Middle-grade
fiction
HarperCollins,
2012
256
pages, $16.99
I confess, I love Lauren Oliver. You may remember me gushing over her first middle-grade novel, Liesl & Po, after which I devoured and loved Before I Fall (YA). While The
Spindlers isn't as poignant, it's just as much fun and as well written as
her other books.
The story
is simple enough: Poor Liza discovers that her brother, Patrick, has been
snatched one night by the Spindlers, a race of horrid spiderlike creatures who
live in another world Below. The Spindlers feed on souls, and the Thing That
Was Once Patrick is clearly a poor substitute for the real thing. Brave,
resourceful Liza resolves to bring him home, and so she goes Below armed with a
broom (because spiders, she reasons, hate brooms). There she meets up with an
array of characters and creatures and is forced to undergo trials and tests in
her quest to free Patrick.
It's
Oliver's writing that sets this story apart from other quest/rescue tales. She
draws her characters so completely, renders their emotions so sympathetically,
that we're immediately attached to the outcome. The prose is beautiful, spare,
even lyrical, but not difficult to read. Middle-grade readers will quickly
identify with Liza, laughing at some of her encounters
with those Below, and shivering at others. This is a story with a classic feel and a winning heroine
that will please just about everyone.
Wish
you had your own copy of The Spindlers? You can win one right here on this blog as part of my
Countdown to Pub Day Party! Go enter. Yeah, now.
No comments:
Post a Comment