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    Toads and Diamonds: A Novel
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    Toads and Diamonds: A Novel
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    Toads and Diamonds: A Novel
    Ebook292 pages3 hours

    Toads and Diamonds: A Novel

    By Heather Tomlinson

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Diribani has come to the village well to get water for her family's scant meal of curry and rice. She never expected to meet a goddess there. Yet she is granted a remarkable gift: Flowers and precious jewels drop from her lips whenever she speaks.

    It seems only right to Tana that the goddess judged her kind, lovely stepsister worthy of such riches. And when she encounters the goddess, she is not surprised to find herself speaking snakes and toads as a reward.

    Blessings and curses are never so clear as they might seem, however. Diribani's newfound wealth brings her a prince—and an attempt on her life. Tana is chased out of the village because the province's governor fears snakes, yet thousands are dying of a plague spread by rats. As the sisters' fates hang in the balance, each struggles to understand her gift. Will it bring her wisdom, good fortune, love . . . or death?
    Toads and Diamonds is a 2011 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateMar 30, 2010
    ISBN9781429922333
    Unavailable
    Toads and Diamonds: A Novel
    Author

    Heather Tomlinson

    Heather Tomlinson has taught English in Paris and French in the United States. She lives on a houseboat in and around Southern California with her engineer husband and her cats X, Y, and Z. She is the author of The Swan Maiden, Toads and Diamonds, and Aurelie.

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    Reviews for Toads and Diamonds

    4/5

    91 ratings14 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Toads and Diamonds by Heather Tomlinson is an interesting blend of a French fable and Indian mythology. The story is about two sisters who have been blessed by their goddess in two very interesting ways. One sister drops flowers and precious jewels when she speaks, and the other sister drops frogs and snakes. Each sister must discover what their particular gift means and how to best use it.The story covers the two paths that the girls travel and along the way the reader is treated to some wonderful world building and descriptions of their culture. Of course there is a covetous governor who wants the one sister for what she can provide him and despises snakes so wishes to kill the other sister. The country they live in is a replica of India and the people are divided by religion, so the sisters beliefs are much like the Hindus while the ruling class are like the Muslims. This isn’t a particularly “happy-ever-after” story, and although each girl finds someone to love, there is no guarantee of a happy ending. This is far more a morality tale about fate, accepting differences and showing kindness to the less fortunate.Toads and Diamonds is a well written, well-researched and fun take on an established story. I really liked that in this version, both sisters were normal young women of their time, instead of the original tale of one sister being so good and thus deserved being blessed by flowers and jewels while the other was an abrasive, jealous girl and therefore was given the snakes and toads.
    • 3/5
      I really liked this book. The imagery was fantastic and the world the author build brilliant. However, the ending felt rushed. I needed more conclusion and a drawing together of Tana and Diribani's two different stories. Or an epilogue letting the readers know how things turned out.
    • 4/5
      I definitely think I would go for the flowers/gems gift over the snakes and other amphibians. I really don't need a bunch of snakes slithering around! :) Overall, I enjoyed this one, although I do enjoy a retold fairy tale.
    • 4/5
      A re-telling of the fairy tale by the same name. I enjoyed the twists on the original story. It seems to me interesting that in this version the main relationship is the one between the two sisters. I also enjoyed the setting.
    • 4/5
      I was a bit dubious about the change in venue from Europe to an India/South Asian analog, but it adds an interesting twist to the story. It works well, in this particular situation.

