The Stone Fey

Maddy has lost her sheep and even her dog Aerlich doesn't know where to find him. "It would soon be too dark to see anything, but a succulent young lamb would not survive the night in the wild rocky scree beyond the farm; if a foltza didn't get him, a yerig would. Damn." Okay, so Newbery Medal winner Robin McKinley's magical story The Stone Fey is no Little Bo Peep tale, and Maddy, the conflicted, passionate shepherdess, is no Bo Peep. One wild night in the Hills of Damar, a stone fey--a magical creature of the wilds--greets Maddy with her lost lamb in his muscular arms--his skin was gray, with "a rose-quartz flush across his cheekbones." After that fateful night, she can't get him out of her head, despite her commitments to longtime sweetheart Damon, who is due to return from a year away. With all the mist and mystery of a Mary Stewart novel, The Stone Fey is sure to thrill young readers with wildness in their hearts. John Clapp's lovely watercolors perfectly capture the mood of this haunting, innocent exploration of the nature of romantic love. (Click to see a sample spread. Illustration from The Stone Fey by Robin McKinley, illustration © 1998 by John Clapp, reproduced by permission of Harcourt Brace & Company.) (Ages 10 and older) --Karin Snelson