I got this from the library in an effort to read every Robin McKinley book. It's a short story, beautifully illustrated with paintings, about a girl who meets and has an affair with a fey while her fiancé is away for a year. In an effort to distance herself from the fey, she tells her lover when he returns that she needs to leave her valley, and he says he would be happy to leave and that the farming would be better elsewhere. She doesn't tell him. I'm not sure what to make of this story.

Maddy loves the hills where she roams with her sheep and loyal dog, Aerlich. Being out alone becomes an addiction, however, when she falls in love with a stone fey, "the shyest of all the feys." With subtle touches, McKinley fleshes out even minor characters in Maddy's large family. Despite the uneven color illustrations (some beautiful, some oddly gratuitous, such as a house pictured against the night sky), this love story is best for older readers (fifth grade and up).

Always a fan of Ms. McKinley, I knew going in that this story would be a bit dark. I didn't realize it was a picture book. I figured it was a short story. It's a beautifully illustrated story which is probably not recommended for young children. Definitely not children who are Disney lovers and expect rainbows and sunshines.

To read the rest of my review, click on the image below to see it on my website.

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Strange and sad. McKinley often writes stories about women loving men that they can't have, whether it's mortality or species that gets in the way, and this is one such. Her others are all hopeful--Aerin might yet find Luthe, when her tenure as Queen is up, and Ruen finds her stagman when her duty is done. But Maddy is different from these women, and she makes her choice, and while it's the *right* one, it's still painful to witness.

McKinley is best as a novelist. Her short stories always feel like they are waiting for the rest of the book.

meh...

I WAS SO CONFUSED THE WHOLE TIME!

Strange story for a picture book.

I loved this evocative and beautifully written tale from Robin McKinley, one of my favorite writers. Maddy is a shepherd in the hill country of Damar, where everyday life occasionally brushes against the magical. She is strangely drawn to a stone fey she meets, a type of fey so-called for its gray skin, despite her love for the farmer she plans to marry next year. McKinley weaves the magic and the mundane into a whole cloth of romance, shot through with brilliant strands of landscape and longing.

A little weird, but I think I liked it.

The dog is the best character.

It's hard to have a strong opinion on this because to me there was . . . nothing . . . there? Maddy has some characterization but it's so one-sided and holey that she was hard for me to connect and empathize with. The entirety of her relationship with this fey is written so bloody vaguely if you didn't read between the lines you would think they just took a few walks, he talked about plants, and she sat next to him mostly feeling awkward. He barely gets any actual page-time in the book. This leaves you bewildered as to why her family is worried, and why she is so incredibly distraught when she stops seeing him.

And it ends, so quickly, as she is back with her fiancé who we have barely met.

Big flashing disclaimer, I have zero knowledge of McKinley's world of Damar and I might be able to appreciate this little short story if I did.

A few of the illustrations (most notably, the night scenes at the beginning) are lovely and I applaud the use of illustrations in YA+ fiction.

I don't know what to think of this one.
Illustrated novella, but to what purpose?