      I wish there'd been two or three more pages to the story to wrap it up just a little bit tighter. It felt a little unfinished. Knowing who was on the road, at the very least, would have been nice. I hope that it would have been one of the two beaus. I think that would have given it a more fairy-tale style ending. But it also would have been a more contrived ending. I guess I'm never happy... I talk a lot about females not needing males to be fulfilled, but here I am complaining about a book in which the men are ignored at the end. But I think part of that is because the two main males are stuck in mid action and we don't know exactly what they're doing. Kalyan is running to get help, and Zahid is (I'd assume) searching to find out what happened to Diribani - even if he's only searching for her for the sake of the wealth or directing the search from his bedchamber.
    • 4/5
      A retelling of a Cinderella tale. Two sisters meet a fairy; one is apparently rewarded while the other is punished. But which is which?
    • 3/5
      I have always loved the Charles Perrault fairy tale called simply “The Fairies.” A girl goes to a well to draw water for her family and is approached by an old, threadbare woman who asks for a drink. The girl gladly gives her water. As a reward for her kindness, the woman (actually a fairy, disguised) gives the girl a gift: for every word she speaks, a flower or a jewel shall fall from her lips. The girl returns to her stepmother, who is astonished at the gift and resolves to send her own daughter to the well. That daughter is rude to the fairy, who this time appears as a wealthy old woman (thereby foiling the mother’s instructions to treat a threadbare old woman with kindness). The fairy therefore rewards the daughter with a different gift: for every word she speaks, a toad or a snake will fall from her lips. A nice lesson on the importance of kindness!Heather Tomlinson has written her own, more modern — and foreign — version of this fairy tale in the young adult novel Toads and Diamonds. Tomlinson sets her novel in an unnamed imagined country similar to India or Pakistan. Her two main characters, who take turns as the viewpoint character in alternating chapters, are Diribani and Tana. The two are stepsisters, but in this story they are the best of friends rather than the typical fairy tale enemies. They live in poverty since the death of Diribani’s father, who was Tana’s stepfather. They are not used to this state; their father was a well-off jeweler, but everything he had saved for them is gone now. One day Diribani goes to the well for water — a task she is not used to performing, as servants used to accomplish that for her family — and meets the goddess Naghali-ji, one of a pantheon of twelve gods. Naghali-ji is disguised as an old, infirm and destitute woman. Diribani gives her water and helps her to a spot in the shade, at which point the old woman is suddenly clear-voiced and sound of body, offering Diribani her heart’s desire. Silently, stunned by the now-obvious presence of the goddess, Diribani wishes for beauty, and receives the gift of flowers and jewels. In the tumult of emotions arising from the gift, though, Diribani breaks the family’s last clay jar. Tana must return to the well to get water, taking with her a silver pitcher, the last of the family’s wealth. She encounters an obviously wealthy woman who offers her a drink, but Tana refuses. She tells the woman that she would serve her but for the fact that the pitcher drips, and would streak the woman’s lovely silk dress. The woman, who is once again Naghali-ji, offers her a gift for her candor. Tana is silent, but Naghali-ji divines her wish: to protect her family. And so Naghali-ji gives her the gift of toads and snakes. The difference from the Perrault take is that, in this culture, toads and snakes really are a gift. Frogs and toads are lucky, and every household keeps a “house naga” — a snake known to be a species that eats rats. The young women realize immediately that they must hide their gifts to avoid unwanted attention, but that very quickly becomes impossible. An impetuous but kind act by Diribani gets the story really moving past its fairy tale origins by bringing both sisters to the attention of Prince Zahid and Governor Alwar. The sisters become separated from each other and their mother, both seeking to learn what Naghali-ji intended for them with their gifts in environments fundamentally different from their lives before their encounters with the goddess.Toads and Diamonds is simply told, with few linguistic flourishes. It lets the reader peer into a foreign culture; even if it is not strictly set in the Mughal Empire during the time of the Hundred Kingdoms, it is sufficiently similar to pique a young reader’s curiosity in another place and time (Tomlinson gives some recommendations for women of the time whom readers might wish to investigate). It is free of sex and bad language, making it easily appropriate for children as young as eight years old to read, but sufficiently sophisticated that a teenager is likely to enjoy it as well. And for those of us who enjoy fairy tales retold, it is good reading no matter our age.
    • 5/5
      Stepsisters `Tana and Diribani are struggling to make ends meet after the death of their father, a well-regarded jewel merchant. A society with rigid rules of what's appropriate for young, well-brought-up women makes maintaining propriety difficult, and matters are complicated still further by an occupying conqueror whose followers worship differently. In traditional fairy-tale style, a chance encounter at a well leaves Diribani blessed with speaking exotic flowers and rare jewels - sent to the well for a similar blessing by her mother, Tana is cursed with toads and snakes. But in addition to making the stepsisters friends, Tomlinson has created a rich and complex plot in which blessings and curses are not always what they first appear. As war threatens, politics grow more complex, and plague takes its toll on the populations, the sisters find themselves caught up and swept along.Wonderful - I wish the ending had been slightly more resolved, but in this unusual re-imagining, something so trite as a perfect happily-ever-after would be out of place.
    • 4/5
      I had to read this book as soon as I heard about it. Toads and Diamonds is one of the lesser-known fairy tales but it is also one of my favorite fairy tales ever. There was something that was utterly brilliant to me as a child of having gems and flowers falling from my lips when I spoke. Tomlinson took the little-known tale and crafted a truly unique story that takes place in a little-known culture. Diribani and Tana are sisters who were both gifted by a goddess in different ways, and become pawns in a dangerous political game. Both discover that blessings can be curses, and curses can be blessings.
    • 3/5
