Alchemy

ISBN: 0-689-85053-0 Order from: Amazon.com Barnes & Noble.com

A pleasant juvenile book, with a straighforward adventure and simplistic villains, but skillfully and fondly drawn main characters.

Reviewed by David on January 03, 2004 (rev. 1)

Genre: Fantasy (Juvenile)

Synopsis: Roland is a successful teacher in his school. Good-looking, and successful by either intelligence or charm, he is popular, dating the beautiful and sophisticated Chris.

But his pleasant—and a bit self-indulgent existence—is disrupted when his teacher forces him to investigate one of the more drab girls in the class. Jess Ferret, a bookish, lonely and utterly mediocre girl seems to be preoccupied lately. When Roland reluctantly takes an interest in Jess, she seems less than pleased. But Roland has little time to nurse his ego, as he finally finds the source of Jess's preoccupation.

Full Review: As with Mahy's other books, the natural, sun-lit reality of family and school life with quarrelsome siblings and concerns about clothes seemlessly shifts to accomodate magic and supernatural peril. The plot is straightforward, and the villain lightly drawn. However, both the main and the supporting characters are skillfully, almost lovingly drawn, sparingly yet able to paint a picture of very real characters.

The characters create the real draw in these books, and the supernatural elements provide a nice tinge of the exotic stress to the natural relationships in the book.

Overall: 6; Plot: 5; Characters: 6; Style: 6; World-building: 6; Originality: 5;

ISBN: 0-689-85053-0 Order from: Amazon.com Barnes & Noble.com