If I were to tell a young person about The Last Archer by S.D. Smith, I’d probably say something like this: It’s the story of an archer named Jo Shanks who wants to earn his place among a group of elite bowmen (bowrabbits? bowbucks?) from Halfwind Citadel. He goes through various trials and battles in […]
Our Very Own Great Tower
If you rummage about in our living room, you probably won’t notice our Great Tower. It’s shabby and brown, and it has a hole rubbed through the leather in the center cushion, courtesy of either the dog or our sons. We found it on Craigslist at a price so cheap we’d’ve been fools not to […]
A Letter from Brian Jacques
I spent my allowance on a steerage ticket to Mossflower Country when I was in elementary school. The mass market paperback was tucked into the shelves of a booth selling books at an Arbor Day celebration in downtown Zeeland, Michigan. Beneath the title, Mossflower, in gothic script were the images of a mouse with a […]
Mapping Makebelieve
When I was young, I’d spend hours in the attic, poring over the maps I found behind the yellow-framed covers of my dad’s old National Geographic magazine collection: The Amazon River basin and rainforest, the South Pacific Islands, the classical lands of the Mediterranean, the West Indies, the Far East. These faraway places (and, in […]
The Gift of Fear
Toward the beginning of Magic by the Lake, when they find themselves with more magic than they know what to do with, Edward Eager’s four young protagonists convince a turtle to grant them three wishes so they can better manage things. Martha, the youngest, blurts out their final wish: “‘And nothing scary,’ said Martha. “‘Granted,’ […]