#fantasyrl4

Of course I noticed Annie Barrows's book The Magic Half the minute the paperback hit the shelves almost a year ago. The cover art is by one of my favorites, Alexandra Boiger, who illustrated two books that made it to my Best Picture Books of 2008, The Little Bit Scary People by Emily Jenkins and While Mama Had a Quick Little Chat by Amy Reichert. Boiger has also recently updated the cover art for Betty MacDonald's superb Mrs Piggle-Wiggle series, taking over for the briliant and influential children's book illustrator Hilary Knight. On top of the great cover, Barrows name caught my attention as well. Not only is she the author of the super new chapter book series for emerging readers, Ivy + Bean, but, along with her aunt, Mary Ann Shaffer, she is the co-author of the bestselling book group favorite for adults, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society!

And, yes, all that great background experience does lead up to a really great book! Like Jeanne Birdsall's wonderful series The Penderwicks (no news yet on when book 3 in the series will be published, but she plans to write 5 in all), The Magic Half shares a sense of timelessness (even though there are brief references here and there to Xboxes, iPods and cell phones) and attention to the importance of family. And, these books also share the common theme of big families. Four sisters make up the Penderwick family. The main character of The Magic Half, Miri (short for Miriam) is the middle child between two sets of twins. As Miri's father notes, "only one in fifty thousand families had two pairs of twins," thus making their family unique. For eleven year old Miri, this mostly means being the odd person out. Older brothers Robbie and Ray are inseparable, as are four year old twins, Nora and Nell. When the family moves to a new (old) house out in the country, Miri gets her own room for the first time, but still has trouble settling in.

The action in the story begins when Robbie and Ray run home with the news that there might be stolen loot buried on their property. Miri, who is getting a break from baby-sitting Nora and Nell, wants to help but the boys won't let her. Wandering around the large piece of land the house is set on leads her to the remains of the old barn and the likely spot for hidden treasure. When the boys spot her trying to sneak off with a shovel, a chase ensues, Miri is tackled, breaking her glasses, and she ends up whacking Ray in the head with the shovel. This lands Miri back in her room awaiting further punishment. Squinting without her glasses, Miri notices a flash of light near the floor from across the room. When she investigates, she finds a piece of glass - the lens from a pair of eyeglasses - taped to the baseboard. She gently removes it and holds it up to her eye for a better look and finds herself in the same place but transported to a different time. I find myself wanting to add exclamation points at the end of every sentence I write about this book. Barrows writing is so descriptively vivid, so immediate and straightforward, that the twists and turns, and magic, when it arrives, are always a surprise.

Miri finds herself face to face with Molly in the year 1935. Glasses, broken or otherwise, play a key role in this story, which quickly turns into a fast paced adventure and a race against the clock. Thoughtful and open to the possibilities of the imagination, Miri is only a little bit surprised by her time travel. Lonely and feeling left out, she immediately sees the same in Molly and her less than ideal family life and knows that, if she does nothing else, she must return to her own time with Molly in tow. This seems easy enough, but Miri first has to figure out how the magic and time travel work and how she can maneuver around Molly's menacing cousin Horst and manipulative Aunt Flo. And then there is Molly's Grandma May. I tore through this book because the story was so engrossing but also because Horst was such an unpredictable, wicked character that I was really worried for Molly's safety and had to know how the plot worked out. Barrows's writing style also lends itself to a speedy read. The book itself is a smaller format and the chapters are often less than ten pages. Which is both good and bad. Being such a great story, I would have loved to spend more time with Molly in 1935 and maybe even learn more about the mysterious Grandma May. Barrows's descriptions of the house are wonderful and Flo, Horst and his sister, Sissy are easily imagined and well drawn. Time with Miri and her siblings in the present is also enjoyable. The way her mother manages five children while unpacking a house and preparing to for a new semester teaching college while their father is out of town at a conference was entertaining from an adult's perspective, especially.

Short or long, I hope to read more of the same from Annie Burrows in the future!

Readers who enjoyed this book (and have already read The Penderwicks) might also like:

Half Magic by Edward Eager. All his books are excellent and this is a great place to start.

