“Come, come, madam,” the ragged man croaked merrily. “Follow me.” Dragging one leg, he peered over his threadbare shoulder at the impeccably dressed woman and smiled a broad, gap-toothed grin. His face was grimy and unshaven, his nose swollen and red. What hair was visible sticking out from under his frayed cap was greasy and graying.

“Almost there,” he chirped and was about to speak again. He was interrupted by a deep, phlegmy cough, spewing flecks of spittle into the air around him that reflected in the dim light of the gas-lit lamppost along the deserted street. The young woman behind him recoiled. She paused and leaned heavily on her cane to ease the dull ache in her hips. Disgusted by this pitiful figure, she dreaded following any further. She pressed a scented handkerchief to her nose to avoid breathing the contaminated air.

The shabby man was bent and walked with a lurching gait. The woman stared at the large lump between his shoulders. She had noticed it before and had irrationally hoped it would go away. It hadn’t. Abruptly, he turned to face her. His eyes were lit with a sudden brightness.

“It’s real,” he exclaimed, his voice hoarse with emotion. “It’s as real as I’m standing before you. I swear it. You have to believe me.”

“I … I do,” the woman stuttered. “I believe you.”

“I wasn’t like this …over there.”

The Yonder

2022 Grand Prize Finalist

2022 Honorable Mention in Young Adult Fiction

Eric Hoffer Book Award

and

2022 Bronze Medal Winner

Moonbeam Book Award for Young Adult Fantasy

On the surface, The Yonder is a fantasy story with a commonly employed theme of the characters leaving the familiar surroundings of their shared world, to enter into an alternate reality, in this case, called the Yonder. I invite the reader to enjoy the adventure as it unfolds with its various plot twists. However, for the discerning reader, there is another layer of enjoyment. The Yonder is a fairy tale, enfolded in a fairy tale, holding hands with multiple other fairy tales. In the course of their wanderings in the Yonder, Constance and Magpie have many curious encounters. These meetings are with characters out of other fairy tales, although they are never blatantly named. That would spoil all the fun for the reader, who is on a sort of scavenger hunt. Many of these stories are very well known and easily recognizable; in fact, you would have to be rather dense to have missed them. Others, coming from lesser known fairy tales, are more difficult to identify. I offer the reader here a list of these fairy tales, all but one from the Brother’s Grimm. You can venture into the Yonder with this list in hand, or, you can journey through this other worldly land with Constance and Magpie, and only afterwards refer to the list to see how many you recognized along the way. Either way, I hope you have fun in your journey, and that you safely find your way home again from the Yonder.

Here they are. Remember, if you want the challenge of finding them for yourself, do not look at the list until after you have read the book!

Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Cap (Little Red Riding Hood), Godfather Death, Little Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty), Rumpelstiltskin, the Queen Bee, Brother Lustig, The Seven Swabians, The Three Brothers, Three Little Men in the Woods, the rooster from Mother Holle, and of course, Bearskin. There is one fairy tale included that does not originate from Grimm’s fairy tales. It is a story from Hans Christian Andersen: The Princess and the Pea. Of course, you found that one. How could you not!

Did I miss any? Let me know. You can write to me at: thestartrilogy@aol.com