With fairy tale retellings trending in books and television, debut author Marissa Burt's Storybound, with its metafictional humor, makes a terrific addition to the genre.
Twelve-year-old orphan Una Fairchild finds a book in the basement of her school library called The Tale of Una Fairchild. Soon, she finds herself pulled from the land of Readers into the land of Story, where she meets young Lord Peter, a Hero-in-training she was previously reading about. In Story, kids train to be characters in fairy tales in either Heroics or Villainy with specialized lessons, whether they're slaying dragons as Heroes-in-training or, like Lady-in-training Snow, practicing to be the next Snow White (since the real one "finished her Tale ages ago"). But Una is a dangerous exception to the rule--she was Written In, which hasn't happened since before the Unbinding, when Story's greatest enemies, the Muses, Wrote people in at whim.
Una's youthful curiosity is delightful. She proves to be an admirable role model who refuses to be a damsel in distress (unlike Lady Snow). Una is intent on solving the mystery of who Wrote her into the land of Story while avoiding the terrible fate of other Written Ins. Readers seeking action will enjoy accompanying Una through Perrault School, where children attend simulated examinations with scenarios tailored to their Tale craft.
Fans of series such as Inkheart by Cornelia Funke and The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann will find in Storybound a new world awaiting their discovery, and look forward to the planned sequel. --Adam Silvera, assistant coordinator, Books of Wonder, New York