Sadly the second volume of the series failed to engage me, as did volume one but for slightly different reasons. There were fewer pseudo academic interruptions to the text - the myth and legend versions were not quite such an intrusion - but the story veered all over the place. After the set-up at the end of book one, book two starts with Jenna and her companions starting on their journey to warn the other women's communities about the murderous attack by the men of the usurper king, but it is promptly derailed - after they find one or two settlements already devastated and the women murdered or taken away - by an encounter with the green people: this world's version of the faerie folk. Jenna and co go with them on scant persuasion and promptly lose five years, physically aged those same five years themselves but without any of the mental or other development they would otherwise have undergone as young teens. Now ten of the women's communities have been long devastated - there are supposed to be eight left but by story's end it seems there is only one and it is never disclosed what happened to the rest.

Jenna is promptly drawn into supporting the cause of the second son of the previous king in his fight to win back his throne - the older brother of Corum, whom she saved in book 1 (the act which prompted the usurper's retaliation against the women's communities), although there isn't much explanation of what has been going on in the interim. Given later events, it doesn't seem likely that the usurper would not have taken care of this opposition in the five years that have elapsed.

It also seems at first that a conflict is being set up, because the would-be king wants to cement his claim by marrying Jenna although he knows that Corum and she are in love, and I anticipated a great conflict build up with emotional angst - but it was then simply and easily resolved by killing off the brother and leaving Corum as sole rightful heir.

The relationships in this book are very flimsily and sketchily drawn; I couldn't relate to the characters and found myself forgetting who some of them were, e.g. Piet, the soldier-lover of Jenna's old mentor said mentor being killed off through Jenna's inability to kill a dangerous enemy. That mentor hadn't really appearied in book 1 or if she did I blinked and missed it! And then the whole conflict against the usurper is resolved quite rapidly and we have a happy ever after ending which surprised me until I realised that the third book in this series is about the children of Jenna and Corum. There are a lot of loose ends - apart from one friend of Jenna's we never see what happened to the hundreds of young girls who were abducted from the overun communities and their fate is quietly and conveniently forgotten about.

Apart from the problems above, the piling on of one lot of magic onto another, and magic which doesn't really fit with book 1 - faerie folk and the land under the hill - grated a bit. The original strangeness of the dark sisters paled into significance - even Jenna's own played very little part in this volume and we never do learn how the women's communities learned their skills and connected with their dark sisters in the first place. So I found the book very unengaging and can only award it an OK 2 stars. ( )

For the whole series: These books are fascinatingly written. The frame story is that there are legends, songs, and tales about the women of Great Alta, and that historians fight constantly about the meanings of these legends. Each chapter includes some “history”, some “legend” and then the “true story” of what really happened. The women of Great Alta (and their shadow sisters) have a complex and magical way of life, which is brought to life all the more fully through the layered way Yolen constructs the books. The books are a great commentary on what we do or do not know about past cultures.

A bit of a disappointment after the first book, which I loved, but White Jenna was still solid YA. Part of the difficulty here is that the book feels firmly like it ought to have been another few chapters on the end of Sister Light, Sister Dark rather than a tale all its own. Not enough happens (certainly not enough /new/), and both books are fairly slim. Telling the complete story in one volume would have helped tighten it.

I'm finding it difficult to find much to say about this book, despite having read it two days ago, which is perhaps its biggest problem - it's frankly forgettable. The Jenna from the first novel still sticks with me, as does the world of the Hames she lived in. The Jenna from the second novel did some things involving a sword and some fairy-folk and set some stuff up for the future and-- that's about all I've got. Alas. Of especial disappointment is that Yolen never truly developed the character of Skada, or explored what it meant for Jenna to have a dark sister.

It's really too bad that you'll never be satisfied leaving it at Sister Light, Sister Dark if you were at all engaged in the book (the cliffhanger hangs!).

On the plus side, the intertwining of myths, legends, and folk songs remains positively delightful in this book. ( )

I didn't become quite as engrossed in this book as I did in the first, but I still enjoyed this adventure very much. Yolen shows her mastery of the craft as she effectively changes tone as she switches from telling the myth, story, history, legend, tale, song and ballad. She can write anything! I'm looking forward to the last book in the Great Alta Saga. ( )

I remember reading Sister Light, Sister Dark and White Jenna when they first came out way back in the late 1980's. I was out of college but reading young adult fiction voraciously. Yes, I read almost everything voraciously but I didn't really have access to modern YA books when I was growing up. We rarely bought books from major bookstores though my family frequented a book exchange several times a year. I always had access to private libraries (I never went to a public library until I was in college) but they were limited by their focus. Several of the libraries belonged to private christian schools and in one there was no science fiction or fantasy other than Tolkein and C.S. Lewis. The books were more reliable for research than for fun reading.

Anyway, I loved Light Sister, Dark Sister and the year of waiting for White Jenna seemed impassable. Rereading these books I felt less of the thrill and some chafing at the structure of Myth, Legend, History, Story. I did find the differences in the tellings interesting and let my mind follow how these differences could happen but I felt like they broke the story into less flowing parts.

They are complicated books to try to summarize. The worshippers of Alta are set apart communities of women. They practice religion and life that follow the sayings of Great Alta and their warriors are well known and respected. One of their great secrets is their practice of calling shadow sisters from a mirror to join them in this world. Jenna seems to fulfill an ancient prophecy through her unusual birth and mothers but she and her hame leader are not sure and ask for greater signs. When Jenna and her friend unknowingly become tangled in political intrigue, the fury of the reigning king and his 4 lords are brought against the communities of women. Whether or not she wasnts to be involved, Jenna is central to both the beginning and the end. Priestesses keep reminging everyone to read the prophecies "on the slant".

An added bonus for those of you who are musically inclined, each book has the words and music for the songs in the story.

I recommend this book, I guess to people in 5th grade through high school.