The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two

Valente herself does a fine job of providing the audio narration for the third installment in her series (after The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There), in which September, now 14 years old, returns for her third visit to Fairyland with a slight change of perspective. She's growing up, able to drive a Model A Ford, and beginning to ponder her increasing responsibilities and emerging adolescent emotions. The book gets off to an unfortunately slow start, but once the blue wind finally escorts September back to Fairyland, the adventures that follow are delightfully whimsical and unpredictable. She meets an array of astonishing characters, such as the librarian Abracedaria, two acrobats named Valentine and Pentameter, and Almanack, the Whelk of the Moon, who lives only to protect the people who make their home within her. Once reunited with her friends Saturday and the Wyverary A through L, September must find a way to defeat a terrifying Yeti named Ciderskin who wishes to destroy all other inhabitants of Fairyland's moon. Valente scatters wry observations and pearls of wisdom about life, choices, fate, and growing up throughout the narrative, with playful wordplay reminiscent of The Phantom Tollbooth.