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Juniper Wiles and the Ghost Girls (2022)
Juniper Wiles (2021)
The Wind in His Heart (2017)
Newford Stories: Crow Girls (2015)
Jodi and the Witch of Bodbury (2014)
Out of This World (2014)
Over My Head (2013)
The Cats of Tanglewood Forest (2013)
Under My Skin (2012)
The Painted Boy (2010)
The Very Best of Charles de Lint (2010)
Muse and Reverie (2009)
Eyes Like Leaves (2009)
The Mystery of Grace (2009)
Woods and Waters Wild (2009)
Yellow Dog (2008)
What the Mouse Found (2008)
Dingo (2008)
Little (Grrl) Lost (2007)
Old Man Crow (2007)
Promises to Keep (2007)
Widdershins (2006)
Triskell Tales 2 (2006)
Make A Joyful Noise (2006)
The Hour Before Dawn (2005)
Quicksilver & Shadow (2005)
The Blue Girl (2004)
Medicine Road (2004)
Refinerytown (2003)
Spirits in the Wires (2003)
A Handful of Coppers (2003)
A Circle of Cats (2003)
Tapping the Dream Tree (2002)
Waifs and Strays (2002)
Seven Wild Sisters (2002)
The Onion Girl (2001)
The Road to Lisdoonvarna (2001)
Triskell Tales (2000)
Forests of the Heart (2000)
The Buffalo Man (1999)
The Newford Stories (1999)
Moonlight and Vines (1999)
Someplace to be Flying (1998)
Trader (1997)
Jack of Kinrowan (1997)
The Ivory and the Horn (1995)
Memory & Dream (1994)
The Wild Wood (1994)
Into the Green (1993)
The Wishing Well (1993)
Dreams Underfoot (1993)
I'll Be Watching You (1992)
From a Whisper to a Scream (1992)
Merlin Dreams in the Mondream Wood (1992)
Spiritwalk (1992)
Paperjack (1991)
Our Lady of the Harbour (1991)
Hedgework and Guessery (1991)
Death Leaves an Echo (1991)
Ghosts of Wind and Shadow (1991)
Uncle Dobbin's Parrot Fair (1991)
The Little Country (1991)
The Dreaming Place (1990)
Angel of Darkness (1990)
Ghostwood (1990)
Drink Down the Moon (1990)
The Fair in Emain Macha (1990)
Philip José Farmer's The Dungeon: The Hidden City (1990)
Westlin Wind (1989)
Berlin (1989)
Philip José Farmer's The Dungeon: The Valley of Thunder (1989)
Svaha (1989)
Wolf Moon (1988)
Greenmantle (1988)
Jack the Giant-Killer (1987)
Ascian in Rose (1987)
Yarrow: An Autumn Tale (1986)
Mulengro: A Romany Tale (1985)
The Harp of the Grey Rose (1985)
Moonheart: A Romance (1984)
The Riddle of the Wren (1984)
De Grijze Roos (1983)
Little (Grrl) Lost
Little (Grrl) Lost
Viking

Little (Grrl) Lost germinated from the short story of the same title that first appeared in Firebirds Rising, but you don't need to go track that book down since the story appears as the first chapter in the novel.

There are two entwined plotlines in the novel. One answers Elizabeth's question of what to do when you've got a lot of attitude, but you're a Little in a big world, standing only six inches tall. But being a Big, as Elizabeth's full-sized friend T.J. is, doesn't mean that everything in your life is automatically going to go any smoother.

Especially when your Little is lost.

Little (Grrl) Lost is a hardcover.

Reviews
VOYA - SEPT. 2007
(Voice of Youth Advocates is a bimonthly journal addressing librarians, educators, and other professionals who work with young adults.)

