Wicked Nix

Written by Lena Coakley

Illustrated by Jaime Zollars

HarperCollins Canada

978-1-443454698

163 pp.

Ages 8-12

October 2018

Wicked Nix is the foulest of fairies who lives in the forest in a nest in the old oak tree, ever since the Good Queen and all the other fairies left last Midsummer's Eve for the Summer Country.  Wicked Nix has learned to survive through some help from Mr. Green, a forest entity (or a figment of Nix's imagination?) and a little girl-people, Rose the Wise, who is not repulsed by Nix's looks. The gifts the villagers leave out, like a bit of cheese or honeycomb, to appease the fairies also help.

But now a man-people has shown up at the cottage in the forest and Wicked Nix is not happy.

I can smell him, or at least I think I can. Like all peoples, he smells like soap and taking baths and eating with a fork. Horrible. (pg. 3)

Anticipating the return of the Good Queen and knowing the presence of the man-people will displease her, Wicked Nix looks for ways to frighten the man-people away. But, unlike the other fairies, Nix has no magic and the man-people figures out the tricks used to drive him away and uses his own, including salt, iron and daisies, to keep the fairies at bay. Will Wicked Nix be successful in getting rid of the intruder or will the intruder succeed in making a home of the abandoned cottage in the fairy wood?

Lena Coakley has always spun a great YA fantasy tale (Witchlanders, 2011; Worlds of Ink and Shadow, 2016) but, with Wicked Nix, she's proven that she can write really great middle grade fiction. While Wicked Nix does not contain the angst we anticipate in YA fiction–because life becomes more complicated as you get older, doesn't it?–it delves into the worries of young readers: freedom to choose, belonging, and being loved. Wicked Nix may well be a tale of fantasy with its fairies and magic but at its roots it's a story of abandonment, home and finding connectedness, sometimes where least expected. It's also about perspective, both Nix's and the reader's, and seeing beyond the established and being open to the unexpected. And Lena Coakley has such a gentle touch with the voice of Nix and Rose and others that it's easy to empathize with their plights.

I'm sure she did not forget me, though. I'm sure she loves me. She once pulled a star down from the sky for me–that's how I know. She must have left me here to protect the forest. She must have left me here because she trusts me more than all of the others. (pg. 32)

While I encourage all readers to take the path through Wicked Nix's woods (follow Jaime Zollars's map at the beginning of the book), be sure stick to the road meant for people. Otherwise, there may be some nasty surprises in store for you and you wouldn't want to be taken by the fairies, since Nix probably won't be able to help you out.

Books without Boundaries: YA fantasy authors talk crossover appeal

On  

Saturday, June 16, 2018

2:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

at

Bakka Phoenix Books
84 Harbord Street
Toronto, ON

outstanding authors of young adult fantasy

Erin Bow

James Bow

Lena Coakley

V. S. McGrath 

L. E. Sterling 

will participate in a panel discussion about the crossover appeal of young adult novels

 In addition to meeting a quintet of authors of YA speculative fiction
and hearing them discuss their books,
there will be an opportunity to purchase books
and get them signed!

Worlds of Ink and Shadow: Book launch (Toronto)

Join fantasy author

Lena Coakley

author of 

Witchlanders

Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster

978-1-4424-2005-2

400 pp.

Ages 12+

2011

Reviewed here

for the  launch of her newest book

Worlds of Ink and Shadow

HarperCollins Canada

978-1443416597

352 pp.

Ages 12+

January 2016

on

Saturday, January 23, 2016 

2:00-4:00 pm

at

Ben McNally Books

366 Bay St.

Toronto, Ontario

In addition to a short reading, 
there will be tea and scones

(as appropriate for a book about the Brontes).

For a little teaser, check out Lena Coakley's promotional video for the book

Uploaded by Lena Coakley on July 27, 2015 to YouTube.

Or read the blurb for Worlds of Ink and Shadow from HarperCollins Canada's website:

Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne. The Brontë siblings have always been inseparable. After all, nothing can bond four siblings quite like life in an isolated parsonage out on the moors. Their vivid imaginations lend them escape from their strict upbringing, actually transporting them into their created worlds: the glittering Verdopolis and the romantic and melancholy Gondal. But at what price? As Branwell begins to descend into madness and the sisters feel their real lives slipping away, they must weigh the cost of their powerful imaginations, even as their characters-the brooding Rogue and dashing Duke of Zamorna-refuse to let them go. 

Gorgeously written and based on the Brontës’ own juvenilia, Worlds of Ink & Shadow brings to life one of history’s most celebrated literary families in a thrilling, suspenseful fantasy.

Witchlanders

by Lena Coakley

Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster

978-1-4424-2005-2

400 pp.

Ages 12+

2011

The border between the Witchlands, the home of the Witchlanders, and the Bitterlands, the home of the Baen, seems inconsequential compared to the hostility between the two peoples.  While the fair-haired people who honour the Goddess and the twin prophets Aata and Aayse pay tithes to the witches of the coven, the Baens (reviled as "blackhairs") honour Ka and revere the black magicians, all male.  And now, regardless of the treaty between the Witchlanders and the Baen, a war is brewing.

In the Witchlands, Mabis, mother of Ryder and his younger sisters Skyla and Pima, is known for throwing the bones and using maiden's woe to assist her with visions.  Though she speaks of an assassin coming from across the border (but tells the coven that a monster would come out of the ground and swallow whole farms), Mabis cannot summon the witches to action.   In fact, when human-like monsters made of dirt destroy their farm, and the witches blame Mabis, Ryder is determined to cross the border and find the Baen who has started the troubles. 

Meanwhile, in the Bitterlands, another young man, Falpian, has been sent away by his father instead of preparing for battle with the other men.  Though he is told to continue his mourning for his twin brother Farien and prepare himself for a mission detailed in a scroll, Falpian suspects it has more to do with Father's disappointment in his inability to work magic with song.  Surprisingly, Falpian locates an ancient stone from which he is able to sing, ostensibly harmonizing with his echo, and make magic.

When Falpian discovers an unconscious Ryder, the two young men attempt to resolve the discrepancy between what they each know of the other's people and their affinity to each other.  This discrepancy continues to spur Falpian and Ryder through assassination attempts, deceptions, attacks by the dirt monsters, capture, rescue and confusion, learning that all is not what it seems or has been portrayed.

Lena Coakley has created a phantasmagorical world of people rife with prejudices and bitterness borne of history and manipulation.  Although magic is created with harmonizing song, their land growing hicca and maiden's woe, and their societies based on unique features, the characters are sadly familiar to our own.  And, even though Falpian finally relents that "There are no sides" (pg. 377), the nature of the conflict in Witchlanders unravels and regenerates both in familiar and unexpected ways.  Though Lena Coakley has not confirmed a sequel to Witchlanders, its final scene serves to achieve a gratifying conclusion while setting up the premise upon which a promising sequel can build.

A great book trailer for Witchlanders uploaded by Lena Coakley to YouTube on July 12, 2011 can be seen on CanLit for LittleCanadians Book Trailers here.

Crystal Kite Awards: 2012 Winners announced around the globe

The Crystal Kite Awards are given by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) each year to recognize great books from 15 regional SCBWI divisions around the world. THE SCBWI Crystal Kite Awards are chosen by other children’s book writers and illustrators, making them the only peer-awarded recognition in children's publishing world-wide.

 

This year's winner in the Americas category 

is 

Witchlanders

by Lena Coakley

Witchlanders

by Lena Coakley

Atheneum Books for Young Readers

978-1442420045

416 pp.

Ages 12+

2011

Another award-winning book I want to read! Ah, so many books, so little time.