Five Children and It by E. Nesbit. Writing at the turn of the last century, Nesbit's fantasy stories have been greatly influential in the world of children's literature, inspiring Edward Eager and CS Lewis, among many others. Many of Nesbit's books have been made (and re-made) into movies by the BBC. One of my favorite is The Railway Children (read my review here). Reality based, this book is comparable to A Little Princess and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodeson Burnett and a wonderful story about children and adults overcoming hardship with the help of friends. Interestingly, this book has been made into a movie five times in between 1968 and 2000. The British actress Jenny Agutter played the daughter in the 1968 production and the mother in the 2000 one.

Strawberry Hill, by current Children's Poet Laureate Mary Ann Hoberman is an excellent slice of life in America during the Great Depression. While it is semi-autobiographical and thus reality based, Hoberman's writing is so precise and rich that it feels magical.

And, last but not least, The Secret of the Ruby Ring by Yvonne Mac Gory, pictures by Terry Myler, is one of the best time-travel, historical fiction books for young readers I have enjoyed. Sadly, it is out of print but used copies abound. Lucy is a rather spoiled eleven year old who gets a very special ring as a birthday gift from her Grandmother. When she puts it on and twists it she finds herself in 1885 Ireland during a time of unrest, evictions and boycotting, working as a maid in Langley Castle. When she loses the ring and is unsure she will ever see her family again, she begins to take charge of her situation and appreciate her life.

Once again, I have to begin with the best fantasy beast ever (after the unicorn, right?) the raggant. From the mind of ND Wilson, and brought to life by the amazing artwork of Jeff Nentrup, this little creature gets more page time in Dandelion Fire, but still has yet to fly. The worlds behind the cupboards get more time, too. While much of the plot of 100 Cupboards played out in Henry, Kansas, book 2 in the 100 Cupboards trilogy, Dandelion Fire, takes place almost entirely in the worlds that exist behind the cupboards. However, one thing remains the same. Main character Henry York continues to be beaten, battered, burned and, in book 2, ritualistically carved up as he is pursued by the force of evil released from the cupboards in book 1. Based on the four books by ND Wilson I have read now, he really likes to rough up his characters, although, I have a feeling that my perturbed perspective on this has something to do with my gender and not the genre, ultimately. However, let it be noted that Henry York takes more of a beating in three books than Harry Potter does in seven...

Before I plunge into the details of Dandelion Fire, I need to share an interview Wilson gave with Robbie F. over at the excellently named blog, A Fort Made of Books that helped to deepen my appreciation of what goes into Wilson's writing and what he is doing with the fantasy world he has created. The main focus of A Fort Made of Books is theology, art and entertainment, which provided insight into ND Wilson's background which is rooted very profoundly in classical education and Christianity. In addition to being an editor for CREDENDA/agenda, a religiously and philosophically Christian cultural journal, ND Wilson is on the faculty at New St. Andrews College in Moscow, ID, a school dedicated to classical Christian liberal arts. It was interesting to read Wilson's interview and learn about his religious and academic background as well as have him describe the spiritual elements in the 100 Cupboards trilogy. When asked how his religious beliefs influenced "the overall shape" of the 100 Cupboards trilogy, Wilson answered,

My religious beliefs are part of who I am, so they influence everything I do. But I wasn’t setting out to write a religious story. I wanted to write a good one. Of course, what I think is good is informed by my beliefs. I see patterns—triumph through sacrifice, death and resurrection, small foolish things overthrowing powerful things—everywhere in the world, in history, in literature, in mythology. And I find those patterns beautiful and work to imitate them. I also see the world crawling with mystery, every corner crammed with life and the secrets that sustain it. That is certainly something I try to communicate.

However, as a non-Christian who is also interested in classical studies and the liberal arts, I found it more enlightening (personally) to learn about the literary influences that shaped the world behind the cupboards as well as influenced the setting of Henry, Kansas. Most specifically, I appreciated this response from Wilson when asked what he feels needs to be added to the world of fantasy,

American kids have plenty of fantasy that appeals to them. The question is only how they feel about their own lives and environments when they’ve finished reading. On my last book tour, I ran a little experiment. I would ask groups of kids which country they needed to live in if they wanted to have magical adventures. Of course, fantasy and magic are global. They can wander anywhere. But that’s not what I was told. The answer (always shouted back), was England. I love English fantasy, and that nation (in my own humble o.) has produced the best fantasy to date (a few times over). But I wanted magical imaginations to broaden, to more thoroughly include the taste of Americana mythic. I want kids to look at lonely red barns in the same way that I would have looked at a wardrobe discovered in an empty room. I want the whole world to be seen as magical, including our part of it. And so I use baseball and wheat fields and a tiny rural town in Kansas. Thanks to Oz, we know anything can happen in Kansas.