Rated 4Q 5P This is close to the highest review rating they offer (Q=quality P=popularity)

Yet again de Lint demonstrates his talent for writing that appeals to and respects teen readers. As with The Blue Girl (Viking, 2004/VOYA December 2004), this novel is about friendship—albeit a rather unusual one—as well as the importance of independence and taking charge of life situations. T.J. Moore, almost fifteen, is unhappy with her parents' decision to move from the country to the suburbs of Newford. She had to leave behind her horse and her best friend, and no one cares about how miserable she feels. Then excitement literally crawls out of the woodwork in the form of a six-inch-tall girl, Elizabeth, a "Little" who lives in the walls of T.J.'s house. Elizabeth, sixteen, cannot stand hiding in the walls of the house day after day and longs for excitement. Moreover, she longs to fly. Little legend has it that some Littles have learned how to do so. T.J. sets out to help Elizabeth find assistance, and when they are separated accidentally, both have to take independent action. Along the way, both girls learn a lot about themselves and their capabilities.

T.J. and Elizabeth are appealing, genuine characters. They start out at opposite ends of the spectrum, with T.J. shy and insecure and Elizabeth overly self-assured, but they learn from and grow toward each other. The story progresses smoothly, and de Lint's narrative is rich, vivid, and descriptive. Those unfamiliar with de Lint's work will love this gateway to Newford, and fans will be in line already. Buy two.

BOOKLIST - Aug. 2007
Imagine Mary Norton's quirky Borrowers as twenty-first-century Goth teens bent on discovering their true genealogy. De Lint has crafted a delightfully edgy fantasy that will lead teens to his popular adult series of Newford books, where magic and fantasy thrive in a seemingly ordinary community. Fourteen-year-old T.J.'s family has been forced to move to a suburb, leaving behind their famly farm and T. J.'s beloved horse. Shy and awkward, T.J. has trouble finding a niche in her new school, and she misses her old friends desperately. Enter Elizabeth Wood, a 16-year-old "Little" who is six inches tall and all punky attitude (four-letter words abound). T.J. and Elizabeth are both fascinated and sometimes disgusted by each other, and they form a tight, complicated friendship that sees them through a slew of adventures in both the quotidian and magical worlds. As in The Blue Girl (2001), de Lint mixes marvelous fantastical creatures and realities as he taps into young women's need to feel unique, understood, and valued.
—Debbie Carton

PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY - SEPT. 2007
"Oh, crap, don't swat me." Those are the first words spoken by Elizabeth, a six-inch-tall, sarcastic "Little," upon meeting 14-year-old T.J., a soft-spoken goody-two-shoes. T.J. feels depressed because she has to give up her beloved horse when her family moves to the suburbs of de Lint's (The Blue Girl) mythical town of Newford. Elizabeth has family troubles of her own-she has run away, and shortly after she meets T.J., her parents and siblings disappear. Together, the girls set out to speak with Sheri Piper, a local children's book author who has written about Littles (and who previously appeared in De Lint's short story collection, Triskell Tales 2). But their plan is interrupted when a gang of bullies steals T.J.'s backpack with Elizabeth inside. The narrative alternates between the girls' perspectives, as Elizabeth uncovers information about her family history and T.J. attempts to connect with Sheri Piper. Although the two protagonists could not be more different in terms of temperament (not to mention size), by book's end they've both matured into winsome heroines. A sprinkling of pop culture references can feel jarring, as though the book were trying strenuously to be contemporary. However, on the whole, de Lint's latest-which he based on a short story that appeared in last year's Firebirds Rising anthology-adeptly braids the fantastic and the everyday. Ages 12-up.

KIRKUS
T.J. is still trying to get her mind around the move from the farm and her beloved horse to the suburbs outside de Lint's Newford, when she discovers a really sharp and stylish teen runaway named Elizabeth inside her new house. She is only six inches tall, one of the Littles, and almost-15-year-old T.J. can't get her mind around that reality, either. Once again, de Lint makes contemporary urban fantasy with very real teens, as T.J.'s backpack is stolen with Elizabth in it. What follows are parallel and occasionally tandem adventures in finding stuff out: Elizabeth in what other ways Littles can live with scrounging and hiding; T.J. in the world of gnomes, Littles, elves and other folk who inhabit spaces hidden in her own world and ours. There are interesting boys and scary ones; ways of using fairy lore and common sense; and a satisfying dénouement involving a very clever use of a PDA. Oddly, there is no mention of earlier books about Littles, even though there's a character in the story who has written about this particular batch. Expanded from an earlier short story, this will appeal to those unwilling to leave the Borrowers behind. (Fantasy. 12-14)

