Toads and Diamonds (Heather Tomlinson)

Author Biography:

Heather Tomlinson has worked as a teacher of both English and French, as a book wholesaler and as a fantasy novelist. She lives in southern California.

Published By: Henry Holt and Co., LLC

Year: 2010

ISBN: 97800-8050-8968-4

Reading Level: Grades 10 and up

Reader’s Annotation:

Diribani’s lips drop jewels and flowers when she speaks, while Tana’s drop snakes and frogs. But are these gifts truly a blessing and a curse, or are they more complex than that?

Plot Summary:

In the city of Gurath in the Hundred Kingdoms, stepsisters Diribani and Tana live in poverty. Diribani is beautiful, gentle and compassionate to all living things, while Tana is plain and practical, with a business-like mind to rival any man's, but different though they are, they adore each other. But their different personalities lead them to very different destinies when they each encounter a separate form of the goddess Naghali-ji.

Diribani gives a beggar woman water and is blessed with flowers and jewels that fall from her lips whenever she speaks; Tana speaks brazenly to an elegant lady and finds frogs, toads and snakes spewing from her lips. As a result of these “gifts,” Prince Zahid takes Diribani into the luxury of the royal palace, while snake-loathing Governor Alwar drives Tana into exile. But is Diribani’s gift really a flawlessly beautiful blessing… and could Tana’s be a blessing in disguise?

Critical Evaluation:

Here we find a novel based on one of Charles Perrault's lesser known fairy-tales. The original story is a simple morality tale: one sister is kind and blessed with jewels and flowers from her lips, the other is arrogant and cursed with toads and snakes. This retelling covers that plotline in just eight chapters out of thirty and expands the tale from there on, showing us the sisters’ further adventures. More importantly, it portrays both girls sympathetically, and both of their gifts prove to be blessings. Tana’s pride and blunt practicality are different from yet just as worthwhile as Diribani’s sweetness, and her “curse” proves to have lifesaving uses. Likewise, Diribani's gift has a dark side as she faces greed, envy and superstition from others, but also leads her to heroism as she uses it to help the poor. Neither girl is treated as "lesser" – both are strong and intelligent in their own ways and love each other deeply. While the original tale existed to teach girls the “right” and “wrong” ways to behave, this one shows that there is no wrong way to be a girl.

Author Tomlinson adds further originality by eschewing the traditional European setting in favor of the Hundred Kingdoms, a fictionalized version of India’s Mughal Empire. The reader is immersed in the exotic sights, sounds and smells of India, both beautiful and putrid, and in the rich traditions of two clashing cultures and religions: the ruling class of Muslim-esque “Believers,” who worship one God, and the peasant worshipers (including the two heroines) of the Hindu-esque “Twelve” deities. Both cultures and faiths are depicted with sympathy and respect, though the “Believer” faith is clearly the harsher one… and the polytheistic faith is the one portrayed as true. The replacement of Perrault’s virtue-testing fairy with a goddess is the perfect touch to give this retelling the feel of an Indian myth. But one with modern sensibilities about female behavior.

Curriculum Ties:

•Fairy-tale retellings

•India

•Eastern religions

•Feminism

Challenge Issues:

•Violence

•Rape allusion

Why This Book?

The richly detailed pseudo-Indian setting, clever reworking of the original Perrault story and equally positive portraits of two very different girls make this book an outstanding choice for lovers of YA fairy-tale retellings.