This smart book about a
young protagonist taking on dark forces owes a lot to the Harry Potter series. She’s an orphan
whose father and mother perished under peculiar circumstances and she now lives
with a woman who may or may not be her aunt, but who is certainly rather
abusive. Mrs. Rokaby is bad enough but
her evil rabbit Bigamist is a real villain!
The characters are rooted in the real world, which makes the
time tornados and time traps really work.
They’re more magical fantastical than science fiction, and we are very
interested in how things are going to play out.
(That opening is really tasty and very visual.)
In some ways, we can see the derivation of a lot of the
ideas here. In particular, the story
reminds us of John Bellairs’ trilogy of books that begins with The House with the Clock in its Walls. The young
protagonist of that book (a chubby ten year old) has to track down the clock by
solving a mystery, and saves the world thereby.
This book is just as complex and just as satisfying, and young Silver
(named after her father’s favorite pirate, Long John Silver) is a kid we can
really sympathize with and really like.
She is just little (sort of like a hobbit) but she has to do a brave
thing because it’s the thing to do.
