Folkloric
Book Corner
Have you ever heard of a Kraken, or a boobrie, or a stoorworm? In Ibbotson’s delightful novel, these creatures live on or near a hidden island and are cared for by three kindly old aunts. Realizing that their energy and care can’t last forever, the aunts go to London for assistant caretakers and kidnap three children to fill the need (they only kidnap children they think need to be kidnapped). Tension builds and reaches a peak in pages that can hardly be read and turned quickly enough. Elements of compassion and treachery are presented with unexpected humor in this fast moving novel of rescue and survival.
After the sudden death of his mother in an automobile accident, high-school aged Josh decides to hitchhike across the United States. He becomes trapped in a mysterious village somewhere in the Appalachians inhabited by a group of people who call themselves Melungeons. These little-known Americans are of mixed ancestry claimed to be a varied intermingling of American Indian, white (especially Portuguese), and occasionally black. The story combines mysterious vanishing elements, similar to Brigadoon and Lost Horizon, and provides a haunting story that moves from mystery to resolution. An interesting companion book to the novel is The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People (N. Brent Kennedy with Robyn Vaughan Kennedy: Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1997. 179 pages).
Zack and most of his family are relocated to Elko, Nevada, in a witness protection program to protect them from a drug cartel. Zack makes some friends and enemies during his short stay in Elko. He meets the likeable Basque sheepherders and gets to join them in the hills for a short visit. “After they ate,” the story goes, “the men passed around a leather bag of red wine and squirted the juice in their mouths with their heads thrown back.” After sharing thick pieces of bread and cheese and then enjoying a hearty dinner of steak and potatoes, Zack remarked, “I think when I grow up I want to be a sheep herder” (125). The tension builds when a high school boy steals Zack’s journal and threatens to expose the family. The family finds itself in extreme jeopardy, and the fast-paced story conveys danger that innocent people are sometimes required to endure.
A narrative that pulls the reader into the story action and the characters of the narrative into the reader’s life. Busy going about their lives, the wonder-tale characters, both royalty and servants, scramble to be on the right page when the book is opened by a reader. Readers become engaged with the story characters and find them appearing in their (the readers’) dreams. Tension mounts as readers and story characters move through time and settings together. Even for adults, this is an absorbing story rich with colorful imagery and human emotion. It includes earth, fire, wind, and water, and takes the reader on an old-fashioned trip through an imaginary and dynamic new fairytale.
