Tanglewreck, Jeanette Winterson. Winterson's first children's novel retains the beautifully lucid prose that characterized her adult works, while literalizing her notion of time and love. It's a lovely endeavor, though perhaps a bit too simplistic for its thoughts. The villians weren't nearly as villianous as some of the truly scary children's books of late, and her heroine seems just a bit too naive for a modern child. But the idea itself is lovely and would easily spin into a series - it reminded me at times of Susan Cooper, C.S. Lewis, and those moments in Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy where he isn't desperately preaching against the church at the expense of his characters.

Read September 2006