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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Aug 2005, 288 pages
Paperback:
Mar 2007, 288 pages
Book Reviewed by:
BookBrowse Review Team
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Seamlessly meshing fact and fantasy, the author composes a suspenseful masterpiece that will have audience members gladly suspending their disbelief. Ages 10-up.
Coriander Hobie, born in 1643, has a remarkable tale to
tell -- the tale of a childhood touched by unexplained bits of wonder, but too
soon marked by tragedy. After her beloved mother dies and her father is forced
to flee London, Coriander is left at the mercy of a stepmother full of cruelty. In the very
nick of time, Coriander finds that she has somehow managed to transport
herself to a land of fairies, and there she discovers what she has always
suspected: that her mother was from a more magical world than grimy old London. And that she herself has
inherited some of her mother's mysterious abilities - abilities that she now has a desperate need to master.
Be prepared to be swept away by atmospheric writing that
casts a lasting spell. Sally Gardner's prose is exquisitely beautiful and her
story and characters enthralling. She has written a rare and glorious book.
A Tale to Tell
It is night, and our old house by the river is finally quiet. The baby has
stopped its crying and been soothed back to sleep. Only the gentle lapping of
the River Thames can be heard outside my window. London is wrapped in a deep
sleep, waiting for the watchman to call in the new day.
I have lit the first of seven candles to write my story by. On the table
next to me is the silk purse that holds my mother's pearls and beside it is
the ebony box whose treasure I am only now beginning to understand. Next to
that, shining nearly as bright as the moon, stands a pair of silver shoes.
I have a great many things to tell, of how I came by the silver shoes and
more. And this being my story and a fairy tale besides, I will start once upon
a time . . . .
My name is Coriander Hobie. I am the only child of Thomas and Eleanor Hobie,
being born in this house in the year of Our Lord 1643. It is just a stone's
throw from London Bridge, ...
December 2005 was a very special month for Sally Gardner - the month I, Corinder, her first book for older children, won the Nestle Children's Book Prize in the 9-11 years category. Not bad for a woman who was written off as "unteachable" and sent to a school for maladjusted children because she was so profoundly dyslexic...continued
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(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
Sally Gardner is an inspiration to all those children struggling with dyslexia. She is so severely dyslexic that it wasn't until she was 14 that she was able to read her first book. She says she can't explain how she finally learned to read but 'at 14 something clicked and I could read. I read the whole of Wuthering Heights. Every time before I tried to read there would be the awful finger-following-every-word, speaking each one out loud. But you're not reading, you're on that awful tram track and you haven't gone into the story.' She was labeled unteachable and sent to a school for maladjusted children. Despite this, she gained a degree with highest honors at a leading London art college, followed by a scholarship to a ...
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