Oldenglen (The Oldenglen Chronicles). Robin Mason & Michael Mason Booklyn, ON: Tricklewood Press, 2015. 295 pp, trade pbk., $13.99. ISBN 978-0-9948371-0-3. Subject Headings: Good and evil-Juvenile fiction. Magic-Juvenile fiction. Forests and forestry-Juvenile fiction. Grades 4-7 / Ages 9-12. Review by Tara Stieglitz. ** /4

excerpt:

And there, in the middle of the patch, was something which made Jackson rear back with an oath.

“Bloody hell!”

It was a huge paw print. This wasn’t the print of a dog or cat. It had a cloud-shaped pad and four oval-shaped toe prints arched over that. Atop each toe print was the faint trace of a long, hooked claw. Jackson inched forward nervously, then leant down and put his hand over the paw print. It was much bigger than his hand. Had it been made by the fanged creature he had seen the night before? The one with the eyes of yellow fire—that he had attacked! If so, what was it: a fox, a coyote? Too big for those, surely? Could it even be a wolf!? A thrill of fear ran through him, and he stood up and looked all around in a panic.

Oldenglen is the first novel by Robin and Michael Mason and is the first in a series, “The Oldenglen Chronicles”. Oldenglen starts with 12-year-old Jackson Wolfe and his parents arriving at their new home in a remote, forested corner of Oregon after moving from England. They are renting an old house, surrounded by wilderness, from local landowners, Mr and Mrs Farley. Initially Jackson hates everything about this move. He misses his friends and his old home in England, and he hates the old house in Oregon and the isolation of the surrounding wilderness. When Jackson begins to tentatively explore his surroundings, he changes his mind about the forest when he finds a secluded glen with a stone, the Gladestone, that gives him the power to communicate with the forest animals. Soon Jackson is joined by Sarah, the Farley’s visiting granddaughter, and Jackson and Sarah discover that the Gladestone intends for them to work with the animals to save the glade and the forest from the destruction of land developers, led by Sarah’s own grandfather.

     The plotting of the novel is uneven. The first half of the book is very slow, to the point of being boring, as very little happens beyond Jackson’s being introduced to a series of talking animals with various personality quirks. It’s only in the second half of the novel that Jackson meets Sarah and the two of them discover her grandfather’s plan to raze the forest and the magical glen and build hundreds of houses. The plot picks up when Jackson, Sarah and the glen’s animals begin to take action to stop the construction.

     Oldenglen has a strong message for environmental conservation, though it suffers from uneven plotting and characters that are little more than exaggerated stereotypes. Elements of the book are interesting and original, but it is not an essential addition to a library.

Recommended.

Tara Stieglitz is a librarian at MacEwan University in Edmonton, AB.

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