The Sleeper and the Spindle.

Gaiman, Neil.  The Sleeper and The Spindle.  2013.  Harper Collins Books, New York, NY.

Hardcover, $19.99.  ISBN: 978-0-6-239824-6.


It's a tale as old as time.  A young girl, bewitched by an evil fairy at her naming ceremony has not been seen since her 16th birthday.  The kingdom around her lies sleepless, while around her castle grows a hedge of rosy thorns.  An old woman wanders the castle, all alone, while everyone around her, including the young woman asleep in a magic spell sleeps around her.

Meanwhile, in a kingdom just over the mountains, word of the plight of the princess and her kingdom has reached the ears of the royal family.  The sleeping sickness from the castle is spreading farther out every day.  At the rate of a mile or two per day, it will not be long before the sleeping sickness spreads outside of the kingdom and into the neighboring kingdoms.

The queen of this kingdom sets out with her closest advisors - the dwarves.  They are determined to find the source of the sleeping sickness and free the princess, if possible.

You think you know what happens next... but do you?  Who is the mysterious older woman who roams the castle?  Can the Queen get through the wicked briar hedge, when none of the heroes have been able to get through?  Just how is that spell broken?  Up is down, and down is up in this wonderful re-imagining of this classic story.