A children’s book by one of my favorite authors, Mary Stewart. What a delightful little tale this is, full of the kind of magic that makes the ancient fairytales so pleasing. I kept wishing I had a very young granddaughter to read it to and felt a bit sad to know that it existed when my granddaughter was just the right age and we missed it.

The writing is superb, full of Mary Stewart’s unparalleled eye for detail:

But otherwise the forest was still, with the heavy, sleepy stillness of summer. Not that it was really silent. If you lay with your eyes shut, and really tried to listen to the silence, you could hear it; it was made up of thousands of tiny sounds which might be the trees growing, or the toadstools pushing up through the pine needles, or the air breathing gently through the twigs overhead as the sun heated the ground and the moisture drifted upwards from the mosses.

Even as an adult, I was transfixed by the tale as it unfolded. And, even though I knew how it was likely to end, it was exciting and charming. Isn’t that, after all, one of the things we loved about the original fairytales...knowing that there was happily ever after at the end: Snow White, Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty sure to get their princes and the evil enchanters sure to get their due?

If your child is a precocious reader, hand her this book. If not, read it to her. Don’t miss the fun.

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I wish I knew about this book when my kids were younger. I would have loved it as a read aloud but nope, I read it as an adult and enjoyed it. Will save it until I have some grandkids. ( )

A children’s fantasy, told with Mary Stewart’s usual style. Two children enter a magic forest, deal with a werewolf, an evil sorcerer. ( )

This is the first novel I ever read.
In 2006, our English teacher suggested that we should learn English by reading, uh, pocketbooks.
Good thing a classmate lend me this.
I tried to find the title of this book since I joined Goodreads in college a decade ago.
I'll read this again to my (future) kids.
I think I finished this in 3-5 days.
I wasn't into reading novels back then, but I loved this one. ( )

John and Margaret are on holiday with their parents in Germany. The two of them go for a walk along a forest path, following after a weeping man who was curiously-dressed, and find themselves back in the middle ages. The man has been separated from his oldest and dearest friend by an evil spell, and he asks the children to help him.

This was a nice little atmospheric story to read on a rainy afternoon, but I’m a bit disappointed I didn’t read it when I was a child. Then I would have loved the whole children travelling back in time aspect. Now I found myself less interested in the children -- although I did appreciate their moments of approaching their unexpected adventure sensibly, and it’s not their fault that they’re overshadowed by the much more interesting medieval characters. Some of whom I wanted to see more of. (Maybe I should just reread Stewart’s Merlin trilogy? I haven’t ever reread it, even though I’ve reread most of Stewart’s other books.)

Anyway, this was more satisfying than The Little Broomstick was, and I’m pleased I finally got to read it. ( )