Covey & Sandra McDonald, about a first date/joyride in space gone wrong, and Camille Alexa’s portrait of a teen traumatized by a cyberspace assault (“Over It”). Standouts in this department are the Heinlein-esque “The Stars Beneath Our Feet,” by Stephen D. The tales place their characters aboard spacecraft or space stations, on other worlds or in future dystopias, but only rarely do the writers capture a credibly adolescent voice or sensibility. The editors gather a dozen poems and 21 stories from a stable of contributors who, after headliners Jack McDevitt and Nancy Holder, will be largely unknown even to widely read fans of the genre. The collection was inspired by a perceived paucity of short science fiction for teen readers, and its production costs were covered by a Kickstarter campaign. 11-15)*justify no*Ī low-wattage collection of original stories and poems, as unmemorable as it is unappealingly titled. Not as vivid as Robin McKinley's Outlaws of Sherwood (Greenwillow, 1986), this nonetheless puts an intriguing, female- centered twist on the legend. Though the cast is confusingly large, the author fills it with capable women, and a gory but memorable scene in which Marian kills a deer is the story's only overt violence.

When Robert is hurt once again, Marian leaves the forest to nurse him upon her return she finds Agnes dead, the Forestwife's girdle and burden left to her. The evil deeds of lords and officials are bruited about, but the malefactors themselves remain offstage Tomlinson focuses on the afflicted common folk, ground down by misfortune and injustice. Agnes' rough, ne'er-do-well son Robin-er, Robert appears now and then, either wounded in fights or bringing food and news.

Agnes assumes the role, with Mary, now known as Marian the Green Lady, helping they heal the sick, deliver babies, feed the hungry, and rescue those ill-treated by the local authorities. Young Mary and her canny nurse Agnes brave a purportedly haunted forest to reach the solitary hut of the witchlike Forestwife, Selina, only to find her dead.

Robin Hood and his men play relatively minor roles here. The traditional image of the maid Marian takes on a faintly pre-Christian cast in this tale of a teenager who flees into the woods to avoid a forced marriage.

The forestwife by theresa tomlinson