Plain Kate

The amount of love for this book in the book blogging community is huge. I keep seeing the name popping up and finally made the decision to cave and put it first and foremost in my pile of books - so I happily skipped off to the library and picked it up.

I shouldn't have waited - seriously, this is a book to own. I cannot wait for my niece to get a bit older because this will be one of those books I'll be anxiously waiting to put into her hand.

Filled with interesting lore, magic and a heroine who proves you don't have to be beautiful or fall in love to be interesting, Plain Kate had me spellbound from the first page. There's villains who still inspire sympathy, there are actions which cause conflicting emotions in the reader, and then show more there's Kate.

Kate (who insists on being called Plain Kate) is a big of a ragamuffin who is a very talented carver. Little bits of Russian lore are woven into the story and provide the setting and history to make this a book rich with information for the young reader. As I read it, I was reminded a bit of how Neil Gaiman's Odd and the Frost Giants affected me - it filled me with wonder, made me feel young again and left me with a touch of regret as I closed the book, having finished it.

Plain Kate is a perfect addition to the middle grade world of books and one I'll be recommending left and right. show less

"...hope will break the heart better than any sorrow..."

Plain Kate is the type of book I wish I could have read when I was younger. As much as I loved Kate and her world now, I think it would have absolutely worked its way into me when I was a kid. At the same time, though, there's so much to the story that I appreciate as an adult that maybe would have gone unnoticed as a child.

I love a good outsider story, and this one does it really well. Kate, of course, is an outsider, barely eking an existence out of her carvings, waiting for the day the world will turn on her. But she's not the only outsider in the story, by a long shot. Plain Kate is peopled with those who never quite fit in, or cannot fit in, who live on the edges and deal with show more their pain and Otherness alone. As a kid, I would have just seen that Plain Kate found some other outsiders to share her outsiderness with, but as an adult, I have to praise Bow for subtle injections of reality, even when reality isn't so pretty. I especially appreciated this when it came to Plain Kate's relationship with Linay.

Linay is the villain of the piece, sure. Or, I suppose Linay is a villain of the piece, because really, there are plenty of people not shown at their best, especially in the cities. But Linay is the central Big Bad -- he's got possession of Kate's shadow, and he intends to use it to do some very bad things. But this is where it gets interesting, and where I began to respect Bow as a storyteller. Where most people would leave it at that -- Linay = villain, 'nuff said -- Bow weaves together this relationship between Linay, who is hurting and alone, and Kate, who is hurting and alone. As much as they both know that each wants to undo the plots of the other, they worry about each other and care in this weird, sometimes sweet, almost unhealthy, occasionally heart-breaking, utterly human way*. There's so much gray area in the relationship to connect to and explore on your own, and I absolutely love that. It's one of the most interesting and subtly complex relationships I've read in a book for this age group in awhile.

But beyond impressing me in that regard, Plain Kate is a just-plain-fun read. I loved the characters -- Taggle, especially -- and the adventure. It's essentially a race against time, so there's that fantastic edge-of-your-seatness which makes it fun to read. There's also great world set up, and I liked exploring it with/through Kate. Bow took a culture (or, a couple of them, I guess) that are familiar enough to fall into, but distant enough to be intriguing, and she added her own spin. The only thing that knocked this back from near-perfect was the ending. Don't get me wrong, and don't let this hold you back from reading it, but I wasn't as happy with the end as I was with the rest of the book. And it's not necessarily what happens, either (though I was frowny-face at times); it's more that there was a sparkle and power to the rest of the book that I felt was a little lacking at the end. It was still good, but it -- hmm, there was a slight disconnect, if that makes sense.

But all in all, a definite fun, fast read with characters you'll remember. I would especially recommend this to teachers for their classrooms, as I think a lot of school kids could get a lot of enjoyment out of this.

*I'm sorry, that was a really long sentence. But I meant all of it. show less

After hearing that Plain Kate by Erin Bow had won the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award, I decided to pick it up. I had been hearing bits and pieces about this book for awhile, and I love supporting Canadian authors so that was enough of a push for me to head to my local library and pick up a copy.

I can certainly see why Bow's writing impressed the judges. Erin Bow tells the story of Plain Kate, the carver's daughter in a beautiful and melancholic tone. Plain Kate's mother died when she was born and is being raised by her father, who teaches her wood carving. When life in their little town begins going badly and Kate becomes an orphan she makes a deal with a mystical stranger that will greatly impact her life.

Without spoiling too show more much of the plot, I will say that there is a talking cat in this book. I know, I can hear you saying "How annoying!". I am the first person to dislike talking animals in books or movies, although if it happened in real life I'd probably be pretty thrilled. Erin Bow may have made a deal with a witch, or perhaps is just really talented, because the talking cat is not only not annoying but is truly impressive. He actually talks the way you might imagine a real cat to talk- aloof, slightly sarcastic and incredibly narcissistic. He was definitely my favourite character.

