How foolish of me it was to not have read more Terry Pratchett books over the years. This second book about Tiffany, a young witch in training, is every bit as good as the first, “The Wee Free Men.” I have some catching up to do!

Tiffany came into a partnership of sorts with a group of tiny Picties in the first book, showing she had powerful magic when she really needed it, but now is ready to leave her small friends and her home in the chalk hills behind and begin studying witchcraft for real with an older practitioner. While the girl heads off to get started with that, she accidentally unleashes a very powerful magic force into her world, one that will follow Tiffany and try to take over her body and soul. Meanwhile, the group of other young witches she finds herself among is not welcoming to the new girl, and her teacher turns out to be more of a local herb doctor than anything, rather disappointing. The Wee Free Men have been asked to leave Tiffany alone, but their leader is troubled, and aware of the dark power on her trail. If he doesn’t act, it could be the end for his friend.

That synopsis sounds pretty dark, but Pratchett’s work is full of humor and wisdom, wise cracks and smart ideas. I have decided he’s a new favorite fantasy writer, and I’ll be looking for the other two books about Tiffany, and more. This is great fun! Highly recommended.

Images © estates of Stephen W. Meader and Edward Shenton.

Meader is a favorite author of novels for children for me for at least two reasons. First, his stories are well told and often exciting adventures. Second, many of them take place in my home state of New Jersey. His early work, written during the Great Depression, often feature a young man from a background with few resources using ingenuity to make his way in the world of work and steady income, and this is one of those. (Later works were more often historical novels.)

Tom Ballard has graduated High School, and is looking for a way to make some money to help himself and his mother, their entire household. He tries lots of odd jobs like mowing lawns, but has his sights set higher. Using all his savings, he buys an old, run-down Ford Model-T truck, and with some work, gets it into good enough shape to haul cargo in and around his home area of southern New Jersey not too far from Camden and Philadelphia. When he’s proven he can do the work, bigger opportunities come his way: hauling produce to Philadelphia and New York, and carrying coal from central Pennsylvania to homeowners in New Jersey. There are all kinds of dangers and trouble along the way, from hijackers, union gangs, and rival trucks, not to mention treacherous weather, unsafe roads and a vehicle well past its prime. Tom perseveres, and in time can afford a larger, newer truck, hiring a friend to continue working the Model-T. One particular hijacker and Tom keep crossing paths until one night Tom is kidnapped by the criminal and fears for his life. A daring escape through woods and swamps is his only hope.

Adding much to the book are many fine illustrations by Edward Shenton, a talented and much-lauded illustrator for decades. You can read about him HERE. Shenton’s work has an art deco flavor, and a sure knowledge of both figures and machinery that made him a good match for Meader, and they worked together on over a dozen novels for kids. Shenton also illustrated classics like “The Yearling,” by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and works by Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Wolfe and Hemingway.

Most of Stephen W. Meader’s books are long out of print, which is a shame. They do reflect a simpler time, but I think many young readers of today would enjoy them all the same. Highly recommended if you can find them.

© Rosalie K. Fry, cover illustration by Robin Jacques.

This is a Weekly Reader Book Club book I never saw as a child, though I do have a few others by the author. It’s the story of three British children on a Christmas holiday with relatives in Wales who become trapped in a blizzard and take shelter in an abandoned farmhouse. They were supposed to be on the bus home, but missed it, so no one knows they’re missing. It’s a good adventure story, if fairly tame, more “Swiss Family Robinson” than “Robinson Crusoe,” as they keep finding things, or have brought things that help them get by, from food to matches to shovels to fuel for the fire. The many full-page illustrations by Robin Jacques are marvelous, full of great drawing and Virgil Finlay-like pen work, as on the cover above. Actually, I buy any book I see with his illustrations. This was a fun read.

Recommended.

© Robert Graves estate.

This slim hardcover looks like the sort of book that would explain to a child what a mediaeval castle was and how it worked, and there’s a little of that, but mostly it’s a clever historical and detective story. I have many books by Graves who wrote historical novels over a wide range from ancient Greece through nineteenth century England, most famously his books about Roman emperor Claudius. He also wrote highly-regarded works of research into mythology, autobiographies, lots of poetry, and more. This seems to be an early attempt at a book for younger readers that was not published until 1981, about fifty years after it was written. In just 60 pages he spins a fascinating story of Sergeant Harrington, in charge of the ancient ruined castle at Lambuck, his son Giles, and some men that plot to do them great harm: Sir Anderson Wigg and his chauffer and accomplice. Together these men entrap Sergeant Harrington, making him look like a drunkard and derelict in his duties. Meanwhile, young Giles and his friend and neighbor Bronwen have discovered a secret room in the castle ruins that could contain ancient relics, or almost anything, once they manage to get inside it. Graves plays it all out masterfully, in highly skilled yet simple prose.

