First novelist Britton has chosen her themes from a dizzying array of fantasy staples. Bird, the orphaned heroine, is bold and bratty; she falls in with a passel of other orphans who are cared for by the sad Soladin and the merry Farwender. A locket holds the last Seed for the Tree that gives health and blessing, to replace the tree that Farwender’s evil brother has destroyed. Bird is given the locket, the adult couple is captured, and the orphans must try to rescue them and plant the Seed. Britton packs a lot into her pages, and readers familiar with fantasy can play a kind of game of name-that-source. The characterizations aren’t much—and Bird is a mean-spirited child—but the action is pretty swift, and some of it is violent and cruel. A chimera that is both lion and snake, and a white kitten named Finder, fill out the cast and have their roles to play. Not as bad as some. (Fantasy/fiction. 10-13)
