Jane Johnson

The Secret Country
by Jane Johnson
Recommended Age: 10+

This first book in The Eidolon Chronicles introduces young Ben Arnold, a boy with one foot in a magical world -- or one eye, rather. It's the bright green eye that clashes with his other, brown one. It eventually turns out that his one green eye marks him as a prince in the Secret Country, where his mother is the rightful queen. But until he finds this out, Ben is just an ordinary boy who has his heart set on buying a Mongolian fighting fish. Things start to happen when he goes to the pet store to buy the fish, and a talking cat named Iggy cajoles Ben into buying him instead.

Iggy is a traveler from the Secret Country, one who walks the roads between worlds. But someone else is traveling the roads, carrying on a sinister traffic in magical creatures who cannot long survive separation from the magic of home. One such creature, a tiny fairy, falls into Ben's hands, propelling him and Iggy on a dangerous journey. Before it is over, boy and cat will face threats to their lives, their family, and their world.

This is a funny and often thrilling story, featuring many wonderful creatures - and some fairly nasty ones, too. It has prophecies, narrow escapes, low-brow henchmen, strange newspaper clippings, and a boy's struggle to write a letter to Mum and Dad so they won't worry while he is traveling out of this world to fight superhuman bad guys. The author's writing style has a few quirks and may take some getting used to, but the quirks come out in this story's favor as it succeeds in being different, diverting, and definitely the starting point of a fresh, new series.

UPDATE: This series has moved on without me! The next two books, at least, have come out. Their titles are The Shadow World and Dragon's Fire.

Tove Jansson

The Moomin series
by Tove Jansson

The tales of Moomintroll and his friends and family were authored and illustrated by a Finnish author and painter who wrote in Swedish. They began as simple, lighthearted, episodic stories about a family of little trolls and the small creatures they befriended. Gentle and heartwarming as they are, they also have a touch of melancholy, perhaps an inescapable part of any tale based on childhood in a far northern climate; and there are hints of messages about social and personal values. Later, the series grew in depth and maturity, until Jansson turned toward writing adult fiction.

I am indebted to Wikipedia for this summary of the Moomin books. After reading several of the books, I had to wiki the series because I was getting confused about the order in which the books happened. Here, for the record, is the order of the full-length Moomin books:

1. The Moomins and the Great Flood (1945)
2. Comet in Moominland (1946)
3. Finn Family Moomintroll, a.k.a. The Happy Moomins (1948)
4. The Exploits of Moominpappa, a.k.a. Moominpappa's Memoirs (1950)
5. Moominsummer Madness (1954)
6. Moominland in Midwinter (1957)
7. Tales from Moominvalley (a 1962 collection of short stories)
8. Moominpappa at Sea (1965)
9. Moominvalley in November (1970)

There are also several smaller, children's picture books based on the Moomins, including The Book About Moomin, Mymble, and Little My (1952), Who Will Comfort Toffle? (1960), The Dangerous Journey (1977), An Unwanted Guest (1980), and Visitor from Moominvalley (1993). Not all of the work in the last few was hers, and some of them have not been translated into English. Jansson also co-created a comic strip based on the Moomins, but for most of its run it was the work of her brother Lars.

The Moomin books started when the author wanted to write something sweet and innocent to relieve her depression over World War II. The first book was The Moomins and the Great Flood, but many English-speaking readers missed this book because it was not widely available in translation until after many of the other books in the series. Jansson's publisher made her change the title to The Little Trolls and the Great Flood, because he feared the public would not understand the word "Moomins." In translation the original title has been restored, but (like the American publisher's decision to change the title of J.K. Rowling's first book) these changes of title have added to the confusion. So for many fans of these stories, the curtain rises with the second book, Comet in Moominland - though it contains references to the earlier book.

For her contributions to worldwide children's literature, Tove Jansson won the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1966. The Moomins are also honored by a museum and a theme park. At 33 languages strong, these have become some of the most widely translated works of Finnish literature. Some of Jansson's other books include The Summer Book, A Winter Book, and The Field of Stones.

Comet in Moominland
by Tove Jansson
Recommended Age: 10+

The little trolls and friendly creatures of Moominvalley are seeing the signs everywhere: signs that the end of the world is near. A comet is coming, and it looks set to score a direct hit on the peaceful, green place Moomintroll loves. So he and his little friend Sniff set out on a journey to the Lonely Mountains, to ask the scientists at the great observatory whether Moominvalley can be saved. As a result, this second book in Tove Jansson's award-winning Moomin series (following The Moomins and the Great Flood) is full of hair-raising encounters, eerie landscapes, and a growing atmosphere of anxiety and sorrow as the Moomins' world of innocence and pleasure increasingly seems doomed.

As they go along, Sniff and Moomintroll make the acquaintance of several friends who will be with them through many Moominadventures to come: the footloose Snufkin whose friendship means so much to Moomintroll; the sweet-natured Snork Maiden and her somewhat pompous brother the Snork; and one particular, stamp-collecting Hemulen whose sphere of awareness is absurdly limited.

Even in translation, Tove Jansson's prose is amazingly direct and economical, while at the same time filling the nostrils of the mind with many heady scents of nature, and the heart with many tender, and occasionally tense, feelings. Her illustrations are also very clever and effective, varying between the simplicity of a comic strip and a whimsical, woodcut-like detail. The true wonder of them is how she makes such abstract, oddly shaped creatures seem so expressive and lovable.