BOOKLOONS
Two very different young women—each unhappy with their family—bump into each other and share their stories. Gradually a friendship develops and is tested through a series of urban adventures. Sound like the usual YA read? Not really. One of these teens is a Little. It starts with a sound—'SCRITCH,SCRITCH, SCRITCH'—from behind the baseboards.

Fourteen-year-old T.J. Moore is unhappy that her family (Mom, Dad, herself and elder brother Derek) has been forced by stock-market crashes to move from their farm to a new subdivision, and that she has had to give up her beloved horse Red. She knows no-one and misses her friends. Sixteen-year-old blue-haired Elizabeth Wood (Tetty to her family) gives T.J. the shock of her life when she walks out of a door in the baseboard and says, 'Oh, crap ... Don't swat me.' Elizabeth is tired of living in hiding and of all the rules and regs her strict parents insist upon to keep the Littles' existence a secret. Elizabeth has attitude in spades and calls her new Big friend a Goody Two-shoes.

The next day, Elizabeth is gone and T.J. worries about her safety outdoors (at risk from cats, owls, hawks and dogs, amongst other predators). When they meet again, T.J. persuades Elizabeth to stay with her (the other Woods have moved out) until they can find her family or other Littles. T.J.'s Internet research has come up with an author, Sheri Piper, who's written books about Littles. They arrange to go to a booksigning (with Elizabeth hidden in a backpack, but are parted after T.J. is swarmed and her belongings stolen. This leads to separate adventures, in which T.J. shows plenty of backbone, and Elizabeth discovers a whole new fey world and the possibility of wings.

Little (Grrl) Lost is magical YA urban fantasy. In it, T.J. learns that new places also come with new possibilities—a close friend and a boyfriend—and that she can stand up for herself and what she wants, while Elizabeth comes of age and discovers what she really wants from life.

GREEN MAN REVIEW
Little (Grrl) Lost is Charles de Lint's latest Newford novel. Aimed a young adult audience, Little (Grrl) Lost features T.J., who's recently transplanted to Newford from the country because of family circumstances. As a result, T.J.'s lost her best friend, and, just as importantly, her horse. She's finding it hard to adjust to life in the suburbs, and makes no bones about it. Her life takes a sudden turn for the surreal when Elizabeth tumbles into her life . . . from her baseboards.

Elizabeth is a "Little," a six inch tall person, and a very independent one by comparison to T.J. She's determined to leave her family (who lives in the walls of T.J.'s house) behind and strike out on her own, with no help from anyone. Well, we all know about best laid plans, and T.J. and Elizabeth eventually end up teamed together, since the latter's family has fled, fearing discovery, and making your own way in the world when you're half a foot tall isn't the easiest thing to do. As luck would have it, a local author who's written about Littles—T.J.'s read her books—is scheduled for a reading at a local book store. So the girls plan to attend the reading and maybe talk to the author, and see if what she wrote of Littles is true: they were once birds, and could return to being birds once again.

Unfortunately, things don't go smoothly, and the girls get separated, leading to a number of tense and sometimes exciting, sometimes perilous hours for both as they make their way to the author by very different routes. T.J. encounters two very different guys around her age, who have rather mixed reactions to her confession about the existence of Littles—though she does get both a kiss and a new friend out of the whole adventure (and discovers her annoying big brother's actually kind of cool). Elizabeth gains some startling insights into her family's past, and a potential career—or at least an interesting job for the foreseeable future. Both girls are definitely far less naïve by the book's end, which is definitely a case of all's well that ends well for both.

