My friend, Dianne, brought Valente to my attention for her critical essay, "Follow the Yellow-Brick Road: Katabasis and the Female Hero in Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and The Nutcracker," which she presented at a Feminism in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Convention in 2005. In the essay, she analyzed the way fairy tale heroines work to contain females. Their arc is small, from birth to marriage, or death.
To remedy the lack of fairy tales for women, Valente has written two volumes of them: In the Night Garden and In the Cities of Coin and Spice. Together, they are The Orphan's Tales, and have won awards as "The Arabian Nights for our time."
The stories Valente weaves are compelling and vibrant. The orphaned girl of the title is discovered by a prince, to whom she tells the stories tattoed on her eyelids that form her own secret history. Each story seems more fantastic and wonderful than the one that came before, and accompanying illustrations, by artist Michael Kaluta, are just as fascinating. And, no, you don't have to be female to appreciate them.
Perhaps we should have entrusted Valente with our fairy tale canon from the very beginning!
Valente, Catherynne M. In the Night Garden. New York: Bantam Dell, 2006. 483 pp.
Valente, Catherynne M. In the Cities of Coin and Spice. New York: Bantam Dell, 2007. 516 pp.
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