Finn Family Moomintroll
by Tove Jansson
Recommended Age: 10+

This book is the third in a series that earned its author the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1966 (this is given every two years in honor of career contribution to children’s literature). Originally written in Swedish by a Finnish author and illustrator, the version I read was translated by Elizabeth Portch. Its sweetness, charm, and smooth readability put it in the same league as Winnie the Pooh and Pippi Longstocking; it also has a touch of melancholy reminiscent of The Wind in the Willows.

The moomins are a family of small, fuzzy creatures with round snouts and frilly tails. Young Moomintroll and his parents, Moominmamma and Moominpappa, live in a tall, round, blue house in Moominvalley, along with a variety of odd friends and adopted children. These include the philosophical Muskrat, the morose Hemulen, the Snork and his Snork Maiden sister (who is devoted to Moomintroll), the ruggedly independent Snufkin, and the childish Sniff.

In this book, a follow-up to Comet in Moominland, we follow the adventures of the Moominfamily from the end of one winter’s sleep to the beginning of the next. On the first day of spring, Moomintroll and his friends discover a magical tophat lost by the legendary Hobgoblin. This hat soon shows its power to transform anything placed inside it, leading to a variety of whimsical and unpredictable adventures.

The moomins also visit a lonely island where they encounter the creepy Hattifatteners. Then they adopt the mischievous twins Thingumy and Bob, who are on the run from the sinister Groke (a creature who sucks the warmth out of everything it touches). Finally the denizens of Moomindale throw a big party, attracting the notice of the wish-granting, panther-riding Hobgoblin himself.

This story contains things that every child can understand – particularly children who live in a climate where winter casts a depressing shadow over a major portion of each year. It is a cheerful, innocent story about children playing, imagining, quarreling, and making up. It has a treasure hunt, and magic, and a mock trial, and a picnic, and a game of Tarzan in the drawing room. It has puppy love, wistful farewells, characters who speak in spoonerisms, a thrilling fishing expedition, and a terrible storm. And it very gently teaches that what really matters is not money and expensive stuff, but beauty and happiness and goodness.

As soon as I read this book, I went online and ordered all the other books in the series. This is the kind of book parents will love to read to their children, and that certain thoughtful, sensitive children will enjoy reading to themselves. The secret of Moominland has been kept far too well; I had never heard of it before I saw this book at New York City’s Books of Wonder. I suspect that more people know of it from the Japanese animated film and TV series loosely based on it than from the books themselves. I hope this series will become better known.

Moominsummer Madness
by Tove Jansson
Recommended Age: 10+

The fifth book in the sweet, heart-warming adventures of the little trolls, or Moomins, begins with a flood. The Moominfamily and their houseguests find themselves swept away in a strange, floating house that is entirely open on one side, except for some huge, heavy curtains. The Moomins, you see, have never heard of theatre; but they are about to get a strange, first taste of stage life.

This book is often funny, full of perilous encounters, and touched here and there by a spirit of satire. Consider the terrible price Moomintroll pays for violating the custom about whistling on stage, and the delight Snufkin takes (and we along with him) in fooling the Park Keeper, abolishing the rules posted all over the park, and liberating small children from their joyless, regimented existence. Of course Snufkin too pays a price for his mischief, by becoming responsible for a gaggle of little creatures.

It is a hard heart that cannot warm to these characters, such as the smart-mouthed Little My, the serious and inquisitive Whomper, the melancholy Fillyjonk, and even the officious Hemulens. To say nothing of the ruggedly independent Snufkin, and the Snork Maiden with her silly notion about picking nine kinds of flower on Midsummer Eve.

Would that everyone had childhood memories as carefree as the adventures of these little animals and their fuzzy troll friends! Why, you'll just have to put such memories into your head. How? By reading this book and others in the series!

Brian Jacques

Castaways of the Flying Dutchman
by Brian Jacques
Recommended Age: 12+

The author of the bestselling Redwall tales brings us this series of adventures of a boy and a dog, wandering the world, ageless and unchanged while the world changes around them.

The starting point of the story is the legend of the Flying Dutchman, a ship said to be cursed to sail the oceans of the world for all eternity, its crew condemned to an eternal living death, because of a few choice blasphemies uttered by their captain. The angel who imposes the curse on the crew, exempts two of their number - a boy who, fleeing for his life, stowed away on board; and a big black dog. Instead of battling against the seas without hope, forever, the boy and the dog are given the freedom to roam the world, the ability to understand any language (and the boy, to be understood in them too), and a command to help people in need to rise above their problems.

Their first mission: to help and comfort a lonely shepherd in Patagonia (the southern tip of South America). Their second mission, in an English village at the turn of the 20th century, takes up most of the book. Together with their English friends, young and old, young Neb and his dog Den (a.k.a. Ben and Ned) must help solve a mystery, and find a buried treasure, to help a sad old lady and a group of children save their historic town from hoodlums and developers.

It's a charming story, and it looks like it could be the beginning of another successful series... [EDIT: I was right. Further books in this series include The Angel's Command and Voyage of Slaves.

The Redwall series
by Brian Jacques
Recommended Age: 8+

At this writing, the popular British storyteller has given us 15 tales of the friendly beasts of Redwall and the Mossflower woods. Filled with colorful characters, warm camaraderie, rollicking adventure, charm, mystery, a love of good food, a love of children (of all species), and a love of nature, these are at the same time "comfort stories" you can cuddle up with and read to your children, and tales of peril, courage, sacrifice, and (occasionally) gore and violence, that may send shivers up your spine.

