Wild Magic - Softcover

Cat Weatherill is a performance storyteller, performing internationally at storytelling and literature festivals, on national radio and television and at schools throughout the country. Her first book for Puffin, Barkbelly, was shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award. She has also written Snowbone for the Puffin list.

Grade 4–6—Weatherill uses events and characters from Robert Browning's "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" in this novel that begins with the mesmerizing Piper leading the town's children away. They follow him through a magical door that opens to a place inside Hamelin Hill. Right away, their excited giddiness turns to panic and fear. They're trapped. "When the door closed, summer had been left behind. In here it was winter." For the first 50 or so pages, the main character is a girl named Marianna, whose disabled brother, Jakob, can't keep up with the others and becomes, at least briefly, the only Hamelin child not trapped inside the Hill. Then, the story shifts to tell the backstory of the Piper. Readers learn that he is half human, half elf, and has been cursed to turn into a beast whenever the moon is full. His salvation can only come from a child with special powers in a town overrun by rats. Classic fantasy themes like loyalty, transformation, and sacrifice are part of this interesting book. Especially intriguing are the scenes of Marianna changing into a fox and experiencing the world as a wild animal. But the plot suffers from multiple points of view—from Marianna to the Piper, and then on to Jakob and even Marianna and Jakob's father—that aren't done in an integrated way, giving an overall disjointed feel. Buy if you have an avid fantasy following and/or a large collection.—Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL
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