Twelve Impossible Things Before Breakfast by Jane Yolen

           I love this book. It was a collection of twelve short fantasy stories. They were the perfect size to read one a day (or more).

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           I've read a lot of Jane Yolen's Commander Toad series when I was kid (my Dad read it to us with sound effects :). It was always one of our favorites. I saw the title first in the YA section of the library and seeing who the author was sealed it for me. I was going to read this book.

           It may be categorized better as MG than YA, but that really didn't bother me. I love the stories. It's well-written too; Yolen changes the style in which each story is told depending on who the narrator is. For instance Mama Gone is told from the perspective of a little girl from the backwoods. Sea Dragon of Fife has the flavor of a fisherman's tale. Wilding is narrated by a teenage who is always trying to use 'coolish' slang from her time.

           Some of the stories are set in worlds we already know like Tough Alice (Wonderland) and Lost Girls (Neverland).

           My favorite ones would have to Mama Gone, Phoenix Farm (that one almost made me cry), The Baby-Sitter (rather creepy), Bolundeers, and The Bridge's Complaint.

           It's a fun easy read. Nothing too complicated. I enjoyed it a lot.

           I also encourage you to read the Introduction. I don't always introductions, but this one is short. Yolen talks about Alice in Wonderland and how fantasy played a role in her life. I especially love what she has to say about writing fantasy.

And all the while you talk about the fantastic, you are actually writing about the real world and real emotions, the right-here and the right-now. - Jane Yolen