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Book Review: The Poe Estate (The Grimm Legacy, Book 3) by Polly Shulman

The Poe Estate (The Grimm Legacy, Book 3) by Polly Shulman

Nancy Paulsen Books, 2015

ISBN-13: 978-0399166143

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD

 

This, sadly, is the last book in a trilogy where the real star is not any particular character, but the New-York Circulating Material Repository, a combination library/museum/pocket dimension of fictional objects. The first book, The Grimm Legacy, introduced high school students Elizabeth Rew and Andre Merritt, who were hired to work as pages in the Repository, as they discovered magical objects from fairytales and fantasy. The second book, The Wells Bequest, introduces science geek Leo Novikov and explores fictional objects found in science fiction tales. This third book, The Poe Estate, ventures into the world of Gothic and early horror fiction. It takes place years later, after Elizabeth has become a librarian. She and Andre travel New England looking for haunted objects and houses to store in the repository’s Poe Annex (a detail I loved was that in order to reach the Poe Annex, visitors must first travel through the Lovecraft Corpus, which is just as creepy and atmospherically terrifying as you would expect). However, unlike the first two books, we get a first-person narrator, sixth grader Sukie, whose protective older sister Kitty died from an inherited blood disease from her mother’s side of the family, the Thornes.  Kitty haunts Sukie, still compelled to protect her even after death. Sukie and her parents, suffering financially, move into Thorne Mansion, which is in a sad state of disrepair, with their mother’s very elderly cousin, Hepzibah Thorne, and Sukie soon discovers another ghost haunting the house.  After meeting Elizabeth and Andre at a flea market, Sukie discovers that the house, and members of her family from generations past, appeared in an unfinished Gothic novel. Sukie, Andre, and Elizabeth go on a treasure hunt, passing through the Lovecraft Corpus, visiting the Spectral Library (a fictional library with a ghostly librarian, containing fictional books that exists inside a story: examples of fictional books include the Necronomicon and The King in Yellow, both of which are better handled by a ghost than a human being), and traveling through the Poe Annex, which contains not just haunted houses, but haunted ships, haunted trains, and haunted islands. There are enough Easter eggs in this book to give any fan of Gothic and early horror fiction plenty to delight in, and the metanarrative is kind of fascinating, although it’s also somewhat confusing.

I personally am absolutely delighted to see the names of some of these lesser-known stories (such as “Afterward” by Edith Wharton and “The Wind in the Rose-Bush” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman) and authors appear in a middle grade novel, and I love the Repository and its collections. However, Sukie’s story as a girl dealing with grief over the death of her sister, financial difficulties at home, and bullying at school, whose elderly cousin is being pursued by unscrupulous developers, gets shafted by the author’s need to incorporate the Repository into the narrative. Jonathan Rigby, the villain from previous books, doesn’t get much space in the story, and the conflicts and relationships don’t get the attention they deserve. Sukie’s story is definitely a middle-grade story, but its intersection with the Repository storyline mostly derails it in favor of dropping names that might not be familiar even to many adults. Shulman could get away with this in The Grimm Legacy, because most kids have a basic familiarity with fairytales, but I don’t think it works here.

If you are an adult who loves the idea of  fantastic libraries or getting to step into favorite stories (visiting the House of Usher, flying on a broom from Young Goodman Brown, tracking down Captain Kidd’s treasure) then this is a really fun book.  Unfortunately, I think a lot of it will go over the target audience’s head. Polly Shulman does provide a list of authors and titles mentioned in the text, and she got me interested enough in Hawthorne to look some of his stories up (The Scarlet Letter successfully turned me off to Hawthorne in high school), but I have trouble seeing kids in elementary or early middle school  actively seeking these stories out on their own. This isn’t great writing, but it’s a lovely tribute with an enjoyable concept,  one of those books that is best shared between an adult who loves the genre and the kids in their lives.

 

Posted on January 14, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: The Old One and The Sea by Lex H. Jones, illustrated by Liam ‘Pais’ Hill

The Old One and The Sea by Lex H. Jones, illustrated by Liam ‘Pais’ Hill

Sinister Horror Company, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1912578160

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

The Old One and The Sea introduces children to a now-famous author and one of his most famous creations, reimagining the childhood of Howard “Howie”  Phillips Lovecraft and his first encounter with the extraordinary. Taking place just after World War I, in the coastal town of Innsmouth, Howie’s father is missing in action, and he and his mother have a close relationship, although he is curious about the world around him and prone to take risks. With no other children and few other adults around he has preserved a fearless sense of wonder in the world that most older children and adults grow out of,. His only companion, Mr. Derleth, is a brusque former soldier who has seen terrible battles, and studies the sea and the stars, and the mysteries he sees in them. One night, when Mr. Derleth has noted that the stars are in an unusual alignment, a black stone pillar rises out of the sea, and Howie decides to explore it. Once he’s reached the top, he accidentally summons a great creature from the sea: surprised, he falls off the pillar and into the water. The creature saves him, and when Howie really looks at the creature, instead of seeing a monster, he sees the tendrils that saved him flowing from the round head of the creature, and black, endless eyes that reflect the stars. Howie names the creature Oolu, and a strange friendship begins between the lonely boy and the equally lonely creature that has risen from the sea. Both are grieving: Howie for his father, and Oolu for his friends in the city of Rlyeh, lost to the bottom of the sea. Jones’ depiction of grief here, especially the grief of a child, rings very true. It’s there, but without making the story entirely about grief.

