The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

[meganbmoore]

Nine-year-old Tiffany Aching is the dairy maid at her family’s farm. She likes to make cheese and has memorized the dictionary, even though she doesn’t know how to pronounce a lot of the words. When her little brother is attacked by a monster in the river, she beats in off with a skillet, looks up the monster in a storybook, then heads to town to see if there are any visiting teachers who can fill her in on the proper way to fight monsters.

Clearly, she will soon be a very frightening young lady.

Everyone in the area hates witches, but that doesn’t stop a witch named Miss Tick from investigating a disturbance she sensed in the area. Undercover, of course. When she hears Tiffany’s story, she realizes that the Queen of the Elves is trying to invade Discworld. Again. Tiffany also discovers a horde of 6-inch-tall blue men, the Nac Mac Feegle, with heavy brogues and a bizarre outlook on life. Strangely, they seem to have taken a liking to Tiffany, despite being a menace to everyone else. When the Queen kidnaps her brother, Tiffany takes off to rescue him with the skillet, the talking toad, and the little blue men, despite strict instructions to wait while Miss Tick fetches more witches.

The book is ridiculously fun, with lots of send ups to various myths and fables, and a few more modern fantasy tales. And I particularly like how, despite having magic, tiffany mostly succeeds by being very, very clever. I did heave a big, disappointed sigh, though, when the Nac Mac Feegle mentioned how things sucked with just the queen around, and were way better when there was a king. Though at least, in this case, the king is also held up as being responsible for the sad state of Fairyland, and for fighting with the queen, and it seems that it was better when he was there because there was a king and a queen, rather than because there was a king and now there’s a queen. But still. (I suspect the irritation is mostly Alice's fault.)