I recommend reading at least one or two of the Redwall-Mossflower books. You may find, after that point, that they all tend to be the same story told over and over again. If you find that to be the case, read no further. But you may find, as I did, that Redwall was a lovely place to visit, no matter how often you return; and its unchanging charms embrace you like a warm blanket, time after time. The Redwall books can be read in any order, since even the order they were published has no relation to chronological order. Any of them would be worth your while! In brief:

Redwall, the story of young Matthias the mouse, a clumsy, dreamy novice in the Redwall Abbey built and inhabited by the friendly creatures of Mossflower Wood. But when danger rears its rodent head, in the shape of Cluny the sea rat and his band of land pirates, Matthias rises to the occasion. Inspired by the spirit of Martin the Warrior (a mighty mouse who helped found the Abbey), Matthias leads the mice, squirrels, moles, hares, and other good creatures in resisting evil at all costs.

Mossflower relates the story of Martin the Warrior, a brave young mouse who joins with Gonff the mouse-thief to throw off the tyranny of a dynasty of wildcats and other associated vermin, and free the hedgehogs, hares, badgers, moles, mice, squirrels, and what have you. This is the story of how Martin came to Mossflower Wood and how the foundations of Redwall came to be laid.

Mattimeo tells how a wily fox and his vermin band kidnap Matthias the mouse's rebellious son, Mattimeo, leading a rescue party away from Redwall just when another group of outlaws has their eye on the Abbey. Mariel of Redwall is the story of the daughter of Joseph the Bellmaker, whose bell would later be such an important part of Redwall Abbey, and how she escaped from pirate sea-rats and led an expedition to rescue her father from the dread Isle of Terramort.

Salamandastron focuses on the mountain forge-fortress of the perilous hares, commanded by a line of Badger Lords, poised on the seashore to defend Mossflower and its neighboring lands from enemies by sea. Martin the Warrior relates the very beginning of the adventures of the mouse who would later lead the Mossflower creatures to victory.

The Bellmaker tells how Joseph the Bellmaker and a small party of Redwallers travelled far to the south to rescue Joseph's adventurous daughter Mariel and her friends. Outcast of Redwall is the sad tale of a foundling ferret, and the true-hearted mousemaid who raises him as her own. When Veil has been banished from Redwall Abbey, and his faithful foster-mother Bryony follows him in his search for his warlord father, hoping Veil may rise above the bad blood that seems destined to taint him.

Pearls of Lutra tells the story of Tansy the hedgehog, who sets out on a quest to solve an ancient riddle, leading to the isle of Sampetra, the court of an evil pine marten named Mad-Eye, and his cold-blooded lizard army. The Long Patrol is about how a young hare learns the meaning of courage and duty, as the Salamandastron hares risk terrible slaughter to draw a vermin horde away from Redwall.

Marlfox tells of a band of dastardly sneak-thieves who, by stealth and deception, make off with Redwall's precious Tapestry--and how two young squirrels, a shrew, and a water vole face deadly peril to take it back. The Legend of Luke shows us Martin the Warrior Mouse, searching for evidence of his father's fate.

Lord Brocktree tells how a badger lord and his perilous hares defend the land against an evil wildcat and his vermin horde. Taggerung is about how prophecy, murder, and kidnap turn an innocent otter infant into the adopted heir of a vicious vermin leader - and whether the nobler ties of nature can redeem someone trapped in an evil fate. And hottest off the press is Triss, the adventures of a warrior squirrelmaid.

UPDATE: I evidently wrote the above review around 2002, the year Triss came out - and though I bought it, I have never been able to bring myself to read it, or any other Redwall book, since then. Maybe the mood will take me some time. When it does, I will have my work cut out for me, because the further books in this series include Loamhedge, Rakkety Tam, High Rhulain, Eulalia, and this year's Doomwyte. There are also any number of associated reference books, including a Redwall Cookbook!

Catherine Fisher

Here is another author out of ABC. I recently submitted this review, and was hoping to finish my review of another book by Fisher, titled Snow Walker, before I posted this. But I mislaid the book when I was two-thirds done reading it, and though I have found it since then, I have always seemed to be in the middle of another book when I thought of going back to it. Coming soon!

Darkhenge
by Catherine Fisher
Recommended Age: 14+

You're not supposed to feel sorry for Rob Drew. His family is well-off. He has an incredible artistic talent and a bright future to go with it. He has good looks that turn girls' heads, a solid friendship, loads of positive attention from adults. But he can't be happy, because his family can't be happy. They are, in fact, being torn apart by the coma his kid sister Chloe has been in since a horse threw her three months ago. And since Rob read a page out of Chloe's diary, he also knows how bitterly she resented being in his shadow, how violently she hated him for being so perfect and for constantly, casually, unknowingly slighting her.

Then a weird adventure beings to pull Rob in. It starts with a disturbing vision on the road where his sister fell. Then Rob witnesses the arrival of a being out of Celtic legend, an all-knowing man who calls himself Vetch. And finally, Rob gets a job sketching finds at an archaeological dig where really odd things start happening. Before long, Rob has climbed down a tree buried upside-down inside a mystic circle, down into a world where his sister reigns as queen.

Here is his chance to bring his family back together again. But only if Chloe allows herself to be rescued. And when she wants nothing more than to get out of Rob's shadow, it is amazing what lengths she can go to in her race to the throne of the Unworld.

Occult content advisory: It is hard to reconcile the spiritual world of Rob's adventure with Christianity, as the family priest in the story points out with deep concern. Some readers may question whether the priest's subsequent behavior is becoming of a Christian minister. So once again, a heads-up to Christian parents who monitor what their kids read: approach this book with sensitivity, and be ready for a frank discussion with your kids.

Michael Gruber

This review is way out of ABC. Sorry! I missed it because I had submitted it to MuggleNet, but it hadn't been published. So, before moving on with the alphabet again, I am going back to catch a couple of authors who fell into the cracks.

