CBR18 Book 5: "Kraft & Mod (Courage)" by Trine J. Cederlöf

Page count: 163 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo 26: A Middle Grade Book

Defeat the Goblin TBR: The Shiny book (added in December 2024)

Reading Rainbow - Green cover

Disclaimer! The author is a friend of mine, but my opinions are my own, and I bought the book with my own money (because friends make sure friends get royalties). 

As part of the peace agreement between the Green Shores and the Blue Mountains, Prince Mirounga (called Miro), nephew and heir to the king of the Green Shores, is sent into fosterage to the Blue Mountains. He is still grieving his father, an admiral who died in the war between the countries, but understands that spending a year working as a squire at the court will foster new diplomatic ties between the countries, as well as teach him important skills he will need when he becomes king in the future. 

The Red Sands was another country defeated by the Blue Mountains in the war, and it has also sent a young man to train with the royal guard. Tarek is the younger brother of the sultan, and he's clearly not intending to befriend any of the other recruits. He mostly keeps to the stables, more comfortable around the horses than people his own age. 

The two young men are pretty much exact opposites. Miro is almost as tall, wide and strong as an adult, but painfully shy, while Tarek is slender, agile and very flexible. During the second part of their training, the recruits are all supposed to be stationed in the snowy borderlands near the Black Mountains. There are multiple complications, which mean that all the recruits, even Miro and Tarek, need to learn to work together, or lives could be lost. 

In 2014, my friend Trine wrote a book, Crippled, retelling an old Danish fairy tale. Now she has written a sequel, set in the same fantasy universe, but focused on different characters. The boys who grew up over the course of Crippled are now the King and the General of The Blue Mountains, having fought and won a difficult war. King Vincent has a wife, a daughter and another child on the way. After the war, it is time for diplomacy, and the countries that lost both have to send a young man to apprentice in the Royal Guard for a year. 

This book doesn't retell any particular folk tale, but is a coming-of-age tale for the very different young men and how they find the friendship, belonging and well, the courage, to be who they were always meant to be. The story is in parts funny, adventurous, thrilling and moving. At more than one point in the story, especially towards the end of the book, I teared up and sniffled a little, because the writing hit me straight in my feels. I liked the first book, but I liked this one even better, probably because of the emotional beats. I just wish the stories were longer. 

Because I am lucky enough to have insider knowledge, I know for a fact that my friend is working on the third book in series, set in The Red Sands, involving the eldest princess of The Blue Mountains (who, it is hinted at having some unusual abilities) and the only princess of The Red Sands. So after two books where boys are the protagonists, we get to see the story of some young ladies, who build a friendship while solving mysteries together. I'm very excited. 

Judging a book by its cover: The first book in the series involved princes from the Blue Mountains, and the book cover was a lovely sky blue. One of the protagonists from this book is from the Green Coasts, and as a result, the cover is green. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR16 Book 46: "Kong Krøbling" (Crippled) by Trine J. Cederløf

Page count: 145 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo: Disability rep

Disclaimer! The author is a friend of mine, but I paid for my own copy of the book and my opinions are my own. (Hope she'll still be speaking to me after she reads this).

In the fairy tale kingdom of The Blue Mountains, the king and queen try for many years, but the queen fails to have any living children. She encounters a witch who calls herself the Queen of Bees, who offers her a solution to her difficulties. Giving her a seed, which she must water with her tears, a plant will grow, with two flowers - one will give her a boy, the other a girl. The king and queen are desperate, so the queen eats both, and nine months later, two boys are born. The first is small and misshapen, with eyes in two different colours. The second baby is perfectly formed. The staff are worried when the firstborn, the heir, is born with physical disabilities, but the royal couple are equally delighted with both their boys. They name the eldest Vincent and his twin Niklas.