The illustrations by his niece Elizabeth are, sadly, quite awful when she tries to draw people. The drawings of the castle alone, like the one on the cover, are okay, but others are embarrassingly poor, and clearly she was not hired for her figure-drawing ability. This doesn’t really distract much from the book, since the writing is so good. Recommended, if you can find it. (One of the books I got at a used book sale recently.)

© Terry and Lyn Pratchett.

For a long time the only thing I’d read by Terry Pratchett was “Good Omens,” his collaboration with Neil Gaiman. I made some assumptions about that book I now realize were unwarranted, namely that all the funny bits and jokes were Terry, and all the deeper emotional bits were Neil. I finally tried a solo Pratchett book in 2011, “The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents,” and liked it a lot. Indeed, while it had jokes and humor, the characters were well-rounded and the drama, suspense and emotional content of the story were handled well. The same is true for this one.

Teenager Tiffany Aching is a down-to-Earth farm girl whose grandmother was a respected authority in the area, and perhaps even a person of some magical power who kept it well hidden. Tiffany still mourns her, and when confronted with unexpected magic in her own life, tries to live up to her granny’s legacy, even though she knows nothing about magic. Too bad, because everyone else seems to think she does and should, considering her the old woman’s rightful heir. Tiffany doesn’t lack courage, and she wields a mean frying pan, but the plague of magical horrors emerging in the neighborhood are a tough challenge. Fortunately she has some very small but very strong and fierce allies, the Wee Free Men. They’re Pictsies. “Not PIXIES!” as they shout, combatively. When Tiffany’s baby brother is stolen by an evil fairy queen, she and the Wee Free Men set out to enter the queen’s own realm and steal him back, despite massive odds against them. Tiffany is bringing her pluck, her determination and her frying pan!

Not only are the characters great fun, the story is full of creative and inventive magic and enough twists and turns for several books. A second book about Tiffany and the WFM is part of this omnibus, and I’m looking forward to reading it soon. Highly recommended.

© Colin Meloy, illustration © Carson Ellis.

There’s nothing better than a thick book when it’s a good read, and this is one. A few chapters in you’re enjoying the world the writer has created, and you look at all the pages still to come with satisfaction. At least I do. Better yet when the book has maps and many illustrations, as this one does.

Prue McKeel lives in Portland, Oregon with her parents and baby brother Mac. Her Saturday begins in an ordinary way, with the parents off to a craft fair and Prue on her bike with Mac in his Radio Flyer wagon attached behind, riding around the neighborhood running errands, going to the park where Mac can crawl around. Ordinary until a huge flock of crows descends on them and carries Mac off across the Willamette River to an area of unknown woods called The Impassable Wilderness! Prue knows she has to go after Mac, even though no one she knows has ever ventured into that thick forest. She fools her parents into thinking Mac is asleep in his room, and sneaks out at dawn intent on finding the baby and bringing him back. Her friend Curtis is at first an annoyance. Curtis knows something is up and wants to come along. Prue tries to discourage him, but in the end reluctantly agrees, and the two of them cross the railroad bridge (narrowly missing being hit by a train) and into the forest.

Inside there’s a whole world unknown to mundane Portland, protected by powerful magic spells. In the center is The Wildwood, a dangerous place full of talking Coyote soldiers led by a mad human Queen, and bandits led by their King, both at war with each other. Then there’s the Avian Principality, kingdom of birds, and at either end are two areas settled by humans and talking animals both, civilized South Wood and rural North Wood. Prue and Curtis are soon separated and each has adventures full of danger and excitement trying to find and rescue the stolen baby. The Wildwood Queen has a desperate plan for the child, and it will mean death everyone in the entire place if she succeeds.

I had a great time reading this, the characters are well developed and appealing, the ideas clever and creative. The illustrations by Carson Ellis are full of fun details, stylized in a way that reminds me of artists like Charles Wysocki and Charley Harper. Attractive, though they do fall a bit short on emotional content that might help draw us into the story. She also was the illustrator of “The Mysterious Benedict Society” by Trenton Lee Stewart, another book I liked, and she’s the wife of the author.

Recommended, and I’ll be getting book two of the series one of these days. Note that this one is complete and self-contained, with plenty of satisfying resolution but room left for sequels, and “Under Wildwood” is the first of those.

