Robert (C) O’Brien is probably more remembered for two other books —
Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH and Z for Zachariah, both
of which were turned into movies, the latter relatively recently.
Ellen is given a mysterious silver crown, and soon after loses her family in a dreadful house fire. Shocked, she witnesses strange events involving men wearing black clothes with green highlights, and nearly falls victim to one of them before escaping into the woods. So begins her journey.
O’Brien’s prose is deceptively simple, but his ability to generate
tension and an air of menace is impressive. This is most definitely a
children’s book, but an effective one in which the kids solve their own problems. The plotting does perhaps not hold up to scrutiny, and the tone is sometimes odd — Ellen has lost everything, yet seems to wear it too lightly; one can only think she is in shock for the whole story, but that does not ring true either, and she seems too smart to simply not realise the import of what has happened. That leaves a bit of a hole in the middle of the story.
Otto is a great character, and the men in green and black are
excellent villains, and the story gathers pace nicely, though perhaps
the end is a little quick and some of the middle a little slow.
It reads to me like the work of an author who can write great scenes but has not yet worked out how to harmonise them into a novel.
Nonetheless, a good read for the age group it is aimed at. — say grade 4 and the few years after.
DSPACE 