A second mysterious threat to his isolated village prompts the humble herd boy introduced in Rowan of Rin (not reviewed) to prove again that a weak body can hide a hero’s heart. When the villagers suddenly fall asleep among their newly planted Mountain berry bushes, Rowan chases after a passing group of Romany-like Travelers, hoping to persuade them to lift the supposed curse. Instead, he finds himself in the company of Zeel, a hated Zebak invader raised as a Traveler, attempting to enter the fabled Valley of Gold by passing through its only entrance, the ill-reputed Pit of Unrin. Though arguing and handwringing slow the pace, Rodda gives her characters unusually well developed back stories as well as strong, genuinely scary adversaries. Rowan learns the hard way that the sweetly soporific berries that the people of Rin have planted all around are the juvenile forms of a carnivorous tree with thrashing, tentacle-like roots; fortunately, he also discovers an effective defense in a rhymed riddle’s oblique references. The storytelling may be patchy (thanks to plenty of heavy hints, readers will have solved the riddle long before Rowan), but this Australian series shows signs of heading in promising directions. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-06-029775-1
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2001
Lisle wastes an appealing cast in this clumsy, contrived tale of a confused but resolute child who tracks down and reunites her forcibly separated parents—while also reuniting a mother with a child thought dead, stopping a war, rescuing captured wolves, and more. Copper Beech, 10, has always believed herself abandoned, until suddenly dispatched to the far-off Marble Mountains, where she finds herself caught between her father’s extended family of woodworkers, living inside a huge tree, and cave-dwelling Rockers, hostile relatives on her mother’s side who insist that they’ve been cheated out of a shipment of gold. Despite the author’s overuse of the “evasive answer” trick, Copper soon discovers that her father is hiding in an upper story of the tree, and her mother has magically sealed herself inside the mountain to escape a captor/suitor. Amid a welter of good hunches, telegraphed revelations, cliffhangers both figurative and literal, and convenient magic, Copper takes care of business—all without much fuss, danger, or suspense. Like the misshapen knitting that she compulsively produces, this never weaves itself into a finished whole, despite some enjoyable, even ingenious, elements. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-399-24211-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
Williams constructs this page-turner debut out of tried-and-true elements, from time travel and ghostly visions in a derelict old resort, to eccentric great-aunts and children hurting from their mother’s sudden death. Sent to a remote corner of Maine for a month while their grieving father struggles to get his life back in order, Rowan and his younger sister Nina soon discover that Aunts Agatha and Gertrude are seasoned time travelers, pulling artifacts from the past to stock their crowded curio shop. When Nina suddenly disappears, Rowan and two new friends hare off into the past in pursuit—to be swept up willy-nilly in the chaos of the French Revolution. The author is reasonably meticulous with historical detail, though not at the expense of keeping the story moving. After encounters with well-known French figures, the young searchers nearly have a fatal “appointment” with the guillotine before the Aunts swoop to the rescue. Then Rowan, acting on a hunch, finds Nina not in 18th-century France, but 20th-century Brooklyn, where their mother is still alive. Time, so to speak, to make some choices. A heady, if familiar, mix of history, adventure, fantasy, and character growth. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-8109-4823-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2004
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