The Witch's Boy
by Michael Gruber
Recommended Age: 12+

What begins as a seemingly whimsical tale grows into a surprisingly deep and far-flung story. It begins when a forest witch adopts an astonishingly ugly foundling. This immediately puts the demands of her craft in conflict against the requirements of motherhood. Out of this conflict grows a chain of events that, in retrospect, seem inevitable: a chain of events in which the boy turns out all wrong...and finally, after many sorrows, turns out all right.

One of the things that sets this book apart from the run-of-the-mill magical kids' book is the earthy, flesh-and-blood realism of its characters: a realism of personality and point-of-view that survives despite the fact that they include a talking bear, a cat transformed into a man, and a host of familiar figures out of Mother Goose and the Brothers Grimm. For this story contains a series of tales-within-the-tale: classic fairy tales retold and reimagined from a different point of view. And surprisingly or not, the overall story is yet another revisionist fairy tale, or perhaps a blending of two or three such into one fully satisfying plot.

What, you might ask, is the "different point of view" of these "revisionist fairy tales"? Partly it seems to be the skeptical point of view that reasons, "Things don't work out in the real world that way. If there be a kernel of truth in this fairy tale, it should come out differently." In this way, the stories of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty are transformed. But modern-day realism isn't the only factor involved. A feminist thread is also woven in: for example, how tragic that the Sleeping Beauty was enslaved to love, and had to give up her hundred-year sleep to endure the pains of childbirth, loss, and old age!

There is another and more important thread, but I am almost afraid to mention it. The only thing for it is simply to blurt it out: This book takes witchcraft seriously. It doesn't merely create an internally consistent fantasy world for its own brand of magic to work in. Rather, it imports the real thing - the Wiccan worldview - and puts it in the place normally occupied by silly-awful, storybook magic. It chucks out the Mother Goose caricature of witches as cackling creatures who cook children for dinner and fly on broomsticks, and replaces it with the real thing - complete with references to earth-goddess spirituality, the pattern of nature, and a table grace that would hardly embarrass a modern-day Pagan.

People tend to jump down my throat when I bring up this kind of thing. Apparently the fact that I spend a lot of time reading and reviewing children's books indicates that I am too ignorant and unrefined to comment credibly on this. So I'll play my trump card once again, and remind everybody that I have a degree in theology from a Lutheran seminary; and, besides, my mother was a Wiccan for several years. So I know whereof I speak. The details of the forest woman's witchcraft are indeed fantasy - involving made-up herbs, a visit to Faeryland, and a number of amazing spells that I'm pretty sure Mom never learned. But the thought-world in which this book takes place, and by whose rules all those fairy tales are reinvented, is close enough to authentic Wicca for practical purposes.

None of this fades from importance simply because this is a tremendously readable book. Heartbreaking, uplifting, tragic, romantic, cautionary, chilling, and at times just pure fun, it has all that it needs to keep young fingers moistened to turn page after page. I myself found it highly enjoyable. But at the same time I couldn't help thinking that such high-quality entertainment would be just the thing to sweeten a pill of religious indoctrination. If Wiccans knew it or cared, they could use this book as a catechism.

So, discuss this issue with your kids before you give them the book to read. Though you may want them to think their own thoughts, you will probably not want an author's religious agenda to take them by surprise. That, in my opinion, would not encourage constructive, critical thinking.

IMAGE, right: Another book by Michael Gruber that looks like it may interest those who enjoy magical entertainments.

David Ives

Monsieur Eek
by David Ives
Recommended Age: 12+

The 21 inhabitants of MacOongafoondsen are isolated from the rest of the world. Cast down on a secluded shore between a haunted castle and the feared sea, they have lived for generations without any experience of the outside world. Then a ship washes ashore with no one on board but a strangely hairy “Frenchman” who is actually – spoiler warning – a chimpanzee.

Some of the leading citizens accuse Samuel, a.k.a. Monsieur Eek, of being a thief and worthy to be hanged. But a compassionate, fairminded girl named Emmaline and her best friend, Young Flurp the Town Fool, try to defend Samuel. Their fast-paced adventure includes not only a struggle against injustice, but also a fight for survival, an encounter with a ghost, a crossing from childhood to adulthood, and a bit of youthful romance. The story also touches on issues like your right to choose your own identity, and the costs of having a worldview limited to petty, local affairs.

Though not a flawless story, I recommend Monsieur Eek as a charming, heart-warming, and often funny tale that will leave young readers with something to think about and talk about.

Eva Ibbotson

The Beasts of Clawstone Castle
by Eva Ibbotson
Recommended Age: 10+

Madlyn and Rollo are not, at first, happy to be sent to spend the summer at their Great-Aunt and Great-Uncle's rundown castle in the north of England. But Rollo, who loves animals, soon falls in love with the herd of otherworldly, white cattle who live on the castle grounds. And Madlyn personally takes charge of the campaign to save Clawstone Castle from falling into the clutches of a greedy gravel magnate, who wants to turn it into Suburban Sprawl.

It's going to be tough to fight off the grasping Lord Trembellow. He knows how to manipulate the system. And he also has enough money to create a tourist trap that steals all the business from Aunt Emily and Uncle George. So Madlyn does what any reasonable child would do: she holds auditions for a haunting, and hires several ghosts who, with a bit of practice, could be quite terrifying.

But then something dreadful happens to the white cattle. Something even more mysterious than dreadful...until somewhat later, when it becomes even more dreadful than mysterious...and the only hope for saving Clawstone Castle lands in the lap of three small children (counting the caretaker's son) and a bevy of oh-so-helpful ghosts.

