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Summary
Summary
National Book Award Longlist * Bank Street Children's Book Committee Best Book of the Year
"Beautifully written and elegantly structured, this fantasy is as real as it gets."--Franny Billingsley, author of Chime
The Real Boy, Anne Ursu's follow-up to her widely acclaimed and beloved middle grade fantasy Breadcrumbs, is a spellbinding tale of the power we all wield, great and small.
On an island on the edge of an immense sea there is a city, a forest, and a boy named Oscar. Oscar is a shop boy for the most powerful magician in the village, and spends his days in a small room in the dark cellar of his master's shop grinding herbs and dreaming of the wizards who once lived on the island generations ago. Oscar's world is small, but he likes it that way. The real world is vast, strange, and unpredictable. And Oscar does not quite fit in it.
But now that world is changing. Children in the city are falling ill, and something sinister lurks in the forest. Oscar has long been content to stay in his small room in the cellar, comforted in the knowledge that the magic that flows from the forest will keep his island safe. Now even magic may not be enough to save it.
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Oscar is the magician's hand, charged with collecting plants to concoct spells, and lives happily hidden away, with his cats, in the cellar of Master Caleb's shop in the Barrow, outside the walled city of Asteri. (Ursu subtly delineates tics that suggest 11-year-old Oscar may be autistic.) Then Master Caleb disappears for mysterious obligations on the continent, and the bane of Oscar's existence, the magician's apprentice, is killed. Oscar's world crumbles. Unprepared to deal with customers, he receives help from the Healer's apprentice, Callie, but Oscar realizes his inability to make small talk is more than shyness: there is something off about him. It gets worse: his garden is ravaged, the city's children fall ill, and a monster stalks the countryside. It's left to Oscar and Callie to save Asteri. Adult readers will savor Ursu's allusions to well-known fairy tales-most significantly, Pinocchio-and appreciate the many well-turned phrases. But the story has some gaps, and a message about the failings of magic may disappoint younger fantasy fans. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 8-12. Author's agent: Tina Wexler, ICM. Illustrator's agent: Susan Cohen, Writers House. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Misfit orphan Oscar is content to be his magician master's "hand": doing the menial work of preparing herbs; staying in the cellar with his cat friends. Then his orderly world explodes: Master Caleb disappears and bane-of-Oscar's-life apprentice Wolf is mysteriously killed, leaving Oscar to mind the shop -- Oscar, who, like a person with Asperger's syndrome, lacks interpersonal skills and can't decode facial expressions. Even worse, children in the magically protected City suddenly begin to sicken, and together with his new friend Callie, a healer's apprentice, Oscar must find both cause and cure. Using Pinocchio as her point of departure (with a little "Red Riding Hood" thrown in for good measure), Ursu skillfully implies a connection between Oscar and the little wooden puppet boy. . .which turns out to be a clever piece of misdirection. But not quite, because in fact Oscar does become more of a "real boy" in the end. It's all highly rewarding and involving, with a tight plot, resonant themes, a gripping adventure, a clearly limned fantasy landscape, and a sympathetic main character. Callie and Oscar's sometimes prickly relationship sparks the dialogue, while Oscar's self-doubts feed the considerable emotional content. As in Breadcrumbs (rev. 1/12), there are holes in the story's logic (why should the ailing children have different symptoms when the source of the problem is the same?), but readers will forgive the book's flaws as they root for Oscar to come into his own: "You're not made at all, Oscar. Don't you see?. . .You get to do the making." Final art unseen. martha v. parravano (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Oscar knows he's different. He can't remember where he comes from, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of magical herbs and their uses, and he just does not understand human interaction. As the apprentice to Caleb, the last magician in the magic-steeped Barrow, Oscar doesn't need to worry about how different he is: all he needs to do is collect the herbs, prepare the charms and tinctures, do his chores, and avoid trouble. That changes when a mysterious destructive force begins obliterating anything magical, and the city's perfect children start falling curiously ill. As Oscar and his friend Callie investigate the source of the devastation and seek to protect the Barrow and its inhabitants, they discover a deep, dark secret. And has Oscar discovered why he's so different? Ursu (Breadcrumbs, 2011) also presents a rich world filled with natural magic and a troubling origin story of sacrifice. The puzzling and atmospheric mystery takes an empowering turn as Callie and Oscar learn to rely on the valuable strengths they already have. Perfect for the Neville Longbottoms of Harry Potter fandom.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
