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Summary
Summary
For fans of the Chronicles of Narnia comes the first book in the Wildwood Chronicles, the New York Times bestselling fantasy adventure series by Colin Meloy, lead singer of the Decemberists, and Carson Ellis, acclaimed illustrator of The Mysterious Benedict Society.
Wildwood captivates readers with the wonder and thrill of a secret world within the landscape of a modern city. It feels at once firmly steeped in the classics of children's literature and completely fresh. The story is told from multiple points of view, and the book features more than eighty illustrations, including six full-color plates, making this an absolutely gorgeous object.
In Wildwood, Prue and her friend Curtis uncover a secret world in the midst of violent upheaval--a world full of warring creatures, peaceable mystics, and powerful figures with the darkest intentions. And what begins as a rescue mission becomes something much greater as the two friends find themselves entwined in a struggle for the very freedom of this wilderness. A wilderness the locals call Wildwood.
The bestselling trilogy from Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis consists of Wildwood, Under Wildwood, and Wildwood Imperium.
Author Notes
Colin Meloy was born in Helena, Montana on October 5, 1974. He graduated from the creative writing program at the University of Montana in Missoula in 1998. He became the singer and songwriter for the band the Decemberists. In 2004, he wrote a 100-page book on The Replacements' third album, Let It Be. He is also the author of the children's series The Wildwood Chronicles, which is illustrated by his wife Carson Ellis.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Meloy, the lead singer of the band the Decemberists, delves into middle-grade fiction with a story that pairs classic adventure novel tropes with cool, disaffected prose. The book opens as 12-year-old Prue McKeel loses her baby brother to a murder of crows, and sets off to rescue him from the Impassable Wilderness, a strange country alongside Portland, Ore., (where the actual Forest Park lies). Her classmate Curtis tags along, and the two are soon separated. Prue takes refuge with the postmaster in his delivery van, while Curtis is captured, then suddenly made an officer in an army of talking coyotes led by the beautiful and intimidating Dowager Governess. It becomes apparent that Prue and Curtis have landed on opposite sides in a war-and neither side may be right. Without a good side to cheer for (disappointments and betrayals abound), the story lacks a strong emotional center, and its preoccupations with bureaucracy, protocol, and gray-shaded moral dilemmas, coupled with the book's length, make this slow going. Ellis's spot art, not all seen by PW, is characteristically crisp and formal, further lending the story a detached quality. Ages 8-12. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* If you like stories in which spunky kids emerge from secret tunnels only to be greeted by smartly outfitted badgers operating rickshaws, this is your book. Meloy's debut is the kind of delicate, elaborate fantasy that is so well versed in classic Narnian tropes that it is destined to be enthusiastically embraced. After her baby brother is abducted by crows, 12-year-old Prue is compelled to enter the Impassable Wilderness an ominous forest just outside of Portland, Oregon. Although Prue is initially joined by her classmate Curtis, the kids are soon split up as they become embroiled in a war between stuffy bureaucrats, bandit separatists, militant birds, and the evil Dowager Governess. The two leads are fairly boilerplate, and some readers may find the constant panoply of helpful, uniformed animals (most likely speaking in English accents) too precious. These elements, though, are more than balanced by flashes of darkness blood sacrifices, death in battle, and more that would make the Brothers Grimm proud. Meloy, best known as the literate lead singer of the Decemberists, clearly knows that weird vocabulary is part of the genre's fun and has no qualms dropping 10-dollar words like retinue and totemic. Frequent, droll illustrations further solidify Wildwood as a uniquely alive place right down to the stubborn blackberries and vengeful ivy.--Kraus, Danie. Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
