On the Shelf: Wildwood

WILDWOOD | COLIN MELOY | BALZER + BRAY | 2011

Prue McKeel's life is ordinary. At least until her baby brother is abducted by a murder of crows. And then things get really weird. You see, on every map of Portland, Oregon, there is a big splotch of green on the edge of the city labeled "I.W." This stands for "Impassable Wilderness." No one's ever gone in - or at least returned to tell of it. And this is where the crows take her brother. So begins an adventure that will take Prue and her friend Curtis deep into the Impassable Wilderness. There they uncover a secret world in the midst of violent upheaval, a world full of warring creatures, peaceable mystics, and powerful figures with the darkest intentions. And what begins as a rescue mission becomes something much bigger as the two friends find themselves entwined in a struggle for the very freedom of this wilderness. A wilderness the locals call Wildwood.

Wildwood is a children's book for hipsters. I don't mean that in a negative way. I'm simply stating it as a fact. The idea behind Wildwood is certainly unique and the characters are nothing like what you would typically encounter in children's stories. Take Prue as an example: the female protagonist of the story with short, black hair and a fierce attitude that allows her to rival with any of the boys her own age. 

Still, I kept forgetting that Wildwood was intended for children. The writing was really complex. While the idea was established for young minds -- an enchanted "out of bounds" area, talking animals, a fight between good and evil -- I imagine a lot of young readers will struggle with the language (just see the excerpt below). Even I had a hard time reading through it because the dense chapters required more concentration than I had been prepared to give to a children's novel.

It definitely gets an "A" grade for the original concept. Plus, the illustrations between the pages are excellent. I love seeing illustrations in books (children's story or not) and these ones were paced out enough to give the reader a pleasant surprise of complex colour every once in awhile. 

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"We are the inheritors of a wonderful world, a beautiful world, full of life and mystery, goodness and pain. But likewise are we the children of an indifferent universe. We break our own hearts imposing our moral order on what is, by nature, a wide web of chaos."