From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8 - Rage Winnoway's mother is in a coma and Rage has not seen her since her near-fatal car accident. The girl doesn't have many friends except for her four dogs, so when she decides to disobey the neighbors who are watching her and travel to the hospital, she takes her canine companions with her. On the way, she finds a strange gate in the forest. A mysterious voice promises the magic necessary to help Mam awaken if Rage will step through the entrance and deliver an object to a wizard. Thinking it all an elaborate hoax, Rage does so, only to find that she is in a magical land where her dogs, and a goat that has tagged along, are transformed into humanlike creatures that are now capable of reasoning and speaking. Together, they undertake a quest that will save this world from destruction and give Rage the ability to help her mother. Readers will find numerous parallels and references to classic children's fantasy like The Wizard of Oz and "The Lord of the Rings," but this book is far from derivative. Carmody manages to take familiar elements and turn them into something magical and unique. Rage is a strong heroine surrounded by a vivid land and a host of well-drawn characters. This is a good, solid choice. - Tasha Saecker, Caestecker Public Library, Green Lake, WI
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From Booklist

Gr. 5-8. "A girl, four dogs, and a goat walk through an enchanted gateway" may sound like the beginning of a joke, but in the case of Carmody's latest fantasy, the first book in the Gateway Trilogy, it's simply descriptive. Rage, a girl of perhaps 12, is forbidden by thoughtless guardians to visit her comatose mother in the hospital. She disobeys, but en route she and five animal companions stumble through a portal to another world. The gate's magic changes the beasts into talking, thinking almost-humans, who help Rage to complete a deal brokered by an elusive messenger: restore magic to the withering world of Valley and receive healing for Mother in return. The plot may be conventional, but Carmody's writing is satisfyingly brocaded (light in a forest is "like cables of radiance anchored to the ground"), and her elaborate world building will impress genre fans. But it's the real-world issues informing Rage's choices, and the varying degrees to which the animals embrace or reject their human natures, that seam their journey with rich psychological relevance. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Six of the world's most exciting and best-loved writers have chosen six fairytales as inspiration for their own stories in this second volume of Tales from the Tower.

In this companion to The Wilful Eye, six much-loved writers - Catherine Bateson, Victor Kelleher, Cate Kennedy, Maureen McCarthy, Nan McNab and Kate Thompson - give fresh voice to age-old stories of abandonment, desire and entrapment.

Praise for Volume One:

'The writers in The Wilful Eye imbue all of their characters, including the villains, with a deep sense of psychological realism, producing often tender, engaging, and insightful results. Unnamed soldiers and hideous beasts are given a voice, even if that voice is at times unsettling, and wolves are still wolves, however they disguise themselves.' Australian Book Review

'sublime, with each tale landing a punch squarely between the old and the new, bewitching and terrifying.' Australian Bookseller & Publisher

Six of the world's most exciting and best-loved writers have chosen fairytales as inspiration for this spellbinding and subversive short-story collection.

Six writers - Margo Lanagan, Rosie Borella, Isobelle Carmody, Richard Harland, Margaret Mahy and Martine Murray - have taken inspiration from stories that have shaped us all, tales like 'Beauty and the Beast,' 'The Steadfast Tin Soldier' and 'The Snow Queen'. This collection carries universal themes of envy and desire, deception and abandonment, courage and sacrifice.

Characters are enchanted, they transgress, they yearn, they hunger, they hate and, sometimes, they kill.

Some of the stories inhabit a traditional fairytale world, while others are set in the distant future. Some are set in the present and some in an alternative present. The stories offer no prescription for living or moral advice and none belong in a nursery.

Open the covers and submit to their enchantment.

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up–The second book in this fantasy trilogy picks up some months after the conclusion of Night Gate (Random, 2005). Rebecca Jane Rage Winnoway's mother, while no longer comatose, still suffers from the aftereffects of a devastating car crash, and Rage is under the guardianship of her seemingly indifferent uncle. The school bully has made her a target, and her town is suffering from an unnaturally long and violent winter–a phenomenon that may be connected to the similar unusual weather caused by an evil force in the enchanted realm of Valley. In a particularly interesting twist, Rage accesses Valley this time around by literally dreaming herself there when she falls asleep in our world. C. S. Lewis's Narnia and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (both of which play minor roles in the text) are obvious inspirations here, but Carmody develops some intriguing ideas of her own. The author's skillfully designed worlds, expressive prose, and theme of hope in the face of despair will appeal to fantasy fans; but readers who have not experienced the first book may have some difficulty catching up.–Christi Voth, Parker Library, CO
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"The skillfully designed worlds, expressive prose, and theme of hope in the
face of despair will appeal to fantasy fans." - School Library Journal