The Birthday Present

The Birthday Present and its companion story "Millhaven Castle" are set in the distant future. Lucy befriends three boys and sets out to deliver a seemingly insignificant gift to the global dictator. But when the boys stumble upon a colony of supposedly extinct humans, they realize the true significance of their mission and the potential to alter their society permanently. Meanwhile, Alyce attends a wealthy ruler's ball in "Millhaven Castle" and receives a death threat instead of a fairytale romance. This is the first book in a pair of fairy-tale retellings and combines Rapunzel with Cinderella. Readers of pretty much any retelling in this genre (such as Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, for example) will likely find something to enjoy in this pair of stories.