Now is the part where you think I'd say "I give it a 10/10 and recommend it to everyone!". Sadly, not so much. The book was wonderful, awesome, well written- up to page 287. That is the page where the entire book basically falls apart- the characters suddenly go against how they've been acting throughout the entire book, the plot is unbelievable ( and not just in a fantasy book sort of way) and it just dissolves. It's as if there was a sudden change to a deadline and it had to be quickly finished, or Bow suddenly got tired of writing the book, thought " Forget this" and hastily finished it.

Overall, I was really disappointed in this book. I feel like I invested my time in reading this book because I thought it was a great story, only to get the bait-and-switch and have a ill-written ending. It's like picking out expensive, high quality ingredients to make a cake, spending all that time shopping and baking and decorating it only to have the cake turn out absolutely tasteless. If you are someone who likes consistent quality throughout a book, or someone who feels disappointed if the ending is poorly done then I wouldn't recommend it. show less

This is not the cheeriest of stories, but I found it fascinating enough to keep reading. Kate has two strikes against her from the beginning: she's an orphan and people think she may be a witch. The story focuses on how Kate survives on her wits and her skills as a carver. She can't seem to catch a break. Just when she thinks she's found a family and a new way of life, events conspire against her once again.

In spite of her hard life, the one light in her tunnel is Taggle, a cat who can talk. He becomes her trusted companion on her journey and the one who turns out to be her truest friend. Taggle's focus on food and what he will eat next provides enough humor to get readers through the sadder events.

This story is well written and held my show more interest to the worthwhile and satisfying end. show less

This bittersweet fairy tale follows Plain Kate as she trades her shadow to a trickster witch for her heart's desire (which is to not be alone and, when granted, leads to her cat Taggle learning to talk), and subsequently realizes the dreadful plans she put in motion by doing so. The world is apparently based on Russian folklore, and so the story is much darker and more violent than the cover would lead you to believe, but it's a beautiful book, just beautiful, mournful and uplifting at the same time. Loved it. *Maybe longer review to come.*

Summary: Plain Kate may not be beautiful, but she was trained by her father to be a skilled carver. However, when her father dies, Plain Kate is left to fend for herself, and suddenly her carving skills become evidence that there is something different about her... and different is a dangerous thing to be when her small village is stricken with hunger and illness. Kate knows her carvings aren't real magic - not like the magic being done by Linay, the strange man who appeared in town on his boat, and has offered to trade Plain Kate's heart's desire in exchange for her shadow. But when the whispers of "witch" grow too loud, Plain Kate has to leave town in the company of a band of Roamers. All Plain Kate wants is somewhere to belong, where show more she doesn't have to feel alone, but she can't survive forever without her shadow, and getting it back from Linay is not going to be an easy proposition.

Review: This book was a wonderful surprise. It's mid-grade fantasy, which can be hit-or-miss for me, but in this case, it was a big hit. The setting is vaguely medieval, as is a lot of fantasy, but in this case, it's Russian-flavored medieval, which was an interesting change, and I liked the incorporation of eastern European folklore into the plot. The characters were great - Plain Kate's incredibly sympathetic, and Taggle is perhaps the best literary cat that I've come across in a long time (and I am not a cat person.)

But what I thought was best, and what surprised me most, was the level of depth and of maturity throughout the book. I called it mid-grade, and there's nothing in the style or the content that would make it inappropriate for that age. But at the same time, it's a story that doesn't pull its punches, that puts its characters in some difficult places and forces them to make horrible hard decisions. It's a story that is not about black and white, but lives in the grey area, with understandable motivations on everyone's parts, and with even the heroine making some questionable choices. The writing style is also surprisingly mature - again, not anything that couldn't be handled by a kid, but more lyrical and lovely and poignant than I was expecting.

It's a quick read, but it does take a fair amount of time before the book gets down to the business of the main plot. But I was drawn in by Bow's writing style and by her characters right from the get-go, and stayed totally absorbed until the last page. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Definitely recommended for fans of young adult or mid-grade fantasy. It's an original story, not one that I've seen done before, although it does incorporate some folkloric elements, and it's beautifully told with some real emotional depth. show less

I'm not sure how to classify this book. On the one hand, there's a talking cat. On the other, there are water vampires and women getting burned alive and lovable characters getting horrifically injured.

It's also rather frustrating how slow our heroine, Plain Kate, is on the uptake. It takes her ages to figure out some very obvious stuff, and even when she finds a simple and easy way to take out the villain, she doesn't. Which is both annoying for the reader and also rather foolish in the book, since her inaction leads to many deaths.

Ultimately, it's a disturbing but engrossing, and quick, read. But there's some rough edges that need to get sanded out. Also, I cannot get emotionally invested in a talking cat.