THE SECRET WORLD OF YONDHAVEN

Two children come to the rescue of a sanctuary world for Earth’s mistreated creatures in this debut middle-grade fantasy.

In the near future, after a plague and climate change disasters, sixth grader Ashley of Irish/Native American extraction meets freckled, green-eyed Joshua, who’s in the third grade. They follow the bouncing trail of Joshua’s newly discovered glowing blue ball through a shimmering portal into another world. Yondhaven “welcomes the ignored, the discarded, the mistreated, and many odds and ends from your Earth,” including animals and magical beings, explains Horace Guinea Pig—speech is one of the many blessings the land affords its denizens. But Yondhaven is threatened by Orts, monsters that embody Earth’s pollution. With the help of a flying unicorn, the children and Horace set out on a dangerous journey to the wise and powerful Gaela. As they dodge Orts and the wicked fairy Sicorax, they’re helped by Yondhaven’s motley creatures. But when they reach Gaela’s remote island, she’s gone into hiding. Ashley and Joshua must ascend to a mountaintop where their blue ball can return them to Earth—and work a miracle for Yondhaven. In her book, Wellman offers a portal adventure, the familiar plot structure enlivened by its parallels to pressing contemporary problems. While imparting a clear lesson about pollution and climate change, the novel generally avoids being overly preachy by providing dramatic episodes of danger and challenges. Joshua, for example, faces a test of character not unlike Edmund’s in C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Debut illustrator Gribok-Lipari supplies pencil drawings that charmingly depict scenery and animals, though human figures are less skillfully rendered.

An adventurous, entertaining fable that taps into longings for a cleaner Earth.