The Same Place But Different

When his baby sister is stolen by Fairies and replaced with a changeling, John Nesbit travels into the world of the Strangers in order to rescue her and confronts such unusual creatures as human-headed flying dogs and a hollow man.

Though Nodelman's (The Pleasures of Children's Literature) first novel for children shares some themes with Margaret Mahy's The Changeover, it lacks the metaphorical underpinnings that make Mahy's work so engrossing. When the Fairies (also called Strangers) whisk John Nesbit's baby sister off to Fairyland, the boy vows to find her. Conveniently, a classmate proves to be an escapee from Stranger country, and?before being abruptly removed from the plot?fills John in on pertinent Fairy data. In Fairyland, John has a near-sexual encounter with temptress Jenny Greenteeth (a scene which seems tacked on to display Nodelman's familiarity with the folklore) and strikes a bargain with the Strangers' queen; back in his own world, he engages in a spate of shape-shifting and derring-do. Throughout, the overly knowing narrative ("So I had to go the the very place where all these creepy creatures came from, and I had to find the queen of the whole damn bunch of them, who was sure to be the creepiest of all") distances readers and muffles the powers of the legends invoked. Ages 8-12.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 5^-9. Teenager John Nesbit has the family reputation for willfulness, a trait that comes in handy when he visits the land of Strangers to rescue his baby sister, who was traded for a changeling several months before. In this strange fantasy, set in Winnipeg and centered around British mythology, Nodelman introduces readers to the English lore of fairies, Sky Yelpers, the Horn of the Hunter, changelings, and hollow people. Not only must John rescue his sister from the ominous fairies, but in the process he will also save the world from the evil that would overtake it once the fairies ruled. Nodelman makes this a true horror story by blending the contemporary with myth, the innocuous with the sinister. Because we traditionally believe that fairies are good, even spellbinding creatures of worth and magic, their evil, violent takeover of personality and life force is terrifying. Definitely a "stretch" book for the young cognoscenti. Frances Bradburn