July 7, 2015 | Posted in:Blog: Story Stories, Book Reviews, libraries
Need an adventure/fantasy for 8 years and older? Like Narnia, and other great tales in this genre, Wildwood by Colin Meloy allows readers to wonder about the foundations of our society by setting up an entirely new one just outside our own. At the outset of the story, Prue’s baby brother is abducted by crows and taken to Wildwood, just across the Willamette River from Portland. Prue – and her friend Curtis – become embroiled in the machinations of politics and power in Wildwood when all she really wants to do is retrieve her baby brother.
There is much that I love about Wildwood: the moderate pacing, the varied point-of-view, the fair-enough handling of the parents, and mostly the main character Prue. I love Prue’s journey to get her brother back, and everything she learns and does along the way. Meloy deals with the themes of justice, peace and non-violence adeptly and still manages to keep the story entertaining.
This is a well-crafted story, one I would be pleased to read to a classroom full of fourth graders, or my to own family
- Title: Wildwood: The Wildwood Chronicles Book 1
- Author : Meloy, Colin
- Illustrator: Ellis, Carson.
- Copyright: 2011 Unadoptable Books LLC
- ISBN: 978-0-06-202468-8
- Dewey Decimal Number: Fic Mel
- Reading Range: 6.3