Wildwood Dancing

Juliet Marillier
(2007)

If you do judge a book by its cover...this one would live up to it.  The cover shows us so much of what you will find inside.  If you look closely you can see the frog, Gogu resting on Jena's shoulder.
Inside the front cover lies a simple blurb: 

Five adventurous sisters...

Four dark creatures...

Three magical gifts...

Two forbidden lovers...

One enchanted frog...

Cross the threshold into the

Wildwood, and enter a land of magic, daring, betrayal...

and true love.

I already love fairy tales and this is tale is brilliantly written and inspired by The Twelve Dancing Princess, but mixed into the pot is a baba yaga /witch of the forest, an enchanted frog and a little bit of Sleeping Beauty thrown in. 

Let me share two quotes:

I suppose the secret was not completely ours; Gogu knew.  But even if frogs could talk, Gogu would never have told.  Ever since I'd found him long ago, crouched all by himself in the forest, dazed and hurt, I had known I could trust him more than anyone else in the world.        ( p. 1)

and

It made no difference that we had done this over and over.  The sense of thrilling strangeness had never gone away.  Every Full Moon, our bodies tingled with the magic of it.  The lamp shone on the blank wall.  One by one, we stretched out our hands, and the lantern light threw the silhouettes onto the stones.  One by One, we spoke our names in a breathless whisper:

"Tatiana."

"Jenica."

"Iulia."

"Paula."

"Stela."                                                                                                                     ( p. 9)

Can't you just hear the whisper of their voices as they cross over into the Wildwood for a night of dancing among the creatures of the forest.  Find this book at your local library and fall in love with the adventurous tale of Jena, her sisters and her friendly frog.  I now want to read Juliet Marillier's follow-up book, Cybele's Secret.  If I trust the cover-it looks just about as good as the first!

***2010 Reading from my Local Library Project***

5/5 peaceful stars

Highly recommended for middle grade/YA/adult readers