We challenge anyone to read this and keep a straight face.Ī long-running series reaches its closing chapters. With illustrations that startle in their manic comedy and deadpan direct address and with a narrative that follows four endearingly sardonic characters trying to push past (sometimes successfully) their fear-causing natures, this book instantly joins the classic ranks of Captain Underpants and The Stinky Cheese Man. Blabey has hit the proverbial nail on the head, kissed it full on the mouth, and handed it a stick of Acme dynamite. Although these predators find that not everyone is ready to be at the receiving end of their helpful efforts, they use all their Bad Guy know-how to manage a few hilarious good deeds.
Wolf, the foursome sets off determined to un-smirch their names (and reluctantly curbing their appetites). Wolf enlists three equally slandered friends into the Good Guys Club: Mr. "Just because I've got BIG POINTY TEETH and RAZOR-SHARP CLAWS and I occasionally like to dress up like an OLD LADY, that doesn't mean… / … I'm a BAD GUY." To prove this very fact, Mr. Wolf is right there to greet them, bemoaning his reputation. The right readers will love this to pieces.įour misunderstood villains endeavor to turn over a new leaf…or a new rap sheet in Blabey's frenzied romp.Īs readers open the first page of this early chapter book, Mr. The magical realism is reminiscent of the Chronicles of Narnia, Elizabeth Goudge, or a child's version of Life of Pi. Emmaline's narration is unreliable, flawlessly childlike, and deeply honest her faith in magic brings her solace and, possibly, healing. The Horse Lord leaves a note detailing what Emmaline must do to save the mare's life, and she embarks upon a quest made increasingly difficult by her declining health. Only she can see the horses in the mirrors only she can see the mare with a damaged wing who comes to live in the walled garden.
The horses were lost in the Blitz, and now Emmaline, afflicted with a disease she calls the "stillwaters," lives without her family in a former manor home–turned–pediatric hospital.
A young English World War II refugee finds magic tending the winged horses who live in the mirrors of her sanatorium.Įmmaline May (her age is never given, though readers can extrapolate that she's older than 8, younger than 13 as well, she's not described as white, but, along with everyone else in the novel, probably is due to its setting) misses her parents, her older sister, and the horses that helped with the deliveries of her family's bakery.
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