Then sailors discover that Oolu has risen, and recognize him as Cthulhu, the Great Old One, a monster who destroyed their ship, and decided to attack him. Howie runs to Oolu, chased by his mother and Mr. Derleth, to face the sailors. Mr. Derleth, who still has his military skills, runs the sailors off, terrified. Mr. Derleth notes to Howie, “Fear can be a powerful motivator”. Howie makes a plan to use his imagination to write stories about Oolu, using the name Mr. Derleth used, Cthhulu, but to make the stories scary to keep people like the sailors from ever attacking his friend again.

This is not a frightenting book. It is a tale of friendship, loyalty, grief, love, and family that honors wonder and imagination.Lex H. Jones has given us a gift in this idyllic fictional portrait of Lovecraft, reminding us that he, too, was once a child with curiosity and imagination. There couldn’t be a gentler introduction to the Cthulhu mythos than this book. In fact, it is entirely possible for a child who has no knowledge of Lovecraft of Cthulhu or even any interest in horror to enjoy this delightful, fantastical story.  The illustrations by Liam ‘Pais’ Hill, in pastel colors with simple, cartoony line drawings, add to this impression. In all honesty, The Old One and The Sea is the most refreshing children’s book (and I read a lot of children’s books) I’ve read this year.

Jim McLeod of Ginger Nuts of Horror wrote a nice introduction to this book on when horror lovers can best introduce the genre to their children, and how, and on how much availabilty of children’s horror fiction (and fiction that uses horror concepts and tropes) has changed, It has changed quite a bit over the last 15-20 years, and that’s been exciting to see. Lex Jones has added a lovely title to that genre that I hope both librarians and parents will share with the children they encounter. Recommended.

 

 

Posted on October 22, 2019 by , 1 comment

Guest Post by Alane Adams: The Gift of Reading

 Alane Adams is a literacy advocate and author who founded the Rise Up Foundation, which supports literacy projects, particularly for children K-8 in  in underserved communities in high-poverty areas. She has written several books, including the middle grade fantasy series The Witches of Orkney. The second book in the series, The Rubicus Prophecy,  will be released today. Alane has written a guest post on the power of libraries and reading– something we’re always ready to share with you here at Monster Librarian!

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The love of reading is one of the most essential gifts we can give our children. Children who grow up reading lots of books develop three important life skills—big imaginations, problem solving, and empathy. Big imaginations are important in order to develop new ideas. Books take us places we have never been and introduce us to new ideas that allow our brains to experience them as if we were there. Having a big imagination leads to better problem solving skills. Most books follow a simple pattern—a character has a problem that needs solving. Voldemort wants Harry dead. Big problem for Harry! Books allow us to follow along with these characters as they struggle, fail, struggle some more, and eventually solve their problem. By inherently modelling these skills, children develop their own problem solving skills coupled with powerful imaginations allowing them to see new paths that have never been forged.

But perhaps the most important aspect that reading teaches is the ability to have empathy. In our everyday life, we cannot read minds—but when we read a book we step inside the mind of the POV character and we know exactly what they’re thinking—if they’re hot, cold, lying, angry, sad. We know everything about them, which allows a very intimate connection we can’t get watching the same story play out on the screen. We can see Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, but we don’t know what she’s actually thinking: we can only read her facial expressions, see her actions, and hear her dialogue. But how will we know if she’s lying? How do we know if she’s smiling that she’s not really sad? That’s the power of books—they allow us inside the character’s minds, allowing us to see not just the outside, but the inside as well, so we know exactly what it feels like to be a boy with magic, a girl facing certain death, or even a pig who only wants a friend.

Libraries play an important part in developing a love of reading as they are oftentimes the only place a child can get access to unlimited books. There are very few places in this world where access to resources is free and unlimited. Getting into the habit of visiting the library regularly with your child will teach them how to respect books by keeping them in good condition, allow them free choice in selecting books they want to read, and hopefully, encourage them to develop good reading habits, because they are being shown—this is important.

About Alane Adams

Alane Adams is an award-winning transmedia author, former professor, and literacy advocate. She is the author of the Legends of Orkney and Witches of Orkney fantasy mythology series for tweens including the newly released The Rubicus Prophecy, as well as The Coal Thief, The Egg Thief, The Santa Thief, and The Circus Thief picture books for early-grade readers. Her new middle grade series Legends of Olympus will launch in April 2020 with The Eye of Zeus. She is also the founder of Rise Up Foundation. She lives in Southern California. For more information, visit https://alaneadams.com or follow Alane on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @AlaneAdamsBooks

Posted on October 15, 2019 by , Reply
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