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. But these are mitigated by the sense of a storyteller truly wanting to spin a tale, not a dilettante wanting to dabble. 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.
There are editorial problems along the way. 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. 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.
Beguiled at first, he soon rebels against her evil intentions and is locked up. 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.Ĭurtis meanwhile has fallen in with that very Dowager Governess. 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. Prue and Curtis have inadvertently discovered Wildwood, a magical place with rules, politics and countries all its own.Ĭhased by the coyotes, they're separated. Before long they happen upon a pack of talking coyotes wearing soldiers' uniforms. 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. 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.
One day, while babysitting her infant brother Mac in a park, a murder of crows swoops down and carries him off. Twelve-year-old Prue lives in Portland, Oregon, Meloy's home town.
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