As a reader of fantasy with an unabashed love of all things British, Wilson's observation stunned me into admitting that there is absolutely no good reason why kids should think they need to live in England to have a magical adventure. There is so much wonderful fantasy that begins and ends in America and the 100 Cupboards trilogy will go a long way towards convincing kids (and adults) of that. In the interview, Wilson also goes into some of the sausage-making details about the worlds behind the cupboards, saying that they are not separate worlds, but a "branch on the same tree, a twig on the same tumbleweed. Move down to the trunk, and it is all only one single world. Move up, and history forks and splinters into different branches of reality." My favorite response, though, was a question as to how all of the magic behind the cupboards works.

Maybe I should keep mum, but I’ll give you a little something here. There are a couple types of magic in the trilogy. The most basic breakdown is between natural and unnatural. An example of natural would be the magic of the faeren. They are able to do what they are able to do in the same way that a bird is able to fly. The wizards (for the most part) are using unnatural magic. They are like men in helicopters—they have to manipulate and force the world to give them its strength. (Not that I have anything against helicopters.) The seventh sons are men with natural magic like the faeren—the world gifts them with different strengths and allows them a measure of control. Darius and Nimiane are blends, but I’ll say no more about them. The doors... now we must apply this to the doors. The faeren have their own “natural” fluctuating connections between distant places which they can control. The forgotten wizards set themselves “unnatural” gashes in reality, and fixed them in place with stone. The cupboard doors are primarily natural connections—but they have been collected and arranged and manipulated in an “unnatural” and dangerous way.

I have never heard an author break down his world like that and I found it fascinating. But, I especially like Robbie's final question for Wilson, which is, "Do you think (or hope) that your work will make the world better? In what ways?" To this, Wilson responds,

Of course, I would be thrilled if the world were to improve thanks to my labors. But I think of myself as a cook (a chef on my fancier days). I want to feed as many young imaginations as I can. I want to feed them well. I want them healthy. I can hope that my readers will be improved and go on to improve the world around them. But more immediately, I can hope that I have given them friends and siblings and cousins in my characters. I can hope that I am brightening days and weeks and dreams.

I think that that is such a wonderful answer and such a grand measure for the value of a book. As a mother, bookseller and reviewer, I am always thinking about the value of a book and weighing the various factors involved in getting a child to read and keeping him/her reading - or, in many cases, helping the voracious reader to choose with a purpose. Every book read doesn't have to be about being entertained and it's not always reading for reading's sake and getting that practice under the belt. I agree whole heartedly with Wilson. When I help a child choose a book, I, too, want to feed their imaginations and feed them well. We want them healthy and not littered and clogged with throw-away books. And, most of all, I hope that they will find "friends and siblings and cousins" in the characters of the books they read. Of course a little candy is okay now and then, but really, there is so much good literature out there, for children and adults, why not read with a purpose beyond just being entertained?

In the 100 Cupboards, as a reader, I felt a bit like Henry, stumbling along as his adventure unfolded around him, mostly unaware of how any of it worked or what he needed to do to fit in to and fix it. With Dandelion Fire, which does not feel like a second in a trilogy AT ALL, all things are explained - mostly - and Henry begins to find his place in the world, although which world still remains to be seen. When the book opens, Henrietta (the reason that the evil witch, Nimiane, has been freed from her prison and is after Henry) has hidden the key to Grandfather's room, making travel through the cupboards impossible for humans. However, Henry and Henrietta are soon out behind the barn digging for the buried key. As a storm approaches Henry has a life-altering physical experience that sets in motion a sort of adolescent transformation and a revelation. I feel like I want to keep mum about what happens in the book - it moves at such a breakneck pace and is so dense with sights, sounds, smells and touches that I strongly encourage you to read it for yourself. Wilson has masterfully crafted a complex fantasy with a world as rich as Narnia and every bit as menacing and dangerous as Middle Earth. And, the characters who inhabit this world, from Fat Frank the faerie and the mysterious Caleb with his dog the size of a pony to the more subdued and possibly even remorseful Henrietta and her father, the humanly flawed Frank, are every bit as complicated and absorbing as the geography they inhabit - be it magical or mundane.

