Richie's Picks: Great Books for Children and Young Adults

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I had never been one to willingly read about wizards and magic, yet that first chapter of HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE sure got my attention. (Four books later, Harry's still got my attention.) But despite being the most exciting Advance Reading Copy I have ever pulled out of my mailbox, Harry Potter did not convert me into being a reader of wizard books. I felt, and still feel, that those other publishers who suddenly hoped to reap large profits from their authors who write fantasy novels about wizards and those librarians who expected HARRY lovers to immerse themselves in long reading lists of such books didn't really get what our love for HARRY was all about. Like David Lubar's WIZARDS OF THE GAME, which I just finished reading to an incredibly enthusiastic lunchtime crowd of middle schoolers, HARRY has just the right touch of magic balanced with real "being a kid" issues.

I have never been one to willingly read about faeries. The high-tech hijinx and scatological humor of ARTEMIS FOWL made it an amusing exception. In fact, I was reminded of Holly Short just last week when I encountered Thursday Next, the gutsy, no-nonsense female in THE EYRE AFFAIR, an incredible book which does for English Lit majors what ARTEMIS does for the post-Pilkey crowd. And while I doubt that many true-blooded fantasy readers found much in ARTEMIS to write home about, again you have a blend of reality and magic that captivates a large group of young readers.

Such is the case with FAERIE WARS by Herbie Brennan. This book will be a big one for young readers waiting around for HARRY V (which means damned near everyone). In the same way that we can all imagine being the kid stuck living under the staircase, we can imagine being Henry Atherton, a typical kid whose family is crumbling. He's just found out that--in an unusual twist--his parents have begun sleeping in separate bedrooms because his mom has become involved with his dad's beautiful (female) secretary. That's the foot set in reality (referred to as the Analogue World). Our other foot is set in the Faerie World. And our focus in that faerie world is on a kid named Pyrgus Malvae who steps in deep manure when, trying to elude the guards who saw him stealing Lord Hairstreak's golden phoenix (because Hairstreak's an abusive owner), Pyrgus ends up in Brimstone and Chalkhill's Miracle Glue Factory. And when he then discovers that the secret ingredient for the miracle glue is a live kitten a day, he spontaneously risks all by snatching the cage with the doomed mama and kitties. The bottom line is that Pyrgus is in mortal danger and has to make himself scarce by way of a portal. Entering the Analogue World, he fortunately meets Henry and crotchety old Mr Fogarty (an octogenarian for whom Henry does odd jobs) after falling victim to Mr Fogarty's cat Hodge:

"For a moment Henry Atherton just stood there, mouth open, eyes blinking furiously, as he tried to decide what he was looking at. Hodge had caught a butterfly, of course, but it wasn't a butterfly Henry was seeing. He was seeing a tiny winged figure. The wings were like butterfly wings, but the figure...
"Henry shook his head. He was looking at a fairy!
"The trouble was he didn't believe in fairies. He didn't even know anybody who believed in fairies. Except, a voice said in his head, Mr Fogarty. Mr Fogarty believes in fairies! For some reason it brought him up short. Mr Fogarty believed in fairies. Along with ghosts and flying saucers. Mr Fogarty believed the world was run by a secret conspiracy of bankers based in Zurich, Switzerland. Just because Mr Fogarty believed in something didn't make it real.
"But Henry was looking at a fairy. In a lunatic moment he wondered if Mr Fogarty had somehow created it. Then his paralysis broke.
" 'Hodge, you idiot!' he screamed. He threw himself on the tomcat and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, the way mother cats do with kittens. Hodge howled in protest and dropped the...dropped the...Hodge dropped whatever it was he'd had in his mouth. Then Henry dropped him. He glared at Henry accusingly and stalked off no more than a yard or two before stopping to sit down."

How Henry and Mr Fogarty eventually become involved in Pyrgus' Faerie World and in the coming Faerie Wars makes for a great read (and a sleepless night). Mr Fogarty is an especially complex character. And by the end of this wonderful tale Henry has become a young man who is ready to navigate his own route through the waters of his parents' marital discord.

Thus, FAERIE WARS will delight both fantasy readers as well as the kids who never thought they'd be caught dead reading about faeries.

Richie Partington
http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com