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CM . . .
. Volume X Number 12. . . . February 13, 2004
excerpt: Belinda was having a much more powerful reaction transporting herself this time and it was taking much longer. If you've ever played catch you'll know that when you throw a ball a short distance, it's over and done with in a moment, but when you wind back to hurl a ball across an entire park, it requires much more effort. So it was with Belinda. Her imagination was strong enough now to take aim a long way off. But it was not entirely smooth sailing. As she moved into the dusty glass, a jolting crash rang in her ears, and a thud as loud as the sky falling transfixed her. She knew immediately things were not right and willed herself back. Just one more second and she would have been stuck forever in the centre of the smudgy glass, like some indistinguishable black particle. ......And suddenly she understood what had happened: Gulch must have entered the attic just as she was about to move through the glass. Twelve-year-old Belinda has been abducted and locked away in a leaky, creaky attic room where she is given nothing but mouldy bread to eat and tepid water to drink. Her brain has been washed clean of memories by her hideous caretaker, Nanny Gulch. The only tool Belinda has for escape is her marvelous imagination. After some practice, she is able to escape and then to convince two neighbourhood children of her realness so that they offer her shelter and delight in being able to help a "ghost." Soon she proves her gratitude when she saves them from Gulch who almost captures them. Gulch, of course, has her own sad story of abuse and abduction as she is controlled by her evil masters, Theodora and Cedric Dustbunny, who set out to recapture Belinda. After failing with the predictable tricks, Cedric, against the advice of his wife, resorts to black magic. The story then flips into the era when Theodora and Cedric were trying to raise their son who was a spoilt brat. As a result of the son's demands, they were always short of money, and Cedric resorted to working for the evil condor. In Cedric's effort to escape from imprisonment, as a result of spying on the condor, he destroys his cell. After all the commotion, he is able to rescue the black magic book which has miraculously arrived on the parking lot. Cedric returns home elated, only to find out that his beloved son has started to grow "stringy grassy things on his legs" and eventually becomes an elm tree. With their son gone, Theodora and Cedric become totally bitter and evil. Gulch, now living with them, captures the black magic book only to have it accidently catch on fire. Meanwhile, the children are amusing themselves when suddenly Cedric arrives in the girl's dressing room mirror. At first, the children conclude that what they see lies in their imagination. However, Cedric is successful in grabbing Belinda who screams frantically. While the fire truck arrives at the Dustbunny's house, the police arrive at the children's house to arrest Cedric for abducting the children. In the course of the news report, Belinda tells her story and connects with her parents in Australia, and Gulch also finds her parents. The evil Cedric and Theodora go to jail, and everybody else is happily united with their parents. As the covers states, Belinda and the Dust Bunnies is a children's Gothic-comic thriller where the horrors of evil are finally jailed and where love and kindness heal the rest. The conversations between the children are amusing as they, unbeknownst to their mother, make plans to include Belinda in their household. Similarly her comments usually start with "You haven't been hitting each other with croquet mallets again, have you?" The complexities of the plot are held together by an omnipresent narrator who advises the reader of the psychology and mistakes of the main characters, somewhat in the style of Lemony Snickett in the "Series of Unfortunate Events" books. The story is well suited for 7 to 9-year-olds who will enjoy the story either as a read-aloud, or a book that the better readers will tackle on their own, although the typeface is small. As with all Gothic stories, the complexity of plot dominates over character development. Grania Bridal has added cartoon-like sketches to each chapter that also contribute to the humour. All author royalties are being donated to Child Find. Recommended. Meredith MacKeen is a teacher-librarian at Glen Stewart School in Stratford, PE.
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