A POCKETFUL OF CROWS by JOANNE HARRIS (With illustrations by BONNIE HELEN HAWKINS).
Love made her a prisoner.
Revenge will set her free.
A modern fairytale of love, loss and revenge.
- Back Cover Blurb
The year it turns, and turns, and turns.
- May Eve
Now I am in everything. Now I am the wind, the rain, the love-knots in the hawthorn tree. Now I am the beetles that will feed on his shroud, come May Day.
-Memorable Moment, Page 219
SOURCE ... A Christmas present from Mr T.
READ FOR A CHALLENGE? ... No.
MY THOUGHTS ... A 'fairy tale' with a distinctly Pagan vibe. Traditional and yet modern all at the same time. Definitely not for wee ones, indeed those who like their fairy tales 'disneyfied' may well want to proceed with caution. For myself, one of the most hauntingly beautiful books I have read in a long while.
Revolving around the wheel of the year, the novella covers twelve months in the life of a fourteen year old ... witch? Certainly 'she' - I refer to her as 'she' for as we learn 'a named thing is a tamed thing' - is a traveller, her people being 'the wolves, the hare, the wild bees in the forest'.
Set apart by her brown skin, her woodland home, her ability to ???
Ah! That would be telling.
At least she is no different from many another lass when it comes to matters of the heart.
Ah! That would be telling.
At least she is no different from many another lass when it comes to matters of the heart.
The outstanding gold-foil embossed cover, the cleverly woven inclusion of ballads, proverbs and traditional rhymes (those of you familiar with the 'Child Ballads' and in particular its 'The Brown Girl' may well recognise aspects of A Pocketful Of Crows which has its roots in the ballad) and, oh my goodness, those illustrations*.
Rumour has it that a second book, this one based on selkies, is in the pipeline. I certainly hope so.
Rumour has it that a second book, this one based on selkies, is in the pipeline. I certainly hope so.
* View the illustrations here.