Once again, Eva Ibbotson chases away a child's fear of things that go bump, with a story full of warmhearted silliness and people who are much scarier alive than dead. It can also be very gratifying to kids who care about animals, the fate of political refugees, and the preservation of historical buildings. Light reading to be sure, but who hasn't needed something bright and bubbly now and again?

Dial-a-Ghost
by Eva Ibbotson
Recommended Age: 10+

"Why some people become ghosts and others don't is a mystery that no one has ever solved." Ain't that the truth! But from the beginning of this tale, there is no mystery about it: you're in for a weird, funny, spooky adventure full of lighthearted fantasy, dark humor, and a thrilling battle between creepy-crawlies and a true villain.

The Wilkinsons were an average British family - Mum, Dad, Grandma, and angst-filled teen Eric, and their pet budgie - until a German bomb came down and turned them all into ghosts. For some unknown reason, Mrs. Wilkinson's sister Trixie, who died along with them, didn't become a ghost. So while the Wilkinsons quietly haunt the ruins of their house, they keep hoping to find out what happened to Trixie. On the other hand, they manage to adopt the ghost of a little girl who has lost not only her way, but her memory. They call her Adopta.

So it seems like more than a coincidence when, after being forced to move to London to haunt a knicker shop, the Wilkinsons discover an agency called Adopt-a-Ghost, a.k.a. Dial-a-Ghost. It's like an employment agency, matching ghosts who need to be relocated with homeowners looking for a good haunting. Two clairvoyant old ladies take it on themselves to help all kinds of homeless revenants, from the nice middle-class Wilkinsons to the horrendous Shriekers.

At about the same time, horrid schoolmaster Fulton Snodde-Brittle has a problem. After one relative after another has died under bizarre circumstances, it finally looks like his turn to inherit the ancestral estate, Helton Hall. But then the lawyers discover another heir in line ahead of him... a dear little orphan boy in fragile health, named Oliver Smith, who is taken out of the orphanage where he is loved and has friends to play with, to the spooky old mansion where he must live alone except for his nasty cousin Fulton and Fulton's wife, Frieda.

Fulton and Frieda bring Oliver to Helton Hall, but they have plans. They decide to scare the little boy to death, which shouldn't be too hard. First they prime him by telling him scary ghost stories at bedtime. Then they leave him alone in the house on Friday the 13th, having hired the most horrible ghosts in the world - the Shriekers - from Adopt-a-Ghost.

Little do the Snodde-Brittles know that the little old ladies at Adopt-a-Ghost got their signals crossed. The instructions for the Shriekers somehow got switched with those for the Wilkinsons. And so the kind, middle-class family of ghosts find themselves at Helton Hall, putting frightened little Oliver at ease and making friends with him.

Meanwhile, the nuns of Larchford Abbey, who were expecting a nice quiet family of ghosts, end up with a family of terrifying spectres who would like nothing better than to harm a child. The mismatch is obvious from both sides' point of view: the ghosts don't want "all that awful gooey goodness" clogging their pores, and the nuns of course are mortified by the havoc the Shriekers wreak.

The Snodde-Brittles are disappointed that Oliver hasn't been frightened to death, but they soon demand that the Shriekers be sent to Helton after all. This seems to be the ghastly old schoolmaster's last hope to do away with Oliver... but the Wilkinsons have ideas of their own. What remains of the story is a confrontation between good and bad ghosts, and payoff for good and bad living people - for the Snodde-Brittles, who get the scare they truly deserve, and for Oliver, who finally has a family of his own.

Oliver is an adorable child, in the tradition of orphan heroes that stretches from Oliver Twist to Harry Potter. And this is an adorable story, full of quirky humor, silly spooks, and fractured magic. Ibbotson spins a wickedly weird tale, yet with compassion toward all her characters. And the idea of a ghost employment agency is as fun to think about as the little thing - the very little thing - that starts everything going wrong.

The Great Ghost Rescue
by Eva Ibbotson
Recommended Age: 10+

This is an another adorably silly book from the author of Which Witch? - a tale of light-hearted black humor, if you can imagine that. It begins with Humphrey the Horrible, who really isn't very horrible. Humphrey is a little boy ghost whose family haunts a moldering English castle, and his hag mother and "gliding kilt" father are a bit disappointed in their youngest son's lack of scariness.

But Humphrey becomes a hero, with the help of a living schoolboy named Rick Henderson, when a plague of modern development threatens to destroy the habitat of the ghosts of England. In a wacky sort of environmentalism, young Rick decides a ghost preserve is in order, and takes his case straight to the prime minister. But that solution almost happens too easily. No one is counting on the donor of the old ruins for the ghosts to live in, to be a nasty man with a nasty plan to destroy all the ghosts in England. But does the nasty man's plan take Humphrey and Rick into account?

Cute as the story is, certain occult-sensitive readers may like to be advised that a little bit of witchcraft appears in this book.

The Haunting of Granite Falls
by Eva Ibbotson
Recommended Age: 10+

If you have read any of her other books, you already know that Eva Ibbotson has a flair for turning nightmares into sparklingly witty, heartwarming stories. Wicked witches and wizards, fierce ghosts, evil adults plotting against innocent orphans, and gruesome monsters turn into objects of gentle irony, hilarious word-play, and outright absurdity. And some of them even turn out to have a heart of gold!

The ghosts in this story are no exception. They happily haunt a Scottish castle, until the laird of the keep – an 11-year-old orphan named Alex, who was practically raised by the ghosts – realizes that he has to sell the castle. Parting from Alex is hard enough, but now the ghosts have to find a new place to live. Snubbed by the upper-crust ghosts who haunt a nearby mansion, the Carra spooks return to their old home to find that it has been pulled down!