PORTLAND, Ore., is an analog town, a city of bicycles and bookstores and Douglas firs and old pubs with splintery wooden bars and hulking industrialera bridges. It's a town where the bookish, bewhiskered, occasionally bowler-hatted band members of the Decemberists can play perfect homegrown rock. Now the band's singer, Colin Meloy, has written a fantasy adventure set, appropriately, in the green heart of the city. Within that heart lives a seventh grader, Prue McKeel, who resides with her parents and her baby brother, Mac, in a Portland neighborhood near a great tract of wilderness Meloy has imagined into being: "As long as Prue could remember, every map she had ever seen of Portland and the surrounding countryside had been blotted with a large, dark green patch in the center, stretching like a growth of moss from the northwest corner to the southwest, and labeled with the mysterious initials 'I.W.'" The initials stand for Impassable Wilderness, a terrifying place that Portlanders barely speak of, let alone visit. If they have the choice. But one day while Prue is minding 1-year-old Mac, a murder of crows swoops down and kidnaps him into the Impassable Wilderness. Doughty, brave-hearted Prue realizes there's only one thing to do; head into the wilds and save the baby, Y.A.-style. Folding elements of real-life Portland into the story, Meloy lovingly describes the jungles to the north and the cobbled streets and elegant tree houses of the more civilized south. The result is a richly satisfying weave of reality and fantasy. Into this hybrid world, Prue journeys forth with Curtis, a geeky schoolmate she reluctantly acquires along the way. Cycling into the forbidden woods and towing Curtis behind her in his Radio Flyer, Prue quickly discovers that the seeming wilderness is very inhabited indeed. Locals include a vicious coyote army, an avian diaspora, a gang of Robin Hood-like bandits and a citified population of prosperous animal and human burghers. But things are not entirely rosy in the woods. The evil widow of the former ruler is plotting a takeover. The animal factions face escalating conflicts. As Prue and Curtis search for baby Mac, they find themselves crucial players in a political drama dating back decades. In the end, these troubles can be resolved only in battle, and Prue must rise to the occasion. She sets off to meet her destiny by bicycle: "Never in Prue's life had she been so focused on her riding, so tuned in to every churn of the pedal assembly." Bicycle heroism: it doesn't get any more Portland than that. Sometimes things get almost too Portlandy, as though the characters from the brilliant TV satire "Portlandia" have gotten lost in Narnia. Picture Fred Armisen squinting from behind his glasses as he smugly informs the killer coyotes that he's actually, you know, a pacifist. THE illustrations, too, have an elegantly homegrown feel. In fact, they sprouted very close to home. The illustrator Carson Ellis, whose drawings have graced "The Mysterious Benedict Society," is Meloy's wife. Her work toggles between graphic, quirky miniaturism and a sylvan majesty well suited to these pages. (In case Meloy and his family don't seem talented enough, note that his sister is the novelist Maile Meloy.) One problem: the plot occasionally slows to the speed of a 1974 Schwinn. This is presumably the first book in a series, and there's a lot of setup. But mostly Meloy's efforts pay off. He has shaped the real stuff of Portland into a fantastic epic with a rainy, bicycle-riding Northwestern heart. Claire Dederer, author of the memoir "Poser," lives on an island near Seattle.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-7-When a flock of crows carries off her baby brother, 12-year-old Prue has no choice but to cross the bridge from her Oregon home into the Impassable Wilderness to save him. There, she and a friend become embroiled in a fantastical world of warring creatures, corrupt leaders, and peace-seeking mystics. A fresh and forthright modern fantasy. (Aug.) (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Guardian Review
The children's book world is particularly susceptible to dilettantes. Tooth-grindingly awful books by everyone from Glenn Beck to Madonna are bad enough, but even established adult novelists have made the mistake of thinking it's easy. Want to make a children's writer swear? Just ask them what they think of John Grisham's Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer The latest to try his hand is Colin Meloy, singer and songwriter for The Decemberists, currently one of America's most literate and tuneful rock bands. Meloy's sister Maile is a fine novelist, and Meloy frere's songs are characterised not just by cheeky wordplay but an unexpected flair for narrative. Is that enough to make the leap? The answer is mostly yes. Wildwood is a warm, lively story that's fully committed to its 9- to 12-year-old intended readership and mercifully free of any winking towards indie rock hipsters. Though not without flaws, this is a real children's book that real children might like. Twelve-year-old Prue lives in Portland, Oregon, Meloy's home town. One day, while