LITERATURE + LECTURES

Tuesday, May 17, at 5:00 p.m. Blue Willow Bookshop presents Gail Carson Levine.  Gail Carson Levine will discuss and sign her novel for children, A Tale of Two Castles. Newbery Honor author of Ella Enchanted Gail Carson Levine weaves a spellbinding tale about a clever heroine, a dragon detective, and a shape-shifting ogre.

Newly arrived in the town of Two Castles, Elodie unexpectedly becomes the assistant to a brilliant dragon named Meenore, and together they solve mysteries. Their most important case concerns the town’s shape-shifting ogre, Count Jonty Um: Someone is plotting against him. Elodie must disguise herself to discover the source of the threat amid a cast of characters that includes a greedy king, a giddy princess, and a handsome cat trainer.

Readers who loved Ella Enchanted and Fairest will delight in this tale of a spirited heroine who finds friendship where she least expects it and discovers that goodness and evil come in all shapes and sizes.

About the Author: Gail Carson Levine is convinced she’s been touched by a fairy’s wand or has roamed accidentally into a fairy tale. After working as a mid-level bureaucrat in New York State government for twenty-seven years, Gail’s first children’s book, Ella Enchanted, won a Newbery honor in 1998 and became a major motion picture in 2004.

Gail grew up in New York City. Today, she and her husband David Levine and their Airedale Baxter live in a 220-year-old farmhouse in New York's Hudson Valley. Over the fireplace in the living room hangs a gargoyle-like carved wooden lion’s head from an early Barnum & Bailey circus wagon. The lion may be the keeper of the enchantment. Visit her at www.gailcarsonlevine.com.