Surprise! The new owner of Carra Castle, a Texas oil magnate named Hiram C. Hopgood, has had Carra pulled down stone-by-stone, shipped to Texas, and reassembled there. He wants a safe place to live with his delicate daughter Helen – but he doesn’t want ghosts to frighten her. Nevertheless, when the ghosts find their way back to their old home, they aren’t the ones who give Helen the scare of her life. Leave that to a band of villains who are willing to rob, kidnap, and even do murder, to raise funds for a neo-Nazi political party.

By himself, poor Alex is no match for these thugs. But bring a family of faithful, Scottish spooks to Granite Falls, Texas, and then see what happens! I won’t say any more except that this is one of Ibbotson’s best stories, full of danger and excitement and silliness and love. It has some of her quirkiest characters, some of her wickedest spoofs (such as an audience at a film festival who can’t tell the difference between special effects and the real thing), and a very satisfying storyline. It also teaches one valuable lesson: it is not necessary to attempt to make a haggis when entertaining a guest from Scotland.

Island of the Aunts
by Eva Ibbotson
Recommended Age: 10+

Etta, Coral, and Myrtle - along with their widower father, a mad cousin, and two other sisters - came to the Island as girls. They led a simple life, working hard to help the hurt animals that came to them from the sea. But now their father is 103 years old, and the cousin is as mad as ever, and one sister is in a Hong Kong jail for braining a restauranteur with a wok in order to protect an endangered species, and the other sister (even worse) got married and had two bratty children, making Etta, Coral, and Myrtle aunts.

And they're not getting any younger either. The work of caring for all the creatures-- both the ordinary oiled birds and the extraordinary creatures like mermaids and selkies-- has gotten to be too much for them. They need someone to help them, and to carry on when they are gone. Finally the three aunts decide to find three children who really need to be kidnapped-- the kind who are unhappy and unloved, but who can be trusted to work hard and love the Island as much as the aunts do.

Their scheme is amazingly simple. Posing as "useful aunts," who fill in for parents and guardians who don't have time to be with their kids, they comb the under-loved-child population of London searching for just the right kids. Etta finds a hurting little girl named Minette who is tired of being sent back and forth between her divorced parents, who constantly dump their hate for each other on her, and who both refuse to let her have a night light. Coral, for her part, snatches a Brazilian boy named Fabio, who hates his cold, disdainful English grandparents only just less than the boarding school where they mean to make a perfect English gentleman of him-- you know, that kind of English boarding school, which is so horrible (particularly for a little Brazilian boy) that the thought of going there makes him physically ill. Literally.

So far, the plan would have gone off perfectly. Only Myrtle messes things up, snatching a spoiled rich kid who only cares about money and who uses his mobile phone to alert his cutthroat-businessman father to what has happened. Now the police are closing in, and worse, Lambert Sprott's father is closing in with a heavily armed yacht and a scheme to exploit the amazing creatures that have found shelter on the island.

But (magical creatures alert!) Sprott hasn't reckoned with an enraged Selkie (a creature that can take the form of a human or a seal)...a fiercely philosophical Stoorworm (a wingless, aquatic dragon)...a mother Boobrie bird and her nestlings...a close-knit family of mermaids...not to mention Fabio and Minette, who have come to love the Island, the aunts, and their creatures.

Even so, with superior firepower and a fast boat, Sprott might get away with it. And more is at stake than just the freedom and happiness of a handful of old ladies, children, and weird creatures. More is at stake, even, then the lives Sprott is prepared to destroy for his own greedy purposes. The very life and health of the oceans is at stake, in the form of a creature who personifies the healing and reviving forces of the sea.

So it's yet another story about some lovely but miserable children who find unlikely, even magical happiness - and the evil people who try to take it back from them. It portrays a variety of magical beasts in rich detail, but the magic of the characters is what I fell in love with. Expect lots of danger, a bit of courtroom drama, and some soft-spoken social criticism pointed at the types of parents, grandparents, and schools that make children miserable, and the diseased culture in which they flourish, and at the foolishness of the way mankind treats the oceans and the creatures that live in them.

It's not awfully preachy, though. I like this story. I think you would too. Have I ever steered you wrong?

Journey to the River Sea
by Eva Ibbotson
Recommended Age: 10+

This book, which won the 2001 Smarties Book Prize and came within striking distance of the Whitbread and Carnegie awards, lives in a different place from the author’s other stories, such as The Island of the Aunts and The Great Ghost Rescue. Instead of a fantasy about witches, wizards, and ghosts, it is a historical novel set in between the jungles and the Amazon River of Brazil. (If you’re wondering about the title of the book, it’s a reference to how big the Amazon is.)

It begins with an orphan girl named Maia, who is sent from her beloved English boarding school (itself an exotic feature in a book set in the 19th century) to live with her very tiresome relatives near the city of Manaus, on the river Negro in Brazil. Another unusual touch is the fact that her stern governess, Miss Minton, is the only person in the house that Maia can confide in. Certainly not her crooked uncle, who is obsessed with his ghastly collection of glass eyes, or her insect-hating aunt, who is disturbingly (or disturbedly?) bent on keeping up the pretence that they all still live in England. Least of all can Maia trust her twin cousins Gwendolyn and Beatrice, who are about as unlike Fred and George Weasley as any twins could be (except they are greedy little monsters, you must admit).

Maia lives a life somewhat like that of Harry Potter with the Dursleys. Her family has taken her in grudgingly, and seem to care more about the money than about the girl that comes with it. Maia’s talents, though not in the magical line, are resented and, were it not for Miss Minton, would soon be squashed out of her. And when the air inside the Carters’ house grows too close for her to stand, Maia escapes to a magical world none of her relatives understands. A world of dangerous beauty, heartbreaking secrets, adventure and discovery. There, in defiance of “civilized” customs, Maia finds friends she loves and a marvelous world to explore.