For a detailed rundown of Dandelion Fire, check out the review at Mugglenet, which was also written by Robbie F, to whom I owe a huge debt of thanks for his superb interview with Wilson that could only have come from his expansive understanding of the text.

At last! With Classic Fairy Tales we have an inexpensive ($12.99!!) gorgeously illustrated book of fairy tales with the perfect selection of stories retold by a master storyteller. I have written a post on The Importance of Fairy Tales as well as as post on Important Fairy Tale Picture Books. In a review of Lucy Cousins' excellent new fairy tale collection for kids 5 and under, Yummy!, I include a list of fairy tale picture books that present more detailed tellings of the stories in Cousins' book. But, I have never had the pleasure of writing a review of ONE book that has a great selection of tales AND worthy illustrations.

The twelve tales in this book are as follows:

Cinderella (Ashputtel)

The Sleeping Beauty in the Forest

Beauty and the Beast

Rumpelstiltskin

Snow White (Snowdrop)

Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp

The Firebird

Hansel and Gretel

The Frog Prince

The Wild Swans

These tales are lavishly, uniquely illustrated by Jane Ray. I wish I could do better justice to her artwork, especially her illustrations for Classic Fairy Tales where all pages are framed by Ray's paintings that evoke textiles from foreign countries. Each story has a different pattern bordering the text and illustrations, although there is the occasional full page picture. And, the paintings for each story contain faces and scenery from many different lands. This is about as far away for a Disney-ized fairy tale as you can get.

One thing I always do when perusing a collection of fairy tales is flip to Red Riding Hood. I like to know who, if any one, gets eaten and how the wolf meets his end. Berlie Doherty does a delicious job with her retelling of Red Riding Hood. As the wolf enters Grandmother's house with "his long, wet tongue and his sharp, yellow teeth and his eyes bright as knives and forks." I think you know what happens next. And next. The story ends with the clever hunter snipping the wolf's tummy open with a pair of scissors, rescuing his victims and filling his stomach with stones so heavy that the wolf falls over dead when he tries to run away.

I especially liked Doherty's Author's Note in which she writes, "I had a wonderful time choosing which stories to tell from among the hundreds that I read. Even the most familiar stories have echoes in many different cultures around the world, and the problem sometimes was to decide which version to model my story on. I tried to find the earliest written sources available, and from those, the ones with the most perfect shape." Her note ends with a "Tales fist recorded by," list that presents each original source of the fairy tale (as far back as could be traced) and their time in which he or she lived.

Once again, the remarkable academics of Professor Ari Berk and multifaceted artistry that made The Secret History of Giants a treasure of a book come together to bring us The Secret History of Mermaids and Creatures of the Deep, another look into the archives of the Order of the Golden Quills. Like the Ology series of books published by Candlewick Press, Berk's Secret Histories (a series, I hope?) is filled with the same scholarly bits of folklore from around the world, gatefolds, flaps and books within the book, and magnificent artwork from a longtime favorite of mine and contributor to The Secret History of Giants, Wayne Anderson, returning artist Gary Chalk and new favorites, Virginia Lee and Matt Dangler. As we learned in The Secret History of Giants, the Order of the Golden Quills is a group of archivists, scribes, lore wardens and guardians of long forgotten knowledge who exist to record and protect the mysteries of the secret folk. The Secret History of Mermaids and Creatures of the Deep begins with this admonition, "Pollution of the world's waters and depletion of fish populations have led to growing tensions between merfolk and humans. It is the Order's intention to share with you all knowledge of the merfolk - their magic and enchantments, culture and language, customs and curiosities, and their unparalleled understanding of the deep - so that favorable relations with our sea cousins may be restored." The Order of the Golden Quills conducts studies and houses artifacts in a castle built centuries ago by giants and dwarves, with a secret entrance in a very dangerous to access sea cave. In case you are thinking of visiting, the castle is open to the public from midnight to 7 am on the last day of February, every third leap year.

