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 Into the Wild (RazorBill Press) by Sarah Beth Durst Reading Level: Ages 9-12 Into the Wild is an entertaining romp into fractured fairy tales, and it isn't all glass slippers and happily ever after. For every handsome prince and magical ball, there's a really wicked witch who boils hapless puppies in oil and hacks off people's feet. Yes, Virginia, the Wild is real, and it's just as wild as it is enchanting in Sara Beth Durst's book. It's clever, imaginative, and fast-paced, and certainly not the last we'll hear of Ms. Durst, who clearly loves her genre. Poor twelve-year-old Julie Marchen (marchen is the German word for fairy tale) lives in an ordinary New England town and is an ordinary girl, with something extraordinary under her bed that eats sneakers and anything else it can grab in its leafy vines. It's the Wild, captured and kept there by her mother Zel and her grandmother Gothel. Zel runs a beauty shop and has friends named Cindy (who loves glittery clothes) and Goldie (who has riotous curls and a dislike for bears). They're trying hard to be ordinary, too, but Zel (Rapunzel) and her friends are refugees from the Wild, and all its stories. As long as the Wild stays under the bed and doesn't grow, they'll be safe and not have to be in those stories, repeating the same lives over and over again. However, one night when Gothel leaves the magic wishing well unguarded, someone makes a wish that the Wild will come again, and so it does. The Wild escapes and quickly grows over the town, plunging not just the fairy tale characters, but everyone, back into the world of fairy tales. Only Julie, who's never been in a tale before, can save them all. Julie's a plucky, determined heroine and her quest to recapture the Wild is a funny, creative, and thoroughly enjoyable tale itself. Ms. Durst knows her fairy tales well, and part of the fun here is identifying all the characters and stories that appear, trying to remember exactly who does what to whom and hoping Julie will make the right choices and not end up in a story herself. Once characters are caught up in a story, and it comes to a conclusion, then their fate is sealed, you see, and Julie must avoid that at all costs. Julie and her brother Boots (yes, he's a talking cat, but when your mother's Rapunzel, adopted brothers like Boots are the norm) have harrowing experiences spiced with sly references both to the real world and just what those old fairy tales really were trying to tell us. The life of a princess who finally meets her prince can be intolerably boring and maybe not what Snow White, Julie, or today's young woman had in mind. Into the Wild is just irresistible fun.— Kay Morris
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