ANNE URSU, the author of "Breadcrumbs," has written a lovely and sophisticated new middle-grade fantasy that asks readers to wrap their heads around abstractions and accept a lack of absolutes. There is no one bad guy, people are simultaneously greedy and miraculous, and even a monster deserves understanding. In "The Real Boy," magic is unruly, and legends feel steady under the feet until a new bit of information rolls in like thunder and unsettles history. Eleven-year-old Oscar is a hand to Master Caleb, the "first magician in a generation," on the island of Aletheia. The "odd" boy's quiet life is dictated by routine, which suits him just fine. He collects flowers and herbs for his master to make into charms and potions to sell to the inhabitants of the Barrow Village and the privileged people from Asteri, "the Shining City." He spends the rest of his time avoiding the cruel apprentice, Wolf, taking care of a menagerie of cats and sneaking into the magician's enormous library. Oscar's predictable life begins to fall apart when Master Caleb goes to the continent to sell his enchanted wares and Wolf is killed by something large and hungry in the woods. The adults of the Barrow don't want to believe that a monster is attacking them, so Oscar and his friend Callie, the headstrong healer's apprentice, must uncover the truth behind Aletheia's magic on their own. Why was a terrible plague able to cause so many deaths years ago? Why did the wizards of old turn themselves into guardian trees? And why are the children of Asteri, who are supposed to be perfect, coming apart like paper dolls left in the rain? Oscar - who has trouble looking people in the eye and reading emotions - is forced by Callie and by circumstance to help the sick city children. "I cannot understand what people mean when they talk," he tells Malcolm, an ex-magician. "I am not ... I'm not made of the same thing as everyone else." But what sets Oscar apart (his methodical knowledge of plants, his ability to create "maps" of information in his head) also enables him to become a hero. "the real boy" contains delicate allusions to "The Adventures of Pinocchio," by the 19th-century Italian author Carlo Collodi (magical wood also plays a role in this story), and is rich with beautiful, heady notions that demand to be lingered over: If the earth can be saturated with enchantment, then a city can be scarred with grief. Magic is a natural force that "serves at no one's pleasure but its own." And truth "punches you in the stomach as it puts its loving arm around your shoulder." Readers will need to go slowly, both to savor Ursu's descriptions and to avoid confusion. As Oscar and Callie try to understand their history and why Aletheia's magic is losing strength, they develop and discard theories the way citizens of Asteri might throw away old charms, but those who stay with their mission will be aptly rewarded. Ultimately, Oscar must make a daring and self-sacrificial effort to get rid of the monster for good. It takes an act of great bravery to free him from self-doubt. He goes from being a "puppet with no master" to a real boy indeed. In Aletheia, as in the real world, it turns out to be "a beautiful lie ... that you could have magic without monsters." And so destructively true that "small enchantments make us dream of big ones." Perhaps, as Malcolm suggests, instead of relying on magic it's better "we dream of a big world" - a world that has plenty of space for "odd," unexpected heroes like Oscar. CHELSEY PHILPOT is an editor at School Library Journal. Her first young adult novel, "Even in Paradise," will appear in the fall of 2014.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-The island of Aletheia boasts as its crown jewel the city of Asteri, powered by the lingering magic of ancient wizards. Nowadays there is only one, mildly magical magician, Caleb, and his lowly assistant, Oscar, to provide magical solutions for Asteri's demanding residents. People, social situations, and breaks in routine discomfit the orphaned Oscar in ways reminiscent of autistic spectrum children. He prefers to gather plants from the forest and converse with Caleb's cats. Circumstances force Oscar to depart from routine when Asteri's magic goes awry. Oscar teams up with Callie, the healer's apprentice, to cure the ailments and repair the broken magic that threatens Aletheia. In the process, Oscar discovers Caleb's illicit use of magic, questioning his own origins and purpose. This is a tale replete with memorable settings and weighty issues. Readers will dog Oscar's footsteps, wondering as he does, when magic moves from being a gift to becoming a crutch. His friendship with Callie serves as a bridge between him and the larger community, and it often puzzles him. Ursu subtly proves that Oscar and Callie have a mutually beneficial relationship that gives both needed insight and support. As the novel concludes, the dense plotlines pull in as tight as they can, but there are still unanswered questions and a rather quick ending. Still, Oscar's tremendous heart fills every nook of this richly told story. His heroic stumbles will fondly remind readers of Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted (HarperCollins, 1997) and Meg from Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time.-Caitlin Augusta, Stratford Library Association, CT (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
An isolated, insecure orphan living in magical Aletheia becomes a "real boy" when his ordered world crumbles and he must rely on himself. Since coming to the Barrow, 11-year-old Oscar has lived in magician Caleb's cellar, where he performs menial tasks preparing herbs. The Barrow encircles a shining, walled town whose privileged residents depend on the Barrow's magic smiths to supply them with protective potions, salves, charms and spells. Clueless about people, Oscar loves plants, including the wizard trees that infuse the Barrow's soil with magic. When urgent business takes Caleb away, his apprentice is murdered, and Oscar must run Caleb's shop. Lacking social skills, Oscar longs to fold "up, like an envelope," but he manages the shop with help from a kindhearted girl who befriends him. Suddenly, more terrible things happen: Children begin to ail, wizard trees are felled, and a sinister creature kills Caleb and threatens the Barrow. Determined to find why magic no longer protects everyone and burdened with many characteristics of autism, the unlikely Oscar realizes it's up to him. Incorporating fairy-tale elements, Oscar's story unfolds slowly as he overcomes his phobias and discovers that friendship trumps magic any day. Black-and-white illustrations capture story highlights. A good pick for fairy-tale fans, especially those battling their own fears. (map) (Fantasy. 8-12)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