The book begins by discussing the origins of the merfolk and Atargatis, as imagined by Virginia Lee, whose name may mean "the goddess fish, Atar." Known as the Sea Mother, the Bright One or the Star that Fell to Sea, she is considered the mother of all merfolk and her name is venerated in the deepest zones. There is even a mention of Charles Darwin, who speculated that humans were descended from merfolk who left the sea, however his theory was rejected by the Plinian Society. Anatomy, language and communication, including useful sayings and charms, and songs are each given two page spreads. Merfolk villages are detailed and described as is a mermaid's cave. Apparently some merfolk enjoy living in villages while others seek a life of solitude and retreat to caves. When they are lonely, they will sometimes venture to the shore in search of a human companion to bring below, which leads me to Cohuleen Druith, or Enchanted Caps, which are made exclusively by shoal witches using kelp, fish skin, or the sailcloth from shipwrecks and are often dyed red. They allow Sea Folk to breath on land or Land Folk to breathe under water, depending on the cap. These caps and their construction are detailed in a two page spread on Sea Enchantments which includes a double gatefold depiction of magical objects and occurrences. Another exciting discovery I made was the existence of lugh varry, or Tide Mice. Merfolk sometimes make gifts of Tide Mice to humans. A net is woven from mermaid hair and left to float on the ocean over the spot where a treasure wreck lies below. When the Tide Mice, who love to nest in sunken ships, become caught in the net, the human can take it home and, if it is allowed to sleep on top of a gold coin, will produce a new one every day it is held in captivity. However, a lugh varry must be returned to the ocean before it's keeper dies or it will bring about horrible storms called "mouse squalls."

There are many, many other fascinating aspects of undersea life described in this book, including a map of merfolk sightings, sea zones and hazards, stories of encounters with sea folk and a passage on the dark history of merfolk in captivity. There is a passage on selkies, merfolk artifacts, weapons, sea creatures, both gentle and dangerous, weapons, vengeance, curses and lost lands, including Atlantis and Lyonesse. Having read The Secret History of Giants, I assumed that The Secret History of Mermaids and Creatures of the Deep was based on actual folklore and not entirely fabricated. Even so, I decided to do a bit of informal checking around. I was able to find historical evidence of everything that I searched for and was especially pleased to find this photograph of the pew depicting the Mermaid of Zennor, which can be found in the village of Zennor, Cornwall, in a church that dates back to the 13th century. The story behind the pew is marvelous and retold in The Secret History of Mermaids and Creatures of the Deep.

Winner of the 1969 Guardian Award for Children's Fiction - the British equivalent of the Pulitzer - Whispering Mountain another fabulous book by Joan Aiken, and, to my surprise, part of the The Wolves Chronicles, which begins with The Wolves of Willoughby Place. I love it when an author take a minor character from one novel and makes him or her the center of another novel. EL Konigsburg weaves this sort of tapestry with her books Silent to the Bone, The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place and the mysterious edge of the known world. Aiken does the same with Whispering Mountain, Is Underground and Cold Shoulder Road, creating side-stories that are as rich an intriguing as the books with Dido Twite, heroine of the Wolves Chronicles, in them. The main character in Whispering Mountain, Owen Hughes, is the son of Captain Hughes of the Thrush (which returns Dido to England in The Cuckoo Tree), who has been sent to live with his crotchety Grandfather in the tiny Welsh village of Pennygaff. Like Jenny Nimmo's Snow Spider trilogy, this book is abundant with Welsh names and words. In fact, Whispering Mountain has so many Welsh words and names woven into the text that there is a glossary in the back of the book, but don't let that deter you. It doesn't take long to get used to the Welsh usage of the letter "f" in the place of "s," among other things. And, the language and dialogues are so rich you'll find yourself reading passages more than once for pleasure, not comprehension.

Owen arrives in town to live with a grandfather he has never met, a retired sea captain who now runs the town museum, to find his identity challenged and his presence resented by the locals. Mr Hughes grudgingly accepts him into his life, but the town bullies, Dove, Mog, Hfwa, Follentine and Luggins torment Owen every day. The book begins with Owen trying to outwit the gang and happily meeting up with his old traveling companion, the barber, healer and poet Tom Dando and his daughter Arabis. When Owen had been left at port in Southampton he had been preparing to walk to Wales but the Dando's invited him to make the journey, as far as Gloucester, in their gypsy wagon. It is Arabis' falcon, Hawc, who comes to Owen's aid and scatters the boys who are in the process of giving him a pounding. Once safely inside the caravan Owen tells the Dandos about his life in Pennygaff and the amazing discover his grandfather has made. It seems that he has found the long missing Harp of Teirtu. It seems that this harp was stolen by Prince Kelyddon, along with the help of his cousin, King Arthur, as a bride-gift for the Princess Olwen. The once golden harp eventually ended up with St Ennodawg in his monastery near Pennygaff. Then is disappeared. Arabis recalls a prophecy made by one of the old bards that tells of the castle of Malyn riding on a cloud, a plunge from Devil's Leap and the Children of the Darkness being freed. All of it seems to be a mysterious riddle to the children at the time but will make perfect sense by the ned of the novel.

