These are stories which want to be told, to be read, and when they are read, they have the curious impact of pushing themselves under your skin and settling in that odd unsure space between reality and fiction. They are unashamedly children's books too scary, challenging and yet accessible literature, told in a rolling style that does not dress itself up behind dense stylistic shapes. I am a fan of him, avowedly so, and love his work from the Whitby series to the Deptford books from Aufwader to Green Mouse and everything in between. I think he taught me the concept of telling a single story within a greater whole. I think that Jarvis taught me the concept of story, in a way. (Nov.I'm on a bit of a Robin Jarvis kick at the moment, and it was when I reread 'The Dark Portal' (the first in the Deptford Mice series) that I came to realise something. Next up in this series: The Dark Waters of Hagwood. Fun for Hobbit-addicts and Potter-philes of all ages. Jarvis turns up the volume on his trademark suspense blended with whimsy, and readers are drawn deeper into the magical conflict through Gamaliel and Finnen's involvement. Rhiannon seeks the missing treasure box stolen by the Smith, last of the dwarfs who once served her and her monstrous thorn ogres. Doubt that at your peril," Gibble tells a student), nor from the wrath of wicked Rhiannon, faerie Queen of Hollow Hill. The horror that is Frighty Aggie is as real as you or I. But trouble brews in Hagwood, and soon wergling won't be enough to protect them from the wasp/spider, Frighty Aggie ("Would that she were only a nursery bogey. She is crazy about popular Finnen Lufkin, who can wergle himself into almost any creature faster than even their jealous tutor, Terser Gibble, can.
stick out and make her resemble a vexed rabbit").
Readers will easily identify with seven-year-old Gamaliel Tumpin as he begins the first day of werling school with the same butterflies human children feel, accompanied by his crabby older sister, Kernella (whose "two prominent peg-shaped teeth. Jarvis, author of the Deptford Mice Trilogy, here abandons mice (well, sort of) to concentrate on wee werlings, who can wergle (or transform) themselves into any creature of similar size. Learning the ancient secret that keeps the tiny race of Hagwood Forest's werling folk safe is only one highlight of this fantasy, the smashing launch of the Hagwood Trilogy.
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