| Book Review | ||
| Beyond
the Deepwoods |
||
| . | By
Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell |
. |
| This
is the first book in "The Edge" chronicles. The Edge is a place where everything
leads to the end of the land. If you walk too far then you will fall off the edge and keep
falling for the rest of your life. The Edge is made up of the Deepwoods, the
Twilight Woods, the Edgelands, the Edge ,the Mire, Undertown, Sanctaphrax and the stone
gardens. Twig has been brought up amongst a village of Woodtrolls even though he is not really one of them -Twig seems to be a human but I cannot really tell . A band of Sky Pirates are meant to be after Twig. Twig's "parents" send him to another Woodtroll telling him to be careful and never to stray from the path. Weighed down with lucky charms, he sets off. Twig strays from the path!!!!!!!! Will he get home? Will he survive? What new adventures await him? This is a good story and the authors have created very imaginative creatures for Twig to meet. You do not stay with each creature long though so they do not all stay in your mind. There are some GREAT illustrations to help your imagination. I found bits of the book very exciting but the text itself did not always flow as well as it could have - especially when I was reading aloud. I am keen to read book 2 and find out what happens next. I thought the whole world was very interesting - especially the idea of different things being buoyant at different temperatures. My favourite character, other than Twig himself, was undoubtedly the Banderbear. His character was more developed than the others we were introduced to and so you began to care about him more. I hope we learn more about Banderbears in the later stories. I know Chris Riddell did some great illustrations for some of Philip Ridley's books like Dakota but Deepwoods seems to indicate that both authors illustrated it. Whoever did it, they are good artists. Iestyn Evans - August 2000 |
||