Images © Charles de Lint & Charles Vess.

de Lint and Vess have had a long and successful partnership as writer and illustrator, and their latest collaboration may be the best one yet. This story began as a much shorter illustrated book for younger readers in 2003 called “A Circle of Cats” which I bought from Mr. Vess then:

Somewhat larger in dimensions, it has pictures on nearly every page. For the new book, some of those illustrations are reused (not all of them), and many new ones are included. The story has the same beginning and end, but is greatly expanded in the middle, adding characters, settings and events, expanding on the life of the heroine, young Lillian, the strange predicament she gets into, and the many ways she tries to escape it.

Lillian lives with her Aunt in the forested foothills of of the southern Virginia Appalachian mountains on a small farm, just the two of them and occasional help from men of the Creek Indians living nearby. Lillian loves the woods and its animals, both native wildlife and the feral cats that have made homes there. She’s kind to the cats, giving them milk often. While out in the woods one day, Lillian is bitten by a poisonous snake and is dying when the cats find her. They work forbidden magic on the girl that turns Lillian into a kitten. This saves her life, but creates great worry for her Aunt, and Lillian desperately wants to be human again. One good thing about being a kitten, though, is she can speak to and understand all the other animals. A friendly fox tells her about a possum witch who may be able to help get her human form back. That leads to all kinds of difficulties and complications, and before long Lillian is making another forest trek to visit first the Creek Indian village, then the mysterious Bear Folk deep in the forest, who don’t like people at all.

A fine story in every respect, and the illustrations are wonderful. Highly recommended!

© Joan Aiken, cover art © Edward Gorey.

I’ve read quite a few of Joan Aiken’s books for younger readers, and I particularly enjoy her series about Dido Twite, the feisty young heroine in a series of alternate history stories having a somewhat Victorian steam punk flavor. I’m not sure why it took me so long to get to this one, but it’s every bit as good as the others.

Dido is supposed to be traveling back to her home in England aboard an British naval ship when they are diverted to South America by a call for help from the queen of New Cumbria, one of several countries that Aiken imagines were settled by emigrants from Celtic Britain when that land was invaded by the Saxons (one of the historical alternatives she posits in her series). Dido is always ready for an adventure, and this proves to be quite a dangerous and involved one. There are so many characters and plot twists that the story gets pretty complicated, but Aiken’s writing is strong enough to make it work, with interesting characters and a wealth of ideas throughout. So, we have South American flora and fauna, British Empire influences including a cog railway, Celtic influences including elements from the King Arthur legends, black magic, unusual steam-driven technology like a rotating castle, a ship captain who is also an inventor of flying machines, giant birds that sound more like Pterodactyls, ancient native cities, a tame leopard, deep mines and underground railways…I could go on, but let’s just say there’s plenty of cool stuff in this book. And the plot comes to a crashing resolution with earthquakes and volcanoes that is sure to provide exciting reading. I had a great time!

Recommended.

© Jacqueline Kelly, cover illustration by Beth White.

I picked this up at a used book sale partly on the strength of the great cover art, partly because it’s a Newbery Honor Book, usually a sign of a good read. The heroine, Calpurnia Tate, is eleven years old, living in a small town in 1899 Texas, and from a well-to-do but not rich family, her father owns a large farm. Calpurnia is a tomboy, more interested in science than sewing or cooking, which is a trial for her mother, as she’s the only daughter among seven children. The title refers not only to her personal evolution but also her discovery of real scientific ideas in Charles Darwin’s classic book “The Origin of Species,” lent to her by her granddaddy, who shares Calpurnia’s interest in such things. In fact, the two strike up a sudden friendship and bond after hardly talking to each other previously, and begin spending lots of time together either out in the woods and fields collecting insect and plant specimens or in her grandaddy’s “laboratory,” a shed back of the house where he conducts research and experiments.

This new line of activity does not go over well with Calpurnia’s family and friends. They all find her interests strange and inappropriate for a girl. No one understands her desire to avoid the life laid out for her: finding a husband and raising a family. Instead she dreams of going to a university and becoming a career woman, a goal that seems far out of reach. Meanwhile, Callie gets along as best she can with her siblings, parents and friends, having adventures in a small town way, and enjoying time with her grandaddy whenever possible. On one of their collecting expeditions, they find and bring home a plant that Grandaddy believes might be a new species. They send it off to The Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC and then spend many long days waiting for a reply. Callie’s mother keeps trying to get her to buckle down and learn to be a young lady, and perhaps that’s all the future will hold for her, unless she can somehow prove to them she can be more.

Well written, a nice picture of a life and time I knew nothing about, and Callie reminds me a bit of both Jo from “Little Women” and Anne of Green Gables: feisty yet sensitive, smart and funny at times, awkward and temperamental at others. I think many young girls would enjoy this book as much as I did, probably more. If you’re a nature lover you’ll like that aspect as well.

Recommended.