Kate Crackernuts
Jun. 26th, 2012 08:41 amI've loved Katherine Briggs since I was in third grade or so, and found a copy of An Encyclopedia of Fairies on my classroom's bookshelf. Fast-forward about thirteen years, and I bought my own copy to use for an independent study in anthropology. She's written a lot of other books and if you're at all interested in Great Britain's folklore/fairy tales/creatures that go bump in the night, she's your woman.
But I never knew she wrote children's books!!! How did I not know this? I was at the library when I saw a book titled Kate Crackernuts with an author of K.M. Briggs and after a few moments of "No way, it can't be the same person" I snatched it up in my hot little hand.
Kate Crackernuts is a retelling of the fairy tale by the same name, set mostly in Scotland during the English Civil war. Katherine Lindsay is the daughter of the local laird and Kate Maxwell is the daughter of a woman living in genteel poverty. This being a fairy tale, the laird and Grizel Maxwell (Kate's mother) end up married. Grizel immediately decides to shame/harm Katharine, because she and her daughter had turned up at a party in old-fashioned dresses. (Yes, really.) She ends up putting an enchantment on Katherine that makes her believe she has a sheep's head. No, I'm not making that up. Yes, it's in the original fairy tale. Katherine and Kate immediately run off to seek safety, and to try to find a way to break the enchantment.
This book passes the Bechdel Test without breaking a sweat. Katherine and Kate are best friends and Kate is made of pure awesome. She takes care of her sister, manages to outwit her mother (even though she loves Grizel as well), get the two girls down to England on their own while searching for help, and works at breaking curses left and right. Kate is my hero.
The book does have a lot of Scottish dialect/slang in it; it's very good for accuracy and setting but can be a bit confusing if you're not familiar with it. But most of it has enough context that you can figure the meaning out. All the references to current history and politics were more troublesome, and I ended up ignoring a lot of it because I couldn't keep things straight. Yet even if you aren't familiar with Katherine Briggs, you'd be able to tell that she knows her stuff: some of the main elements in the story are witches and fairies as they would have been perceived in 17th century Scotland and England.
( spoilers for very end of book )
I can't believe I've enjoyed Katherine Briggs for so long without knowing she wrote fiction as well. She wrote a second children's book called Hobbardy Dick that I haven't read yet. Both books are probably out of print but there's a good chance for finding them in libraries.
Just checked Amazon: they're setting Kate Crackernuts in paperback, so it might still be in print after all!
But I never knew she wrote children's books!!! How did I not know this? I was at the library when I saw a book titled Kate Crackernuts with an author of K.M. Briggs and after a few moments of "No way, it can't be the same person" I snatched it up in my hot little hand.
Kate Crackernuts is a retelling of the fairy tale by the same name, set mostly in Scotland during the English Civil war. Katherine Lindsay is the daughter of the local laird and Kate Maxwell is the daughter of a woman living in genteel poverty. This being a fairy tale, the laird and Grizel Maxwell (Kate's mother) end up married. Grizel immediately decides to shame/harm Katharine, because she and her daughter had turned up at a party in old-fashioned dresses. (Yes, really.) She ends up putting an enchantment on Katherine that makes her believe she has a sheep's head. No, I'm not making that up. Yes, it's in the original fairy tale. Katherine and Kate immediately run off to seek safety, and to try to find a way to break the enchantment.
This book passes the Bechdel Test without breaking a sweat. Katherine and Kate are best friends and Kate is made of pure awesome. She takes care of her sister, manages to outwit her mother (even though she loves Grizel as well), get the two girls down to England on their own while searching for help, and works at breaking curses left and right. Kate is my hero.
The book does have a lot of Scottish dialect/slang in it; it's very good for accuracy and setting but can be a bit confusing if you're not familiar with it. But most of it has enough context that you can figure the meaning out. All the references to current history and politics were more troublesome, and I ended up ignoring a lot of it because I couldn't keep things straight. Yet even if you aren't familiar with Katherine Briggs, you'd be able to tell that she knows her stuff: some of the main elements in the story are witches and fairies as they would have been perceived in 17th century Scotland and England.
( spoilers for very end of book )
I can't believe I've enjoyed Katherine Briggs for so long without knowing she wrote fiction as well. She wrote a second children's book called Hobbardy Dick that I haven't read yet. Both books are probably out of print but there's a good chance for finding them in libraries.
Just checked Amazon: they're setting Kate Crackernuts in paperback, so it might still be in print after all!