Fantasy Children Jane Yolen Collection

A Plague of Unicorns

Young James, the duke's son, asks too many questions. At least that's what everyone at Callendar Castle thinks after all but the last of James’ tutors quits and his uncle ships him off to be educated at Cranford Abbey. Unfortunately, the once-beautiful abbey has problems of its own, including cracked walls, a leaking roof, and shattered windows. Not to mention the pesky herd of unicorns that continue to enter the abby's orchards and claim them as their own.

The only hope to save the abbey is money raised by Abbot Aelian's golden apple cider. But that means getting rid of the orchard's unwelcome visitors. And, as everyone knows, unicorns have very sharp horns. Monks do not.

James has an idea that could help defeat these hungry beasts, but first he must find someone to listen to him. For once, he might be the only one asking the right questions. And the only one who knows the perfect hero for the job.

 

Briar Rose

Ever since she was a child, Rebecca has been enchanted by her grandmother Gemma's stories about Briar Rose. But a promise Rebecca makes to her dying grandmother will lead her on a remarkable journey to uncover the truth of Gemma's astonishing claim: I am Briar Rose. A journey that will lead her to unspeakable brutality and horror. But also to redemption and hope.

 

Cards of Grief

The year is 2132 when members of the Anthropologist’s Guild set down on the planet Henderson’s IV, or L’Lal’lor as it is known to the native population. Charged with the nonintrusive study of alien cultures, the crew discovers a society containing no love or laughter. It is, instead, centered around death—a world of aristocratic and common folk in which grieving is an art and the cornerstone of life. But the alien civilization stands on the brink of astonishing change, heralded by the discovery of Linni, the Gray Wanderer, a young woman from the countryside whose arrival has been foretold for centuries. And for Anthropologist First Class Aaron Spenser, L’Lal’lor is a place of destructive temptations, seducing him with its mysterious, sad beauty, and leading him into an unthinkable criminal act.

 

Curse of the Thirteenth Fey: The True Tale of Sleeping Beauty

A reimagining of Sleeping Beauty from a master storyteller.

Gorse is the thirteenth and youngest in a family of fairies tied to the evil king's land and made to do his bidding. Because of an oath made to the king's great-great-ever-so-many-times-great-grandfather, if they try to leave or disobey the royals, they will burst into a thousand stars.

When accident-prone Gorse falls ill just as the family is bid to bless the new princess, a fairytale starts to unfold. Sick as she is, Gorse races to the castle with the last piece of magic the family has left--a piece of the Thread of Life. But that is when accident, mayhem, and magic combine to drive Gorse's story into the unthinkable, threatening the baby, the kingdom, and all.

 

Favorite Folktales from Around the World

Here between two covers you will find an inexhaustible source of delight for children and adults alike: the world's best folktales, chosen by the internationally known storyteller Jane Yolen. Over 150 tales are compiled from Iceland to Syria, Cuba to Papua.

 

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale

Fantasy legend Jane Yolen (The Emerald Circus, The Devil’s Arithmetic) delights with these effortlessly wide-ranging transformed fairy tales. Yolen fractures the classics to reveal their crystalline secrets, holding them to the light and presenting them entirely transformed, from a spinner of straw as a money-changer and to the big bad wolf retiring to a nursing home. Rediscover the fables you once knew, rewritten and refined for the world we now live in.

 

Mapping the Bones

The year is 1942, and Chaim and Gittel, Polish twins, are forced from their beautiful home and made to live in the Lodz Ghetto. Their family's cramped quarters are awful, but when even those dire circumstances become too dangerous, their parents decide to make for the nearby Lagiewniki Forest, where partisan fighters are trying to shepherd Jews to freedom in Russia. The partisans take Chaim and Gittel, with promises that their parents will catch up -- but soon, everything goes wrong. Their small band of fighters is caught and killed. Chaim, Gittel, and their two friends are left alive, only to be sent off to Sobanek concentration camp.

Chaim is quiet, a poet, and the twins often communicate through wordless exchanges of shared looks and their own invented sign language. But when they reach Sobanek, with its squalid conditions, rampant disease, and a building with a belching chimney that everyone is scared to so much as look at, the bond between Chaim and Gittel, once a source of strength, becomes a burden. For there is a doctor there looking to experiment on twins, and what he has in store for them is a horror they dare not imagine.

 

Nebula Awards Showcase 2018

The latest volume of the prestigious anthology series, published annually across six decades!

The Nebula Awards Showcase volumes have been published annually since 1966, reprinting the winning and nominated stories of the Nebula Awards, voted on by the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). The editor, selected by SFWA's anthology Committee (chaired by Mike Resnick), is Jane Yolen, an author of children's books, fantasy, and science fiction. This year's Nebula Award winners are Charlie Jane Anders, Seanan McGuire, William Ledbetter, Amal El-Mohtar, and Eric Heisserer, with David D. Levine winning the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Book.

 

Once Upon a Time: New Fairy Tales

Eighteen extraordinary authors devise all-new fairy tales: imaginative reinterpretations of the familiar, evocative new myths, speculations beyond the traditional realm of "once upon a time." Often dark, occasionally humorous, always enthralling, these stories find a certain Puss in a near-future New York, an empress bargaining with a dragon, a princess turned into a raven, a king's dancing daughters with powerful secrets, great heroism, terrible villainy, sparks of mischief, and a great deal more. Brilliant dreams and dazzling nightmares with meaning for today and tomorrow...