If the ending seems a bit pat, the most engaging part of the novel is when it flips to Elizabeth's point of view about halfway through, and readers are treated to a trip through a fantastical underground market populated by creatures of all sorts. It's here that de Lint's writing shines—the market and its denizens fairly leap off the page, and make it a site one hopes he revisits in a future Newford novel. By comparison, though, T.J.'s point of view—and suburban Newford—is a bit dull and mundane, especially when we've come to enjoy and crave the magical side of Newford. Still, Little (Grrl) Lost is a fun read, and perhaps a good introduction to de Lint's work for younger readers.

RAMBLES
It's not easy for most of us to empathize with a fairy-tale character who's a princess seeking a prince or a fool in search of a kingdom. Most of us have little in common with protagonists who slay dragons, throw dice with wizards or unravel ancient dwarven mysteries to find a fortune.

But what if the story was about a couple of teenagers who'd gone astray and felt disconnected with the world around them? That, I think, is a tale that touches all of us—even if one of the teens is a few inches short of a foot tall.

In Little (Grrl) Lost, author Charles de Lint revisits the Littles, a race of diminutive people who carry a mystical bloodline in common with birds. But, while de Lint delved into the magical elements of this race in past short fiction, the Little at the heart of this young-adult novel is 16, newly parted from her family and, purely by accident, discovered and befriended by a Big. Bigs, of course, are us, or in this case is a 14-year-old girl also separated from the life and friends she knew when her family moved from the country to the suburbs of Newford, de Lint's unusual and highly developed setting for urban fantasy.

T.J., the Big, and Elizabeth, the Little, are bound together in friendship after an accidental discovery; Elizabeth's family was living secretly in the walls of T.J.'s house, but even a hint of Big awareness sent them scurrying for a safer home. All except Elizabeth, who wanted to strike out on her own but wasn't sure, um, how.

But their efforts to meet an author who has written about Littles in the past go awry, and the girls are separated, beginning their separate adventures to reunite and find the answers they need. There are lessons learned about friendship, first impressions, helping those in need and not being too quick to take assistance from the wrong quarters—or to overlook it from an unexpected source. Of course, being a de Lint story, there are also gnomes, goblins and other fey beings, not to mention a muttering bag lady who pokes beneath cars with a big stick.

Charles de Lint has a gift for adding a sense of wonder to the mundane. Although written for young adults, Little (Grrl) Lost will also appeal to older readers who enjoy de Lint's Newford tales. Framed by magic and mystery in a thoroughly modern world, the story at its heart is entirely human.

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE October 28, 2007
How much novelty can be found in another story about a bunch of tiny people living behind the wainscoting? Charles de Lint's Little (Grrl) Lost (Viking; 271 pages; $13.00, 12-up) continues the fantasy tradition popularized in Mary Norton's "The Borrowers" and adds his own signature touches.

Fourteen-year-old T.J. regrets moving away from the family farm and leaving her beloved horse behind. As she copes with her anger and loneliness in suburbia, she befriends the most unlikely of acquaintances: Elizabeth, a blue-haired, 6-inch-tall teenager who lives in the walls of T.J.'s house. With attitude to spare, Elizabeth plans to leave her parents and venture alone into the world of the Bigs, but she underestimates its dangers. When the two girls are roughly separated during an excursion to the mall, both must learn new survival skills if they have any hope of being reunited.

De Lint, author of Moonheart and The Blue Girl, is one of the modern masters of urban fantasy, and his new book demonstrates his facility in mixing ancient folklore with the mundane world of cell phones, computers and shopping malls. He never allows Little (Grrl) Lost to become cutesy, but gives equal weight to T.J.'s and Elizabeth's predicaments, demonstrating the resourcefulness and courage of both young women. Set in Norfolk, de Lint's magical analogue of Ottawa, Little (Grrl) Lost benefits from a deep sense of place, with hints that some of the supporting cast exist beyond this narrative and await rediscovery elsewhere in the author's large body of work.

Editions
Viking; hardcover, 2007

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