But the best of her friends is a boy whose past is catching up to him. And with the aid of the Carters, a pair of nasty detectives from England, intend to shove the civilized world down the boy’s throat, whether he will or no. It is up to Maia, Miss Minton, and a has-been child actor whose changing voice got him booed off the stage thousands of miles from home, to save Finn from being groomed as the lord of a great English manor...a fate more terrifying to him than alligators, pirhanas, poisoned darts, and malaria put together!

Think of it as A Little Princess with rubber trees. OK, don’t. It’s better than that. The story will alternately warm you, chill you, raise your blood pressure, and provoke thought and discussion about historical and social issues. Plus, it’s loaded with gorgeous forests and the exotic appeal of history and foreign cultures.

Not Just a Witch
by Eva Ibbotson
Recommended Age: 10+

From the author of Which Witch? and The Secret of Platform 13, among other enchanting stories about ghosts, witches, and wizards, comes this equally delightful story about a neglected boy, an evil-detecting “dragworm,” and a well-meaning witch who wants to make the world better by turning bad people into animals.

Heckie is an animal witch. She loves animals, and she specializes in magic that has to do with animals. So when she graduates from the school for good witches, she opens a pet store in a quiet little town with a zoo, and starts turning a few particularly evil citizens into animals. And because the animals aren’t evil, she wants to make sure they’re well cared for; so they end up living in the zoo too.

Meanwhile, Heckie and her best friend Dora, a stone witch (whose magical gifts enable her to turn bad folk into amazingly detailed statues), have had a falling out. But in spite of the fact that they aren’t speaking to each other, they end up in the same town, doing the good work separately.

Enter the foul Lionel Knacksap, a heartless manipulator who has a fiendish plan to make loads of money. It involves breaking the hearts of two lovelorn witches (at the same time, the cad!), turning a lot of innocent people into stone and/or endangered animals, and performing some atrocious cruelty to animals. It also involves giving a nice orphan boy a knock on the head, poisoning the hearts of two best friends against each other, and being a general nasty customer.

Fortunately, it’s hard to keep two good witches down, and two best friends apart for long. Also, it never pays to go up against the winner of an ugliness contest, the owner of a dancing cheese, the inventor of a balloon fueled by the hot air in political speeches, and a woman who grows giant vegetables. Prepare to giggle, gasp, and cheer as the Wickedness Hunters put paid to a fairy-tale villain in modern costume.

I can’t help it. I just have to quote the About the Author blurb from the inside back cover of this book. It says that Ms. Ibbotson learned that children love stories about witches, wizards, and ghosts “because they are just like people but madder and more interesting.” If you believe that, or if you enjoyed the books of Roald Dahl, I think you will love this book.

The Secret of Platform 13
by Eva Ibbotson
Recommended Age: 8+

This story by the author of the Carnegie Medal runner-up Which Witch? has an awful lot in common with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. It has a gateway to a magical world located in a railway platform at Kings Cross Station. It has a little boy who has been brought up by a nasty couple from infancy, treated like the hired help or worse while they spoil the dickens out of their fat, obnoxious son. And it has wonderful people from the magical world, coming to find a long-lost boy and tell him about the place where he really belongs - where he is really important and loved - and where he has a magical destiny of his own.

But let's not point fingers. It was published in 1994, three years before Philosopher's Stone. And lest you think J.K. Rowling ripped off the idea, the similarity goes no further than the carefully-worded description above. There are, after all, many more differences than similarities between the two books.

There is a magic doorway, called a Gump, that opens for only nine days, every nine years. It leads from a disused platform in London's Kings Cross Station, to a sandy cove where a ship awaits, ready to ferry travelers to a beautiful, mist-shrouded isle full of magical creatures. The island is ruled by a handsome king and a beautiful queen, who are overjoyed by the birth of a precious baby boy. But when the Prince is only three months old, the Gump opens and his nurses take him to the sandy cove for an adventure. One thing leads to another, and the baby falls into the clutches of a horrible, childless woman named Mrs. Trottle just as the Gump is about to close again.

Needless to say, nine years of calamity and sorrow dampen the beauty of the hidden Isle. Then, as the Gump is about to open again, the King and Queen choose a handful of rescuers to go to London and fetch back the lost Prince. They choose an elderly wizard named Cor, a fey named Gerkintrude who helps green things grow, a gentle giant named Hans who has been made invisible for the trip, and a very ordinary-looking hag girl named Odge.

Aided by the ghosts and magical denizens of London, they soon find their way to the Trottle home and encounter a good-looking, honest, cheerful, sensitive boy who they would be honored to bring back as their Prince. But the complication is, he isn't the child the Trottles have raised as their own. They have been sent to fetch Raymond Trottle, and the likeable boy is just a kitchen boy named Ben. The rescuers' disappointment grows when they discover that Raymond Trottle is a horrid, fat, spoiled child who doesn't really want to go to the Island, and whose vile "mother" will stop at nothing to keep him safe.

Of course you'll have figured out, long before anyone else does, that Ben is really the Prince. But everyone goes to so much trouble to "rescue" Raymond that by the time the truth comes out, it may be too late.

Packed with magical people of all different kinds, loaded with lovable (not to mention a few loathable) characters, full of wit and charm, and laced with danger and suspense that will make your heart go thumpity-thumpity, this story should win over many a Harry Potter fan. And it turns out, after all, to lead in quite a different direction from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I suppose the change of Platform makes the difference.