      Vastly different from Charles Perrault’s The Fairies, in my opinion, Toads and Diamonds by Heather Tomlinson is a much-better version of the tale. For those not familiar with the original, two step-sisters encounter a disguised fairy on separate occasions. The younger of the two is blessed with a gift: Whenever she speaks, flowers and jewels fall from her lips. The eldest isn’t a kind person, so the fairy curses her to spit out snakes and amphibians when she speaks. In traditional fairy tale fashion, the good-hearted, but downtrodden maiden overcomes all while those that put her down get their just rewards. Tomlinson took a fresh look at the original tale and thought, “What if the fairy blessed both sisters?” Both sisters are kind, good-hearted people who honestly love one another despite the fact that they don’t share blood. Some parts of the tale remain consistent: Diribani is blessed with the gift of jewels and flowers, while her stepsister Tana is given the ability to speak snakes and toads. But which is a blessing and which a curse?Tomlinson sets Toads and Diamonds in India, where snakes are revered. Tana has also received a gift, not a curse, though there are those who flee from what her lips release upon speaking. Many families own house nagas, snakes that eat the rats and keep pestilence from spreading. While outwardly, Diribani has received a priceless gift and releases a small fortune whenever she has something to say, it’s actually a curse in disguise. She’s locked up and kept away from everyone; her jewels line the king’s coffers and a greedy governor wants her for himself. Toads and Diamonds is told in alternating POVs, so readers are able to follow both Diribani and Tana, seeing what becomes of the sisters and their “gifts.”Overall, Tana was my favorite of the sisters. She’s made of strong mettle and goes through so much agony, while Diribani has a much easier life. Diribani’s story flatlined a bit, and at times, I was eager to get back to Tana’s plight. There was so much heartbreak and misery in her life; Tana was braver than most girls in her situation. As with any other fairy tale, there are also romantic prospects involved, though a relationship is hard for either sister due to their unique gifts. The throne doesn’t want to let go of Diribani’s riches while Tana feels that no one could love a girl who spits venomous snakes. The setting also played an important factor in the book and was a character in and of itself. I loved that Tomlinson modeled her land on a real country, India, and invented two powerful religions that are similar to ones we have in reality, while still being quite unique. Everything fit together well and created a lovely atmosphere not often seen in literature. Combined with an unusual outlook on what constitutes a blessing or a curse, Toads and Diamonds leaves readers with a lot to think about and reflect on.
    • 4/5
      Impoverished by their father's death, Diribani and Tana are two step-sisters who are suddenly forced into lives filled with chores, hardship, and hunger. That is, at least, until Diribani meets a goddess at the well and receives the gift to speak gems and flowers. Hoping that her other daughter will also receive the gift, the girls' mother sends Tana to the well. Tana's gift, however, is to speak frogs and snakes. The girls' new abilities cause an uproar in their hometown. Diribani is rescued from a mob by Prince Zahid, who arranges to bring her to the capital city in order to look after the precious stones her gift gives her. Tana, however, is stuck at home, exiled to the well by the "whitecoat" governor of a religion that, unlike the girls', views snakes as abhorrences. How will the sisters manage in their new lives, and what purpose does the goddess have in store for them?The best part about this book is that it's a retelling of the fairy tale "The Fairies" by Charles Perrault. It's always interesting to see how contemporary authors will interpret and reconstruct classic tales, and "Toads and Diamonds" is no exception to this (to readers familiar with Perrault's story: the character of the second daughter provides an interesting contrast with the original in that she is kind, not rude). The premise of the book is interesting, as is most of its plot. By the end, however, I was getting bored with the story and was ready for it to end. It seemed to just keep going and going, and it got dragged out for many months (another of my critiques is that the passage of time is not explained very well; generally the reader only knows how much time has passed because of a "[name of month] Month passed..." mention in the middle of a paragraph). Also, at times the story seemed disconnected. It seemed like there were many discoveries and self-realizations the characters made that should have been built up to, but the author failed to actually write in the little details that built up to them. So basically, Toads and Diamonds is a good one-time read for fans of fantasy and retellings who will appreciate its storyline, but not for anyone who requires impeccable writing or really exciting plots. It has the makings of a great story, but the author doesn't quite manage to bring it through.
    • 5/5
      An excellent retelling/variation of the folktale set in a vaguely medieval, vaguely Indian setting-- but this time both girls are blessed by a goddess, one to speak jewels and flowers, the other reptiles. They seek the reason behind their blessings, while trying to survive in unstable politics. Family love as well as romance and common human decency triumph.
    • 3/5
      Another enjoyable read. A different take on a story I've heard before. But this seemed more. . .believable, and far deeper, the characters getting fleshed out so they are more alive and more believable, even likable. All in all, a good read.
    • 4/5
      This fairy-tale retelling is delightful fun, and the wonderfully rich details of her setting (a fantasy world built up on many of the traditions of India) is delightfully unusual and interesting. I'm not familiar with the story being retold here - in which two stepsisters meet a goddess, or a witch, and one receives the blessing of speaking diamonds and flowers and the other the curse of speaking serpents and toads - but I am a huge fan of what Tomlinson did here. I think I picked this book up off Scalzi's Big Idea, where Tomlinson talked about her desire to subvert the 'stepsisters are bad' trope, to imagine a world in which both gifts - diamonds and toads - are valuable in their own way. She manages admirably. The book is mostly light, with a true expanded fairy-tale feel, but there are some deeper moments and some interesting questions and realizations as each girl struggles to uncover the reason for her gift. For anyone who's a fan of YA authors like Robin McKinley, I'd very much recommend this book. Also, the cover art is frankly gorgeous.