The twins grow up being treated exactly the same, and are pretty much inseperable. Vincent has to use a wheelchair, but excels in the lessons their tutor assigns them. His brother, who is handsome and healthy, struggles with understanding all the reading they are assigned. He manages to teach Vincent to swim and ride, because these are abilities important for a prince to know. Vincent helps Niklas realise that he's by no means stupid, he just has reading difficulties, so Vincent sums up their lessons to him with visual aids and helps him do his written homework. It takes their parents and tutor years to figure out their scheming, but once they do, the conclusion is that Niklas has dyslexia, and their parents realise the princes are probably old enough to go to school with other children, which means the boys start to make friends. Vincent is the more introverted and bookish one, Niklas is extroverted and excels at anything physical. Once they get older, Vincent goes to university, while Niklas joins the royal guard.

Then their mother announces that they are old enough to get married. Both princes need wives and heirs, and so they need to visit with princesses from nearby kingdoms to see whether they suit. While Vincent is well-loved and popular in his own kingdom, his visible disablilities create difficulties once the queen starts matchmaking. It turns out his perfect match is closer to home than he realised. 

This story is a retelling of a very well-known Danish fairytale called King Lindworm. Growing up, I loved mythology and folklore, and have read fairy stories from a lot of different countries. The story seemed vaguely familiar to me, but having read a summary of the original, this is not really a story that's very popular in Norway or Sweden. It also means that this book introduced me to a new (and kind of weird) fairytale, as well as a very entertaining middle grade book.

While this is aimed at a younger audience, as all the best books for children, it doesn't underestimate them or talk down to them. A number of serious issues are touched upon, such as infertility (this led to a very interesting discussion during our book club chat about this book), physical disabilities and dyslexia. At no point are the boys bullied or mistreated in their own kingdom by teachers or peers. The twins have a really close relationship, and while it's mentioned that they fight a lot as children, they always present a united front against others. Without Niklas, Vincent would not have challenged himself physically, and would have been much more limited by his disabilites. Without Vincent, Niklas would have convinced himself he was stupid and useless, and good only for grunt work. There are also several examples of openly queer characters, so while this is set in a sort of vagely 18th Century time period, there is no discrimination or prejudice (in The Blue Mountains, at least). 

While I try to challenge myself to read in Swedish a couple of times a year, so I don't forget how to, this is the first time in a very long time I had to read a whole book in Danish. To non-Scandinavians, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish would not appear to be very different from one another, and the most commonly used form of written Norwegian is directly derived from Danish. A lot of the language is therefore not that challenging, but every so often, there will be a word or expression in Danish that means something entirely different in Norwegian, and it took me out of the story for a moment. Thankfully, the book has a fun and engaging plot which moves at a nice pace, and once I actually set down and concentrated, it didn't take me long to finish the book.

To me, the opening difficulty with infertility obviously affected me greatly. Among the topics we discussed about this book is how many stories in myth and folklore involve parents who struggle to concieve or have living children, and how common infertility difficulties are, yet very rarely talked about. My little boy is the result of several long gruelling years of IVF treatment, and I feel very lucky to never have suffered a miscarriage during my many years of trying. If medical science wasn't advanced enough, would I have made a deal with a mysterious old woman in the hopes of having a baby? I suspect I would. 

Because this is the first book in a planned series, the author already has several other books in development, all focusing on different kingdoms in this fictional world. We get a glimpse of some of the neighbouring kingdoms, and one of our major complaints when discussing the book with the author was the lack of a map. The book should absolutely have included a map at the beginning (so Trine sat down and drew one for us during the meeting). Having heard her talk about her ideas for future books, and some of her influences for the various kingdoms and peoples, I cannot wait to get my hands on more of her stories.

So why only four stars? I wanted more! This story was great, but I wanted more time with these engaging characters, and I would especially have liked to know more about the Queen of Bees. 

Judging a book by its cover: I really love the simplicity of this cover, with the wheelchair which plays such an important part of the plot (and Vincent's life) front and centre. The various shades of blue are also lovely, no doubt picked because the book takes place in the fictional country of The Blue Mountains. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.