num_pages: 178
description: Stories from the world of The Hero and the Crown and other magical places by a New York Timesbestselling Newbery Medal winner.Robin McKinley returns to the mythical setting of The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword in this thrilling satisfying and thought-provoking collection featuring two stories set in the world of Damar plus three other fantasy tales featuring adventurous pragmatic and heroic young women (Publishers Weekly). Theres mute Lily in The Healer who has the power to help others and receives a startling opportunity to find her voice when a mysterious mage stumbles into town. And Queen Ruen who is at the mercy of a power-hungry uncle until she encounters a shape-changer in The Stagman. In Touks House a maiden who has grown up with a witch and a troll has a chance to become a princess but she must decide whether she would really live happily ever after. When a curse follows Coral to her new husbands farm in Buttercups the pair has a choice: Succumb to defeat or find a way to turn a disastrous enchantment into a fruitful new venture. Finally travel to upstate New York with Annabelle. In the title story her family moves shortly after her sixteenth birthday and just as she starts to adjust to her new life in a small town a plan to build a superhighway threatens her new home. But a strange box hidden in a secret attic in the new house may be the answer. This is a delightful assortment of tales from an author with a remarkable talent for melding the real and the magical into a single believable whole (Booklist).
language: English
title: A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories
publisher: Open Road Media Teen & Tween