She could not remember a time when she had not known the story; she had grown up knowing it.

That’s the opening line of The Hero and the Crown, the 1984 fantasy novel by Robin McKinley. Funnily enough, I can’t remember the first time I read that line. I must have found the book somewhere; chances are high that it was in one of the sackloads I took home from the Winnipeg Public Library. I was somewhere between the ages of 10 and 13. At some point, I acquired my own paperback copy, which I ...