This
is the third tale about September, the girl who visits Fairyland
and has such adventures there. Her father is back home now
after his rescue, but laid up with a bad leg, and September
finds life on the farm dull and drab. If this was a film,
you feel while reading the beginning that this part would
be black and white, a la Wizard of Oz. But although September
is now fourteen and learning to drive, adventures are just
around the corner
The first two books reminded me closely of the Victorian and
Edwardian children's books I enjoyed as a child, a sort of
updated Alice. This third outing made me think more of the
Sixties and the psychedelic fantasy world of Yellow Submarine;
it truly is very, very trippy. Descriptions pile on descriptions
of yet more fantastic creatures and their bizarre roles in
the faerie realm, although this time September and her car
are heading for the moon. Once again she meets old friends
and learns more about the process of growing up, change and
responsibility. More than the other two, this book is for
teenagers and adults, and younger children might find it confusing;
certainly reading the other two books first is essential.
But there is nobody who can conjure up a world quite the way
Ms Valente does, and she clearly has an imagination that you
could probably see even if you were on the moon yourself.
Visual delights include a stationery circus made of
stationary, a blue wind, transformed car with a sunflower
for a steering wheel and a yeti with a secret. One to savor
and read every word of, as truly there is nothing else quite
like it.
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