Napoli, D. (1998). Zel. United States; Puffin.
4 out of 5 stars
Age range 12-16
McNaughton, J.E., (2005). An Earthly Knight. Canada; HarperCollins.
5 out of 5 stars
Age range 12- 18
I read two books for this section. I love fairy tales in any form but especially when they are given a new twist. First I read Zel by Donna Napoli and then An Earthly Knight by Janet Elizabeth McNaughton. I loved both of these books.
Zel is the familiar tale of Rapunzel. She is kept away from people almost all of the time but is very happy with her life with her mother until she meets a boy in a market place. She never realizes the impact this innocent encounter has on the boy but her mother is terrified Zel will leave her and get married. Her mother hides her in a tower and makes her hair grow impossibly fast. What I really liked about this story was that the author actually mentioned how uncomfortable and awful it was to have so much hair. The boy never gives up looking for her and well, you know the rest of the story. Zel was a great story because I don’t remember Rapunzel ever having very much detail, maybe because I was young when I heard it last, so this book made the characters more interesting and human. It shows the mothes perspective on the situation which is skewed but interesting and somehow gives this bizarre situation a little more life.
An Earthly Knight, the story of Tam Lin, was my favorite though. It was a little more developed both as a story and with 
regards to the characters. The relationship between the family members Isabel , the father and Jenny is one of the things which really stood out for me with this book. Jenny is afraid for her sister and tries to get her to speak about what happened when ran away from home. The worry for a sister is something a reader can relate to and yet the situation is very much one of the times in which the story is set. Jenny is torn between her family and love. She doesn’t want to end up like Isabel, who is ignored by their father and is likely to be sent to the Church. However she also can’t ignore her feelings for Tam Lin. I just love a story that ends well all around. The sister ends up happy, the family is not disgraced, Jenny saves Tam Lin from Hell (imagine having that to use in future arguments) and the arrogant royal whom Jenny was betrothed to gets his come uppance. I can vaguely remember hearing this story before somewhere so it was fun to read a fuller version of it. It was also a bit more spooky and mysterious where Zel was creepy (I find psycho mothers scarier than evil fairys) so I liked that a bit better as well.
Kate