As always, Joan Aiken has a cast of amazing characters and settings that come together to make for a suspenseful adventure. There is the wicked Lord Malyn who will stop at nothing to get his hands on the Harp of Teirtu. There is Brother Ianto, the remaining monk in the Order of St Ennodawg, who has been on a mission in China this past decade along with the now deceased Brother Twm, learning the art of optometry. And, there is my favorite character, the loquacious Seljuk of Rum, a nobleman from Turkey who was rescued from his overturned carriage a year earlier by Brother Ianto. Anytime the Seljuk speaks brings a smile to my face and I have to share a sample of his communication style, "It is to do with a harp, some Harp of Teirtu, I apprehended, conceive, hit the nail on the head. I understand he wishes to locate, procure, ay his paws on the harp and is unable to do so." Dove, Hfwa, Luggins and Mog also join in the action after Owen and the harp of Teirtu are stolen from the museum by the wretched thieves Bilk and Prigman, who are working for Lord Malyn. Owen and his former tormentors take off across the mountainous country to find the harp and along the way rescue the missing Prince David (remember, Aiken's books are set in an alternate reality, set roughly in the early 1800s, where Good King James III is on the throne) who has been gored by a wild boar while hunting.

On top of this, Arabis discovers a race of people with miniature camels living in the winding tunnels and crevices of the Whispering Mountian who just may be the relatives of her dead mother and makers (and rightful owners) of the Harp of Teirtu. Brought to the country by force over one hundred and two generations ago to be be slaves in the gold mines in the Whispering Mountain due to their skill as a people in mining and working with gold, they were left behind when their conquerers (probably Romans) moved on to other lands. They could not remember the way to their ancestral home and thus lived in secret for hundreds of years in the mountain. The mountain people, a hermit from their tribe named Abipaal and Arabis succeed in regaining the harp, but she loses something else very dear to her in a great stand-off with Lord Malyn on the mountain in an effort to save the life of Prince David. And, in a wonderful turn of events, it seems that the Seljuk of Rum is the dynastic leader of the people of the mountain and has come to take them home after so many years.

It is amazing what is packed into this relatively short book. As always, Joan Aiken is a master at creating a world within a book, whether it is fantastical or historical, you see it in your mind's eye as you read. The geographical landscape and characters are so vividly rendered. The edition I have has cover art by the amazing fantasy artist Charles Vess, collaborator with Neil Gaiman on the picture book Blueberry Girl. Neil Gaiman is the author of Coraline, which was made into a great movie this year, and the marvelous Graveyard Book, winner of the 2009 Newbery Award.

The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas is the first in a trilogy and reminds me very much of Angie Sage's Septimus Heap series from its square shape to to it's map of the town and guide to the characters at the end of the story, as well as wonderful illustrations by Antonio Javier Caparo. Both series can serve as the perfect bridge between shorter chapter books and popular, more intense series like Cornelia Funke's Inkworld trilogy or the Harry Potter Series. Where the books differ is in their imaginary settings. While Angie Sage's series has a distinctly medieval, fairy-tale like feel, Sarah Prineas' has a more Victorian air to it, the narrator sometimes using mellifluous phrases like "quick dart" and "skip-tripping."

In what has to be one of the best first lines to a fantasy novel I have read in a while, the narrator, Connwaer, tells us that, "A thief is a lot like a wizard." As his description at the back of the book reads, Conn is a "master pickpocket, a superb lock-picker and lover of biscuits and bacon." His story begins when he picks the pocket, out of pure curiosity, of Nevery Flinglas, a wizard who has recently returned to Wellmet after a twenty year exile. Conn steals his locus magicalicus, the stone through which the free flowing magic in the town of Wellmet can be harnessed. Anyone else attempting this fear would be killed or severely harmed by the powerful magical object, but not Conn. Sensing he could be useful, Nevery takes Conn to the chophouse and feeds him the first warm, filling meal Conn has had in a long time. From there the two, along with the menacing, burly servant Benet, form an uneasy alliance, which they will need.

