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Gregory Maguire Message Board 1/1/2012
Talk about the novels, new and used books that Maguire has written!

Author Maguire's Book Reviews

A Couple of April Fools
April Fools Day is near, and the girl's club, The Tattletales, decide to play a big joke on the boy's club, the Copycats. The new Empress of the Tattletales, Lois Kennedy, persuades big and mean transfer student, Thud Tweed, to dress up in a gorilla suit and pretend to be the Missing Link to fool the boys. But something goes very wrong when the kids' beloved teacher, Miss Earth (possibly engaged to marry Timothy Grass, the mayor), disappears in the sw...
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
This retelling of the Cinderella story sets the fairy tale in seventeenth century Holland. There are no fairy godmothers, or magic, and the story is told from the point of view of one of the stepsisters. Iris lives with her mother and her sister. When the mother gets a job as a maid in a wealthy home she takes her daughters and moves in. Iris is suddenly surrounded by wealth and ambition. Her mothers ambition extends so far as to become the lady of the h...
Five Alien Elves
The Tattletales and Copycats are back, a month after the events of the Six Haunted Hairdos -- and Santa Claus has been kidnapped by aliens! Actually, Hamlet, Vermont mayor Timothy Grass, who's kind of sweet on the kids' teacher, Miss Germaine Earth, dressed up as Santa for the school party and disappeared on Christmas Eve. Nobody knows what happened to him; the boys think it was Bigfoot, the girls wonder whether he got snatched into another time to be a ...
Four Stupid Cupids
Two months after the events of Five Alien Elves, it's nearly Valentine's Day in Hamlet, Vermont. The Tattletales want to arrange a boyfriend for their teacher, Miss Earth, and find themselves with some terrifically unforeseen assistance when a sealed amphora mailed to Fawn Petros from her aunt in Greece breaks open to reveal four young cupids (who had been imprisoned by a witch just after shooting Alexander the Great with their arrows). Unfortunately, th...

Maguire booklist

Lost
American novelist Winnifred Rudge travels to London to stay with a step cousin and do research for her new novel. She arrives to find that the cousin has disappeared, his apartment is being renovated, and the renovations are being hampered by what seems to be a ghost. Winnifred tries to find out what happened to her cousin and what is causing the strange events in the apartment, while at the same time trying to work on her new novel. When her cousin ...
Mirror, Mirror
Bianca is being raised by her father. She is known for her extreme beauty. Lucrezia finds a way to send Bianca father away for a long time. She vows to watch over Bianca. As soon as her Dad is gone she arranges for Bianca's death. The man sent to do this did not have the heart to do it and Bianca got away. She is found and taken care of by little men who keep her sheltered. As years go by she misses home, what little she remembers of it. Lucrezia finds ...
Seven Spiders Spinning
Seven baby "Siberian snow spiders" -- highly poisonous tarantulas which have been frozen since the last Ice Age -- are discovered and transported to Harvard for study, but the truck crashes and its precious cargo escapes near the quiet Vermont town of Hamlet. The spiders imprint on seven girls who attend Josiah Fawcett Elementary School and call themselves the Tattletales Club, at first adoring the girls, then turning to vengeful hate. The Tattletales ar...
Six Haunted Hairdos
Only a month after the events related in Seven Spiders Spinning, the girls club known as the Tattletales plan a big practical joke on the boys club, the Copycats. The boys believe in ghosts; the girls don't. Tattletale empress Thekla Mustard plants a story about the violent death of six hairdressers who were vacationing in tiny Hamlet, Vermont, and her clubmates scheme to haunt and terrify the boys. But Sammy Grubb and the Copycats run into some real gho...
Three Rotten Eggs
Another month or so has passed since the events in Four Stupid Cupids. Once again the Tattletales and Copycats are competing, this time to collect the most eggs in the Easter Egg Hunt to raise money for a new fire engine for the town of Hamlet, Vermont. Also, a new kid has come to town: a big and somewhat mean lunk from the city named Thaddeus Nero Tweed (he calls himself "Thud"), who perpetually lies and sows dissension between the other kids. In additi...
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
The previously untold "true" past of the Wicked Witch of the West, describing her early life and how she became known as "Wicked." Elphaba, born green and loathed by nearly everyone, has to discover who she is and where she fits in the land of Oz. The book begins with Elphaba's birth, describing her family and childhood. Then, Elphaba attends Shiz University at seventeen to begin her education. She is forced to room with Galinda, a beautiful, talented, ...