THE CROOKED FOREST

Franks offers a fairytale fantasy led by a tiny, helpful adventurer and her enchanted canine companion.

In the ancient Crooked Forest live fairies, trolls, and small, forest-keeping folk called Shuns, first introduced in the author’s prolific children’s fantasy series Corky Tails. Here, a Shun named Willow, a hero-in-the-making, is accompanied by her companion and steed, Sir Gyzmo, a talking fairy dog wearing a saddle and halter woven from columbine, lavender, ferns, and coyote willow. (The text is rich in descriptive appreciation for growing things.) Loosely structured, interconnected vignettes include the saga of Willow’s long-lost mother, Luna, the victim of human sheep farmer Aidan’s cruelty; she’s magically transported by a fairy to a place of healing “where time was no longer measured.” Aidan features, too, in the plight of his wife, Wynter; he’s heartbroken to learn that he caused the drought that nearly destroyed her village. Willow teaches Wynter herbal and flower lore, leading to lush descriptions of snowdrops, wild garlic in “a carpet of wide green leaves,” dandelion and acorn tea, and an abundance of “meadowsweet, coltsfoot, honeysuckle, and bramble.” In another vignette, Willow helps an arrogant, 3,000-year-old troll understand the importance of being his “true self.” The author shows readers the comically hideous troll’s vulnerability in his yearning for a companion and his concern over a way of life endangered by human settlers cutting their way into the forest. Throughout, the author’s themes resonate: respect for nature and the importance of husbanding its resources, perseverance, kindness toward others, and forgiveness. Readers unacquainted with the events in the author’s first series installment, The Crooked Forest: Legacy of the Holey Stone(2021), will find more clarity if they start with it, although numerous flashbacks to previous events in this volume help, as does the work’s fairy-tale charm, melded with real-life concerns and character-building messages.

An enchanting story with messages of empathy and appreciation for nature.