THE REVENGE OF OGYSTONE

A young girl and her pixielike friends find danger and idyll in this sequel.

Suzy, nearly 13 years old, lives with her Nan and Grandad in Capel-le Ferne, a village perched atop the White Cliffs of Dover. Suzy is friends with the Paxteys, winged fairylike beings who inhabit a nearby cliffside warren and take care of the natural world. Sometimes Paxteys and humans can form a special bond—a symbiosis of sorts—and can hear one another’s thoughts. This has happened with Suzy and the Paxtey Scratch, her special friend, who is still recovering from the tribulations of Ralph’s previous volume, Voices in the Mist (2013). In that story, the loathsome Ogystone captured lots of Paxteys and held them prisoner. Thanks to Suzy and Scratch, those Paxteys were rescued. Ogystone was thought to have “puffed out” (died), but he is back. He has taken over the body of an osprey, mutating it beyond recognition and corrupting several nests of young ospreys to act as his henchmen. Ogystone’s one driving thought is to take vengeance on the Paxteys. Can Suzy, Scratch, and the others defeat him again? This middle-grade book is very much a continuation, and though the author writes with new readers in mind, there are still some elements (Little House, for instance) that pass wholly without account, leading to a measure of disorientation. Suzy is a throwback character, evoking the bygone days of early- to mid-20th-century children’s fiction, including tales by E. Nesbit and Enid Blyton. Suzy is innocent and loving and rather saccharine in her interactions. She is often overcome with emotion. While her lack of foibles may not be to everyone’s taste, one consequence of her sweet disposition is that the story takes on even more of a wistful, halcyon feel. The Paxteys are delightful creatures. Ogystone is the very essence of a frightful villain. The dialogue is slightly stylized—again, evincing the formality of yesteryear. The plot, though simple in both execution and resolution, moves along nicely and will keep young readers beguiled. The book contains a handful of black-and-white pencil drawings by Macklin that sufficiently depict the main Paxtey characters.

A dreamy, magical adventure harking back to the stories of an earlier era.