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October 16, 2010

Igraine the Brave

Oh, so that's  how you pronounce it.  I was always saying "Funke" like it had a silent "e" but the wonderfully-named Xanthe Elbrick pronounced it Funk-e.  Not like "funky," but more like "funk-uh."

So now I know.  One of the perks of listening to the occasional audio book.  Don't worry, we have plenty of copies in the library so I flipped through and have looked at the illustrations as well.

This is a much more fun book that those Ink-whatever books.  Sorry, I'm not a huge fan of those.  I wanted to like them, I really did.  But, well, I just didn't.

This one is a perfect little version of "The Knight's Tale" for the 4th-6th grade female crowd.  Of course, we're reading it for our district's Reader's Rally challenge so a certain number of 4th and 5th grade boys are going to have to read it.  So it'll be interesting to see what they make of it.

It moves quickly and has plenty of gags so I think it'll go over well.  Igraine is hardly girly.  Her parents are both magicians and her brother is training for that position as well, but Igraine would rather follow in her grandfather's footsteps and become a noble knight.  Her wish comes true when a magical accident sidelines her parents and she must go on a quest for a magical ingredient (giant hair, of course) while her brother must try to protect their castle from invaders in the meantime.

Plenty of fun with the Ren Faire tropes and ex deus machina moments.  This one will be a breezy hit.

I'm not in love with the cover, but it's way better than the paperback, ugh.

Igraine the Brave by Cornelia Funke