babysitting her infant brother Mac in a park, a murder of crows swoops down and carries him off. Prue frantically chases them on her bike, but they fly into the Impassable Wilderness, a huge stretch of undeveloped land the residents of Portland seem to respect as off-limits. Not wanting to tell her parents of the abduction, Prue sets off to rescue Mac alone, though she is soon joined by likeably nerdy schoolfriend Curtis, who follows her despite many requests not to. Before long they happen upon a pack of talking coyotes wearing soldiers' uniforms. Prue and Curtis have inadvertently discovered Wildwood, a magical place with rules, politics and countries all its own. Chased by the coyotes, they're separated. Prue flees through the Avian Principality - populated by talking birds, and overseen by the princely Owl Rex - to the South Wood, a town drowning in bureaucracy. On the way, she hears rumours of the deposed Dowager Governess, raising an army in the deepest parts of the wood and ready to sacrifice Prue's brother to awaken a devastating natural force that would lay all of Wildwood to ruin. Curtis meanwhile has fallen in with that very Dowager Governess. Beguiled at first, he soon rebels against her evil intentions and is locked up. Will he escape in time to help Prue? Will they be able to stop the Dowager's evil plan? Well, almost certainly, but it's getting there that's most of the fun. With its armies of talking animals and its villainess - whose relationship with Curtis is probably a bit too Edmund and the White Witch - there's a real Pacific Northwest Narnia feel to Wildwood, though blessedly free of a mirthless Aslan telling everyone to calm down. There are editorial problems along the way. Wildwood is often slow, particularly for a book this long, and occasionally - as on page nine - there'll be three uses of "suddenly" in a single paragraph. But these are mitigated by the sense of a storyteller truly wanting to spin a tale, not a dilettante wanting to dabble. With fun illustrations by Meloy's wife Carson Ellis, there are more Wildwood books to come, and though I hope they're pruned and tended a bit more closely, Meloy has taken his audience seriously and produced a book built for sharing and reading aloud. Madonna, take note. Patrick Ness's A Monster Calls is published by Walker Books. To order Wildwood for pounds 8 with free UK p&p call Guardian book service on 0330 333 6846 or go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop - Patrick Ness The latest to try his hand is Colin Meloy, singer and songwriter for The Decemberists, currently one of America's most literate and tuneful rock bands. Meloy's sister Maile is a fine novelist, and Meloy frere's songs are characterised not just by cheeky wordplay but an unexpected flair for narrative. Is that enough to make the leap? The answer is mostly yes. Wildwood is a warm, lively story that's fully committed to its 9- to 12-year-old intended readership and mercifully free of any winking towards indie rock hipsters. Though not without flaws, this is a real children's book that real children might like. - Patrick Ness.
Kirkus Review
Fans of Meloy's indie-rock band, The Decemberists, will recognize themes running through his engaging debut celebrating the struggle of ordinary folk (including plants and animals) to throw off tyranny and shape their destinies.When her baby brother is carried off by crows to the Impassable Wilderness at the heart of Portland, Ore., stubbornly courageous Prue McKeel, 12, sets out to reclaim him, accompanied by annoying schoolfellow and class pariah Curtis Mehlberg. Their quest soon becomes entangled with longstanding conflicts among residents of this magical wilderness, which harbors secrets both strange (talking animals, sentient plants) and familiar (xenophobic mistrust, government red tape). Overcoming a slow start, the story gains momentum when Prue and Curtis enter the woods, encountering its vividly portrayed denizens, human and otherwise. Captured by the mysterious Dowager Governess, Curtis must choose sides in a confusing conflict; either way, he'll need courage and ingenuity to survive. Prue's search leads through South Wood's impenetrable bureaucracy to North Wood, where mystics commune with nature. Gritty urban settings abound in contemporary fantasy (Holly Black, Neil Gaiman and China Miville are exemplars). Faithfully recreating Portland's wild Forest Park, Meloy gives his world a uniquely Pacific Northwest spin. Illustrations by Ellis, Meloy's wife, bring forest and inhabitants to gently whimsical life.A satisfying blend of fantasy, adventure story, eco-fable and political satire with broad appeal; especially recommended for preteen boys. (Fantasy. 10 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
