Here is the very fine and delightfully original start to another new fantasy sequence for younger (MG) readers. Linda Sue Park is already a popular and respected author, indeed an award winning one, in the States where she lives. But she is probably less well known and read by children here in the UK , a situation which urgently needs to change - of which more later.
She is probably best known for A Long Walk to Water and A Single Shard. These two, and others of her books, are outstanding examples of that noble tradition of children's literature which uses story to help the young to better understand challenging aspects of life for others in our world. They often explore the experiences of those living through war, under repressive regimes, with unfair disadvantage, serious disability, or experiencing devastating loss. There are thankfully many wonderful examples of such books, including recently Katherine Applegate's Crenshaw, Laura Williamson's A Boy Called Hope, Holly Goldberg Sloan's Counting by 7s, Thanhha Lai's Inside Out and Back Again, and R. J. Palacio's Wonder; great reads all. Such books do an enormously important job in developing empathy and understanding, and thus really do help us grow better people and a better world.
However children also need fantasy. They need to be taken out of themselves as well as into themselves. It is another way of finding who they are. They need to grow their imaginations. They need to learn not only what they can do but what they could do. The best fantasies help in all of this and more. It is really good, therefore, to see a writer of the quality of Linda Sue Park adding further fantasy to her oeuvre. That Wing & Claw: Forest of Wonders is so well pitched for pre-adolescents and 'tweens' is a real bonus.
In many senses this is a relatively light fantasy - or at least it feels so in the early stages. It does not seem to revolve around a potentially world-shattering conflict between the massed forces of light and some monstrous denizen of the dark. Nor does it seem to involve the quest of some little person to save the world. Its protagonist, Raffa, is the son of apothecaries, dedicated to helping and healing, and although he seems a gifted boy, if he has 'powers' they reside in an instinctive feeling for creating effective herbal concoctions rather than any magic as such. In fact there would be no real 'magic' in the book at all were it not for his discovery of a particularly potent vine whose compounds not only heal rather miraculously but seem to give certain animals some limited ability of human speech.
And yet, Forest of Wonders soon develops as a completely engrossing, indeed exciting, fantasy. This is partly because the author skilfully creates a totally credible fantasy world, of broadly mediaeval/fairytale character, without it feeling tweely 'olde worlde'. Amongst many other aspects of her writing, I much admire the clever way she uses language to help establish the 'otherness' of this world by dropping in words and phrases which are just slightly distinct from our own usage and yet are never difficult to read or to understand. It is most ingeniously done, and her imaginative creation will, I am sure, be a world to which contemporary children can easily relate.
This is further enhanced by a cast of strongly drawn and likeable young characters. Raffa himself makes a delightful protagonist with his mixture of diffidence and precocious skill. His good heart but lack of self-confidence quickly endear him to the reader. His cousin and near contemporary, Garith, is the close companion of his childhood and makes an excellent foil. And, once the 'magic' vine provides Raffa with not only a dear pet but a talking one to boot, the child-animal bond quickly becomes the tender heart of the story. Echo, the little bat he finds and heals, is as amusing, charming and endearing a creature as almost any in children's literature; a rival for Charlotte the spider any day!
The development of this relationship gives the story a captivating, if relatively gentle, lead in. However, once Raffa follows his cousin and uncle away from the security of the forest, the only home he has known, and to his world's central town of Gilden, the tension and excitement very quickly ratchet. On his travels he makes two further friends, a working girl from an struggling family and another girl who has formed a strong bond with a forest bear. I love the way in which the author subtly but clearly ensures that not only both genders but children of different background and skin colour are well represented. Together these new friends make a captivating team of adventurers, soon in veritable heaps of trouble. There is humour as well as action, and the escape of this little tribe from impending, and of course unjust, incarceration in the town's terrifying prison is a delight of slapstick entertainment. There are however, increasingly strong clues that the ruling elite of this settlement, which has slums and a strong military guard as well as the sumptuous buildings of its central 'commons', is not as benevolent as it might wish to appear.
By the end of this first book instances of shocking betrayal and heartwarming loyalty are displayed that are fully worthy of the 'highest' fantasy. Similarly, an 'evil' has emerged which, even if not quite on the Sauron scale, is devastatingly significant to Raffa and his friends. Perhaps it is indeed the tip of an iceberg that threatens their whole way of life. Our young little apothecary and his friends could have a world to save after all.
It is a story very cleverly built. And perhaps it is not as far from this author's earlier non-fantasy books as first seemed. Linda Sue Park subtly blends into this story too a great deal for her young readers to think about. She achieves this not by bludgeoning them with 'issues' but by raising questions and provoking reflection through the story itself. What right have we to use animals to serve our own ends? Don't the abilities we have been given carry responsibilities too? Aren't there wrongs in the world which we just have to try to do something about?
I am sure many children will emerge from this enjoyable reading experience thinking about and questioning aspects of their own world, even as they reluctantly leave Raffa's fantasy one. Fortunately that exile will not have to be for too long. More is clearly to follow and will be anticipated eagerly.
Linda Sue Park is a writer who fully deserves to be better know over here. Our children (and those in other countries too I'm sure) surely have a right more easily to access all she has to offer. Her books needs U.K. publication very soon please. This absorbing and original fantasy, with all its underlying wisdom and humanity, is surely a good place to start?
As a lover of books as objects, as well of course of their content, I have to congratulate and thank the US publishers that the hardback edition of Wing & Claw: Forest of Wonders, with its attractive, tactile cover, strong but not obtrusive illustration, and sensuous deckle edge pages, is such a beautiful thing in itself. Hopefully these high production values will be maintained in future complementary volumes. One very minor point though. Is what is labelled as the 'northern ferry' on the otherwise delightful map (I too just love maps in fantasy novels) not actually the southern ferry? Or am I just being obtuse? It wouldn't be the first time.
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