The Star of Kazan
by Eva Ibbotson
Recommended Age: 10+

Annika was abandoned as an infant, in a little chapel in the mountains. Two domestic servants, Ellie and Sadie, found her during their day off, and brought her back to the big house in Vienna where they cooked and cleaned for three unmarried professors. Now, at age twelve, she is a loving, helpful girl who works hard around the house and whose imagination brings sparkle to the lives of her friends.

Then Annika unknowingly sets a train of events in motion, simply by showing kindness to a dying old lady. Suddenly a glamorous noblewoman named Edeltraut von Tannenberg appears at the professors’ home, with legal documents proving that she is Annika’s mother, and begging her to come back with her to live at her castle in northern Germany.

At first this seems to be the fulfillment of Annika’s girlhood dreams. But not everything at the manor of Spittal is as it should be. Annika misses the work, the warmth of Ellie’s kitchen, the love and companionship of her adopted family and friends. She finds herself colder and hungrier than she ever dreamed of being, in a crumbling castle in a cold, forbidding swamp. Strange things are going on – problems and plans that no one will tell Annika about.

The sharp divide between noble and common families puts Annika in an agonizing position, forbidden to do the work and go to the parts of the house she is most used to, and forced into unexpected relationships. She suddenly has a half-brother who dreams of going to military school and who is ruthless to servants and animals; and she also finds joy in the companionship of a half-Gypsy stable boy, a three-legged dog, and a very special horse.

But then things begin to unravel at terrifying speed. The dog finds something in the lake that Annika last saw at the death bed of an old lady in Vienna...the stable boy, falsely accused of theft, runs away with her half-brother’s horse...and just as clues to a ruthless conspiracy begin coming to light, Annika is shipped away to a dreadful school from which no escape seems possible. Saving her will require the combined cleverness and daring of all of Annika’s friends in Vienna, regardless of their social class. Yet even if they do get her out of that hellish school, how can they keep her safe from her own mother?

Inspired by the author’s childhood memories of Vienna, this book is a rich, thrilling, romantic adventure full of varied scenery, memorable people, historical color, and good old-fashioned suspense. The classic plotline of a poor, innocent child being done out of a fortune by a conniving adult has worked in so many ways from Charles Dickens to Joan Aiken. And now, in the hands of the author of Journey to the River Sea and The Haunting of Granite Falls, it is revived in a new form. Crisp dialogue, fast-paced action, the looming threat of well-known historical events, and characters who dare to cross the sacred line between high-born and low-born, make this story a modern gem, set in the engaging, magical world of pre-World War Vienna.

Which Witch?
by Eva Ibbotson
Recommended Age: 12+

I found this cute-looking book and thought I would try it, see if I could take any of Ibbotson's other stuff. I'm still not sure. [HINT: This was the first Ibbotson book I ever reviewed.]

Which Witch? is billed as something fans of Harry Potter will like. It does have witches and wizards in it, but they're depicted in a very different way, a way that, though humorous and fanciful, may give certain parents good reason to object to exposing their kids to it. In this story a very handsome, bachelor wizard named Arriman the Awful, who since birth has been groomed to be a great dark wizard, begins to grow weary of smiting and blighting. He would like to give it all up and retire to write a book, but he feels a certain responsibility toward the powers of darkness, so he doesn't feel he can quit unless another evil wizard shows up to take over for him. So he goes to a gypsy fortune-teller and she tells him that the wizard he's looking for is on the way.

Well, he waits for about nine hundred ninety days, and then takes his secretary's advice (his secretary is a man named Mr. Leadbetter who is perfectly ordinary, except that he has a tail). He decides to take a wife and produce an heir of his own. He invites all the local witches to a contest to see which of them can do the most powerful and darkest magic, sort of like a Miss Witch pageant, in which the winner (scored by 3 judges) will be his wife.

Of course he wasn't counting on most of the witches being hideous, nasty hags. And one of them is an evil enchantress who wears the molars of her previous 5 husbands on a necklace. But there's a beautiful white witch in town, too, named Belladonna, who is so white that everywhere she goes flowers spring up and songbirds appear. She has healing powers and can talk to animals. That kind of witch, and she's in love with Arriman.

Belladonna enters the contest, already brokenhearted because she knows she'll never win, she'll never be able to do a piece of dastardly dark magic powerful enough to win Arriman's love. She's determined to try, but what really keeps her going is her desire to comfort Arriman who is increasingly stressed out by the marriage prospects before him. But along comes a little orphan boy named Terence whose pet earthworm, Rover, seems to give Belladonna tremendous dark powers...

It's a witty, ironic story in which all those nasty old crones have a certain niceness about them, down deep; in which, for all their enjoyment of hideously dark magic, only one of the characters seems truly and dangerously evil; in which people who love each other are frustrated at their inability to do bad things to win each other's heart; and in which good people feel guilty about being good and hope to become more evil in the future. The sort of thing, in short, that can make children laugh and adults squirm at the same time.

It also has some cute monsters in it, including a three headed sea lion that should be on anti-depressants, a sword-swallowing ogre named Lester, a baby Kraken who squeaks "Daddy!" and slops water all over Arriman's house, a genie with a head-cold, a cataleptic ghoul, and a ghost who wanders around hitting himself on the forehead, tortured with guilt over the 7 wives he murdered. The story includes some wicked spells, such as a bottomless pit and a family that gets sealed up inside three trees, old auntie mermaids, an affectionate octopus named Doris, romance, poetic justice, and lots of humor.

EDIT: Some other titles by Ibbotson that I have not yet reviewed are pictured in this post.