BRENDON AND THE WOLVES
Allen Morgan
Illustrated by Christina Farmilo
Volume 19 Number 3
One July evening, Brendon is allowed to sleep alone in a tent outside his family's cottage and he wonders if his parents will still love him now that he's growing up. As they kiss him goodnight, they assure him that"... when you grow more and go out on your own, we'll love you then too, whatever you do and whatever you turn out to be." Brendon wakes alone in the night to the sound of wolves baying at the changeling moon. He is powerfully drawn to the circle and, when he obeys an irresistible urge to join in, he is transformed into one of the pack! Brendon spends four seasons (a day and a night) learning the ways of the wolves and his true parents become a long-ago memory. By the next changeling moon, Brendon has grown enough to become a boy once again. Brendon and the Wolves is different from Morgan's earlier work in fantasy in that the weaving of a spell, as opposed to the humour of Matthew and the Midnight Money Van, for example, retains the reader's interest. Christina Farmilo's darkly simple illustrations contribute to Brendon's dream world. They increase in size from one to two pages as his adventure escalates and decrease as he arrives home again. The format is a familiar one to the younger child. This may encourage the beginning reader to tackle this book alone. As it will be for the listening child, some of the language may be new, but its flow will wrap him or her in the spell of the changeling moon. Patricia L. M. Butler, Scarborough, Ont. |
1971-1979 | 1980-1985 | 1986-1990 | 1991-1995
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