Module 5: Valiant, by Holly Black

Summary: Furious and hurt by a stinging betrayal, Val runs away from her suburban home to live on the streets of New York City. There she meets Luis, Dave and Lollie, three street kids with strange connections and access to magical drugs. Determined to learn the purpose of the clandestine errands that Dave and Luis run for mysterious clients, Val soon finds herself embroiled in a sort of magical street war, and indentured to an ogre.

Reference: Black, H. (2005). Valiant: a modern tale of faerie. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Impressions: This one's a little soapy, but I enjoyed it. I like the way Black takes familiar themes, like homelessness, drug use, and youthful disillusionment, and mixes them with the fantastical and otherworldly. I also like that Val, while she's tough and resourceful, is struggling with things like peer pressure and abandonment, so that, though the story is a fantasy, the heroine is recognizable; her problems are accessible and familiar for many teenaged readers.

Review: The author of Tithe (S & S, 2002) returns to her dark, dangerous, and amazing world of Faerie. When 17-year-old Valerie catches her boyfriend and her mother fooling around, she runs away to New York City. There she falls in with a small group of teens who live in the subway tunnels. But there is something more to their stories than that of normal street kids. When Valerie begins to notice odd things about the deliveries they make, and when she meets Ravus, a troll, she understands that there is an entire world that she has never known existed-the world of Faerie. Valerie and her friends begin to steal from Ravus's deliveries, using the Never that he provides to the faeries as a drug. But those who receive the deliveries are being found dead. Is Ravus the poisoner or could it be another of the fantastic creatures they have met? This dark fantasy includes drug use and strong language, but beneath its darkness readers find well-rendered characters, a gripping plot, and pure magic.

Saecker, T., Jones, T. E., Toth, L., Charnizon, M., Grabarek, D., & Raben, D. (2005). Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie. School Library Journal, 51(6), 148.

Suggested Use: Many high school and college-level English and Literature classes focus on folk and fairy tales, which are not static, but change and evolve as they are handed down through generations. I think a librarian and instructor could collaborate to compose a reading list of traditional and modern fairy tales, which would include this book. Students could compare and contrast the different kinds of fantasy story, and look for common themes and elements throughout.