The magic in Wellmet, which keeps the werelights glowing and the factories running, among other things, has been dissipating. The Magisters, admitting Nevery back into their fold, search for answers to this dilemma. At the same time, Nevery is realizing that Conn has some natural talent, power actually, of his own when it comes to practicing magic. Hoping to train him, Nevery insists that Conn attend school at the Academicos and learn to read runes - in which a secret message is written at the end of the diary entries of Nevery's that conclude each chapter. There he meets Rowan, the non-magical daughter of the Duchess of Wellmet, Willa Forestal. Conn learns to read with great speed and finds himself with the task of discovering his own locus magicalicus and the source of the waning magic in thirty days. Where he finds is and the power it possesses comes as a great surprise to all. And, despite his best intentions, Conn learns that his shady past keeps the people he respects most from trusting him at times.

Set 6,000 years ago when all of northwest Europe was forest, Michelle Paver's Wolf Brother, the first book in the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness begins just after a bear has attacked Torak and his father. As Torak's father is dying, he makes Torak promise to find the Mountain of the World Spirit and ask it to help destroy the bear before the bear, who seems to be possessed by a demon, destroys the forest. He also insists that Torak stay away from humans and remember to always look behind him. Torak agrees and unwillingly accepts his father's knife, giving him his own, to take on the Death Journey with him. As he places the Death Marks on his father to help his three souls unite on the death Journey - the circles on the heels marking the name-soul, a circle over his heart marking the clan-soul and finally a circle on his forehead to mark the Nanuak, the World-Soul, he knows he cannot make this journey on his own. Raised alone in the Forest by his father who is of the Wolf Clan, Torak has supreme hunting skills but there is still so much his father hasn't taught him. And so many secrets he has not told him.

What follows is a suspense filled, treacherous journey as Torak makes his way to the Mountain of the World Spirit, a place no one has ever been to before. First, Torak finds the guide his father said would come to aid him. A wolf cub who's family has been drowned in their den during a flash flood seems like a suitable dinner, even though Torak is part Wolf Clan, until he discovers he can understand wolf-speak. Torak spares the cub, names him Wolf and learns that, despite the cub's tender age, he truly is a guide with an unfailing sense of direction and can be trusted implicitly. While most of the book is told in third person narrative, portions are narrated by Wolf, who refers to Torak as "Tall Tailless." The relationship between Torak and Wolf, as well as the brief narratives by Wolf, make up the backbone of the book. Paver conducted extensive research, which included traveling the forests of Finland and Lapland and, "sleeping on reindeer skins in the traditional open-fronted Finnish laavu. [Eating] elk heart, reindeer, and lingonberries, and spruce resin: the chewing gum of the Stone Age," to write this series. She also studied the belief systems of more recent hunter-gatherer clans such as Native-American and Inuit tribes in order to create doctrines of the spiritual world that the various clans of the Wolf Brother adhere to. The spiritual beliefs of the clans and their deep respect for nature and the animals that helped to sustain their lives was especially fascinating to me as I read the book. The clans peoples' belief that everything, rocks, rivers and trees are alive and have spirits and, while they can't all talk, they can hear and think affects the way they live their lives down to the way they walk, what they wear, how they hunt and where they will travel.

This understanding plays into the main drama of the book, the hunting of the bear-demon that has been created as a means of revenge on Torak's father, who was aware of this before he died. This knowledge is part the reason that he has kept Torak's existence a secret from all but one person - the Mage of the Raven Clan. As Torak, Wolf and the bear-demon make a path through the forest, the bear-demon leaving a trail of kills behind him, killing not to feed his body but to feed the demon inside of him that makes him bigger and stronger with every death, all three make their way to the Mountain of the World Spirit. Forgetting his father's warning to always look behind him, Torak and Wolf are captured by hunters from the Raven Clan and taken back to their camp. Unbeknownst to Torak, he has killed (and prepared, making use of every possible part which Paver describes in fascinating detail) the buck that the Ravens were tracking and they want him punished. The rules of the forest have changed and Torak, having lived apart from the clans, only attending one clan-meet ever with his father, is unaware of this. When Fin-Keddin, the Leader of the Raven Clan agrees to let Torak fight a clan member instead of being put to death, Torak takes on Hord, an ego-filled young hunter and one of the three, along with his younger sister, Renn, and Oslak, who captured him and brought him to the camp. Of course the fight is not a fair one, but Torak finds a way to win and in doing so unknowingly reveals himself as the Listener who "gives his heart's blood to the Mountain. And the Shadow is crushed."

