Bruce Coville

The illustrations grow on you. Because he's a Scot, Macbeth appears as a sort of Celtic knight, in mediaeval mail, but wearing a lot of tartan and carrying a shield with Celtic decoration. Banquo is distinguished from Macbeth by his mustache. When the tyrant Macbeth rules, Scotland is foggy and snowy. Once he is overthrown, the black-faced sheep graze happily in a partly sunny pasture. The story is narrated well, with some well-chosen quotations thrown in, and the foreword demonstrates that the author, Bruce Coville, knows his subject.… (mer)

Cara Diana Hunter and her grandmother, Ivy Morris, are being pursued. Cara follows her grandmother's instructions to escape: on the twelfth bell of the church clock, she calls on the power of her grandmother's amulet and is transported to Luster, the land of the unicorns, where she is to give the message that "the Wanderer is weary." In Luster, Cara is attacked by a delver, but rescued by a unicorn called Lightfoot and a man-bear creature called the Dimblethum. She meets others as well, and learns that her grandmother visited Luster many years ago - but now, both Ivy and Luster itself are in danger from hunters descended from a woman called Beloved.

Creative worldbuilding and mythology underpin this adventure story with a strong girl at its center.

See also: Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

Quotes

"I like fixing things," [Thomas the Tinker] said as he worked. "The world is always breaking, here and there, this way and that. Fix a bit of it, and I feel like I'm helping." (90)… (mer)