Book Descriptions
for Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier
From The United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY)
High on a forested mountain in Transylvania, practical sixteen-year-old Jenica and her four sisters live with their merchant father in the mouldering castle of Piscul Dracului. For nine years on each full moon, Jenica and her sisters have stolen away through a portal they discovered in their bedcham ber to dance through the night in the Other Kingdom, a place of magical creatures and faerie folk. But when Jenica’s older sister falls in love on a moonlit night with a silent man who may be one of the Night People, a drinker of blood, the sisters’ idyll is threatened. Steeped in folktales of danc ing princesses and enchanted frogs, the story nonetheless evokes a solid sense of place through the author’s attention to Romanian foods, traditions, and even a pronunciation guide for names and terms. A sequel, Cybele’s Secret (2008), follows the fourth sister. 2008 USBBY Outstanding International Books List, 2006 Winner of the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel, 2009 Winner of the Beehive Book Award (Utah), 2007 Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Books of the Year, 2007 YALSA Best Book for Young Adults. nlr
Originally published by Pan Macmillan Australia, in 2006.
From the Publisher
But their peace is shattered when Father falls ill and must go to the southern parts to recover, for that is when cousin Cezar arrives. Though he's there to help the girls survive the brutal winter, Jena suspects he has darker motives in store. Meanwhile, Jena's sister has fallen in love with a dangerous creature of the Other Kingdom--an impossible union it's up to Jena to stop.
When Cezar's grip of power begins to tighten, at stake is everything Jena loves: her home, her family, and the Other Kingdom she has come to cherish. To save her world, Jena will be tested in ways she can't imagine--tests of trust, strength, and true love.