Queen of Hearts, written by Colleen Oakes, reviewed by Kalie Mehaffy

Summary: Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes brings new light to the classic Alice in Wonderland tale. Queen of Hearts focuses on Dinah, the girl who will eventually become the Queen of Wonderland. All the classic Alice in Wonderland characters are involved in this novel, although they are in different forms: the Mad Hatter is the Mad Prince and the Cheshire Cat is the King's Adviser. As Dinah travels through her own story, she discovers hidden truths and schemes in her court that threaten her life and her throne. Queen of Hearts is the first novel in Colleen Oakes' Queen of Hearts Saga.

Straight Talk for Librarians: I think this novel has a very interesting point of view. I adore twisted fairy tales, and Queen of Hearts absolutely falls under that category. Colleen Oakes does drop her reader right into the story, and the reader has to piece together the background information as they read, and I think that works in theory, although there is enough changed about the classic tale that I believe there should be a bit more background information earlier in the novel. With that being said, this is an amazing novel, and I would absolutely use it to teach different perspectives and points of view, using Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll as a companion text. I think this is a great novel for those who love to see new takes on classic stories, and I would absolutely recommend it to my students or use it in a lesson.