historical Background