Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Ash

Ash
Malinda Lo.
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009
264pp.,pbk.,$9.99
ISBN 978-0340988374
Grades 8-12

Highly Recommended

Ash is an entrancing, lyrical and beautifully written fantasy. The author, Malinda Lo, explains that Ash is a retelling of the Cinderella story in a fantasy world that in some ways is a familiar one, but in one critical way is not. Ash is a lesbian retelling of Cinderella in which the heroine falls in love with a beautiful huntress instead of the prince. 




Lo masterfully portrays alternative lifestyles in such a manner that it does not take away from the captivating plot. The story does not revolve around her being a lesbian, and in fact it wasn't until quite late into the book  that I paused to consider that perhaps Ash had feelings for the huntress. What I found to be fascinating about this story was that Lo created a fantasy world in which homosexuality was completely normal. Lo explains that this allowed her to write Ash as a fairytale story, not as a coming out story.

Reviews and Awards for Ash

 The Prequel

The Huntress, the companion novel to Ash.


Ash and Huntress are extremely powerful books that I would highly recommend adding to your YA collection as they give our LGBT students a voice. If you are interested in including more LGBT titles to your collection I have found that The American Library Association has one of the most comprehensive, reputable, and up to date Rainbow Books Bibliographies that I have come across.







1 comment:

  1. Kia ora Tamzen,

    Nice to see you are giving representation to LGBT students. I'm actually a New Zealand author presently living in Paris (whose Eiffel Tower was a lovely shade of rainbow recently). I've written a YA/MG/FY (Forever Young) comedy/adventure -it's called Cousin Felicity and the Eels of Misty Point and is on Amazon. If you are interested in reviewing my book, I'd be very tres heureux! Find me on Facebook if you like Aroha nui Kaal Kaczmarek

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