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MAY BIRD, WARRIOR PRINCESS by Jodi Lynn Anderson

MAY BIRD, WARRIOR PRINCESS

Book Three

by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Pub Date: Sept. 18th, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-689-86925-9
Publisher: Atheneum

Though definitely not a standalone, this decisive closer to a wonderfully droll and scary series takes young May Bird, now 13, back to the Ever After for a climactic confrontation with the nearly all-powerful Evil Bo Cleevil. Unfortunately, that climax—though entirely satisfying and worthy of the two preceding episodes—follows some two dozen water-treading chapters largely filled out by her wandering through old haunts and reconnecting with previously met characters. Dismayed to discover that Cleevil’s strip malls have taken over the Ever After and that he is poised, with his malign (if easily distractible) goblins and other Dark Spirits, to conquer Earth, May Bird gathers up her old allies for a seemingly hopeless assault on his massive fortress. Sending her newly adolescent protagonist up against an overwhelmingly powerful opponent that is revealed to be the embodiment of the elemental but infantile need to own or control everything, Anderson brings the root conflict’s metaphorical level to the surface without a trace of preachiness. She also offers several artful twists at the end that help, at least, to compensate for the fact that her story line needed some padding to fill up three volumes. It’s still mostly masterful. (Fantasy. 11-13)