 

Queen's Own Fool

Called La Jardiniere, a resourceful and clever jester to the queen's court, Nicola was a most unlikely person to end up "fool" and friend to Mary, Queen of Scots. But Nicola isn't an ordinary comedian clowning before the court; her sharp tongue is rare amongst the fawning nobles. As fate takes Mary from France to Scotland, and into confrontations with rebellious lords and devious advisors, Nicola remains deep in the queen's inner circle. But when the Scots start to turn on Queen Mary, Nicola struggles to find something-anything-that she, just a fool, can do to save her friend.

 

Sister Light, Sister Dark

Then Great Alta plaited the left side of her hair, the golden side, and let in fall into the sinkhole of the night. And there she drew up the queen of shadows and set her upon the earth. Next she plaited the right side of her hair, the dark side, and with it caught the queen of light. And she set her next to the black queen.
"And you two shall be sisters. You shall be as images in a glass, the one reflecting the other..."

Raised on a mountainside, Jenna learned the arts of the warrior, and from the mountain women the magic of the ancient lore. The greatest magic was calling her dark sister from the depths of the mirror of the land of light and shadow. Skada, the dark one, existed only when the moonlight cast a shadow or lamplight flickered in a darkened room.

 

Wizard's Hall

Poor Henry. It’s not enough that his mother has sent him away from home to learn magic. It’s not enough that everyone at his new school calls him Thornmallow because he’s “prickly on the outside, squishy within.” It’s not enough that the only talent he shows at Wizard’s Hall is an ability to make messes of even the simplest spells. Now, when Wizard’s Hall is threatened by a cruel sorcerer’s fearsome beast, it is up to Henry--er, Thornmallow--to figure out how to save not only his new friends but also the entire school for wizards.

 

Tales of Wonder

This is Jane Yolen’s seventieth book and the first compiled expressly for adults. For years her award-winning stories have been published in children’s collections, although many of these volumes have appeared on lists of “best” books for adult reading. She has chosen for inclusion in Tales of Wonder those stories that epitomize her talent for writing magical tales of universal appeal. And she has written several stories especially for this volume as well.

 

The Emerald Circus

Enter the Emerald Circus and be astonished by the transformations of your favorite tales. Ringmaster and internationally bestselling author Jane Yolen (Briar Rose, Sister Emily’s Lightship) spins modern fantasy classics in tales that go well beyond Wonderland and Oz, down the rabbit hole and back again.

Where is Wendy? Leading a labor strike against the Lost Boys, of course!

 

The Girl Who Cried Flowers and Other Tales

Five original stories with the flavor of classic folk literature focus on the themes of love, truth, fear, and kindness.

 

The Hostage Prince

Lowly midwife apprentice orange-hair Snail, one eye blue, one green, and snobby hostage Seelie Prince Aspen are on the run from Unseelie and Seelie rulers calling down death. Is old drow Jack Daw a friend or foe? Will three questions from Sticksman be the promised favor Aspen cannot keep? Monsters pursue through Unseelie Castle, Unseelie Lands, Shifting Lands.

 

The Last Changeling

In The Hostage Prince, Prince Aspen and midwife’s apprentice Snail tried to prevent the Seelie War by making a perilous journey to Aspen’s father’s kingdom. Their journey started the war instead. Chased by two armies, Aspen and Snail find refuge with the actors of Professor Odds’ traveling troupe, dodging soldiers, Border Lord berserkers, a hungry troll, and assorted dwarfs, drows, lycants, boggles, and a cloaked spy. Will they make it out? Is any place safe for the two of them? And who, exactly, is the mysterious Professor Odds, who seems to have his own hidden powers and agenda? Fast-paced and funny,The Last Changeling, the second book of the Seelie Wars trilogy, is the perfect way to introduce newly fledged readers to fantasy.

 

The One-Armed Queen

In a land of magic, the great warrior Queen known as White Jenna has found a frail, one-armed child on the battlefield. She adopts the child and names her Scillia. As is custom with the Hames of the Dales, Scillia will be next in line for the throne. A great honor.
But Jem—Jenna's natural-born son—covets the throne for himself. Will he risk open rebellion to claim what he believes is rightfully his?
Can Scillia stop him?

 

The Rogues

When everyone in his Scottish village is violently evicted from their land by the laird, Roddy Macallan knows he must find a way to fight back. As his family escapes, making their way through the Scottish Highlands bound for Glasgow, Roddy sneaks home in search of a treasure his mother once told him was hidden there. But the search becomes more than that when Roddy teams up with a Robin Hood-like rogue who roams the Highlands just ahead of the unscrupulous laird.

 

White Jenna

Jenna was the White Queen.

Skada was the Dark Queen. She is bound to Jenna—the other half of Jenna’s self. Drawn out of a mirror by a rite of magic, a “dark sister” is confined to the dark. She vanishes in daylight. It is in this other world the dark sisters wait for moonlight or lamplight to call them forth again.