Regardless of this prophecy, Torak intends to carry out his promise to his father. However, it is up to Fin-Keddin and the rest of the clan to decide it young Torak should be allowed to go the the Mountain and spill his own blood or if he should be killed and a stronger man be allowed to take his blood to the Mountain. This is generally more talk about blood and killing, even if it is to survive, than I am used to or interested in, however, because of the time period of the novel and Paver's magnificent writing skills, I was immersed in the story almost immediately and overcame my aversions easily, in the same way that I was able to come my revulsion at Mary and Laura playing happily with a pig's bladder balloon on butchering day in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods. Also, in addition to reading this book, I had the IMMENSE pleasure of listening to Sir Ian McKellen narrate the audio version which can be downloaded at audible.com but does not seem to be available for purchase as a CD. To read Ian McKellen's enthusiastic words about the series and the experience of recording it, click here. To watch and listen to McKellen in the recording booth reading Book 5 in the series, with an introduction by Michelle Paver, click here.

Genre wise, this is not my kind of book at all, but there is something so completely entrancing about it that I am going to clear the decks as much as possible so that I can read the second book in the series, something I rarely have time to do since I started reviewing books. Personally and professionally, I feel that this is a series that, despite the seemingly boy overtones, will appeal to both boys and girls. Renn, who becomes Torak's traveling companion and eventual friend by the end of the book is a fabulous female character, a bit like Elliott from the Tunnels series (book 2, Deeper) by Gordon and Williams. Also a book with very few female characters and even fewer positive ones, Elliott is powerful, smart and self-sufficient as well as admired for these skills by the boys and men around her.

With Clemency Pogue and the Scrivener Bees, JT Petty continues the story he began in Book #2 in the series, Clemency Pogue and the Hobgoblin Proxy. The first book in the series, Clemency Pogue, Fairy Killer, can be read as a stand alone and, for younger children, I suggest exactly that. The story of the changeling with a chip on his shoulder, Inky Mess, begun in Book#2, continues in Book #3 and gets increasingly darker - much like Cornelia Funke's Inkworld Trilogy. And, as I discovered at the end of Book #3, the saga continues! It has been two years since Clemency Pogue and the Scrivener Bees was published and still no resolution! Does Inky destroy Make-Believe or can the amazing Clemency and her hobgoblin crew, Chaphesmeeso and Kennethurchin, who's secret, true name Clem uncovers by the end of the book, finally put a stop to his evil ways?

Even though I have to wait for the answer to this question, I still had fun getting to it. Book #3 is swarming with new and horrible creatures as well as some pretty funny new fairies, even if Inky is capturing all of them. The book begins with Clemency worrying over her parent's deteriorating relationship. At the same time, Inky is sneaking into the institution where his mother, well, Kennethurchin's mother really, lies in a catatonic state. As a changeling, a creature goblins make from clay to use as a decoy when stealing human infants, Inky seems to have some abandonment issues to work out with his mother, who went insane when she realized her real child had been replaced with a changeling. However, when Clem teaches Inky to read, thus learning "human magic," one of his two major grudges against the world is resolved. Unfortunately, he uses this new skill to take control of the most powerful piece of magic in Make-Believe, the Forgetting Book, in which all of Make-Believe, including the true names of every fairy and hobgoblin (the knowledge of which allows the possessor of such complete control over the fairy or hobgoblin.) And, if you are wondering, the Scrivener Bees are magical creatures that live in a vale of coal black flowers called kettlepot blossoms which is surrounded by a thorny hedge. They sleep during the day and work at night and are watched over by the Fairy Queen of the Scrivener Bees. The bees can answer any question asked, with the help of the Queen, and both Inky and Clem seek answers over the course of this book. This painful and fascinating part of the Scrivener Bees is that they use their needle-like stingers to tattoo the answers to the questions onto the asker. Inky has lots of questions. Clem has only one and, as the bees tattoo it on the back of her neck she cant read it until she finds a mirror. But, by the end of the book she has fallen into bed, exhausted, as her parents stand over her tucking her in wondering, "Is that a tattoo?" and "What does ask the right questions mean?" The final page is Inky's drawing of how to make a fairy trap...