Presenting Author: Shannon Hale

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

Name of the author: Shannon Hale
Main genre: Young Adult, Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Fiction
Main audience: Young Adult on
presenting writing still: yes
main books: Princess Adademy, Book of a Thousand Days, Books of Bayern (series), and more
Short summary of the author: Shannon Hale has a pronounced ability to take a story, well-known or not, turn it on its ear and/or sideways and make a complete new story out of it. She writes in a lyrical fashion which somehow swoops the reader into her story, into her world, and makes it completely real and lucid.
If you are not into 'fairy tales', if you are not into retellings of old folk tales, don't read the Young Adult books. However, if you like books with a richness and depth to them, a depth which is quite remarkable, you won't care if the story seems familiar because it is brand new and wonderful.

Goodreads write-up:

Shannon Hale is the New York Times best-selling author of six young adult novels: the Newbery Honor book Princess Academy, multiple award winner Book of a Thousand Days, and the highly acclaimed Books of Bayern series. She has written three books for adults, including the upcoming Midnight in Austenland (Jan. 2012), companion book to Austenland. She co-wrote the hit graphic novel Rapunzel's Revenge and its sequel Calamity Jack with husband Dean Hale. They live near Salt Lake City, Utah with their four small children, and their pet, a small, plastic pig.

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

Title of the book: Book of a Thousand Days
Author: Shannon Hale
Series: no
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fairy Tale, Romance, Adventure
Short summary of the story: Dashti is a mucker (a person of the steppes of the Eight Realms) who comes to the city in search of work after her mother dies. Taught to read and write, and having an ability to do almost any kind of chore, she finds work as a maid for the Lady Saren. Then Lady Saren is imprisoned ... and Dashti, her maid, is imprisoned with her. Dashti starts a diary (Book of a Thousand Days) and keeps track of the events of those days.
Points to be aware of: It's not long enough. What happens next? I want to know the rest of the story! Dashti is a person who is greatly admirable. She changes her stance and viewpoint of who and what she is from when she first came to the city to someone who no longer buys into the common paradigm. This allows her to shed old beliefs and become more truly a person of her own choices -- without losing her inherent qualities of goodness and strength. These very changes of beingness, combined with her innate qualities, are what help to save her Lady Saren ... and the realm in which she lives.

Goodreads write-up

When Dashti, a maid, and Lady Saren, her mistress, are shut in a tower for seven years because of Saren's refusal to marry a man she despises, the two prepare for a very long and dark imprisonment.

As food runs low and the days go from broiling hot to freezing cold, it is all Dashti can do to keep them fed and comfortable. With the arrival outside the tower of Saren's two suitors--one welcome, the other decidedly less so--the girls are confronted with both hope and great danger, and Dashti must make the desperate choices of a girl whose life is worth more than she knows.

With Shannon Hale's lyrical language, this little-known classic fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm is reimagined and reset on the central Asian steppes; it is a completely unique retelling filled with adventure and romance, drama and disguise.