Review: The Real Boy

Title: The Real Boy
Author: Anne Ursu
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Pub Date: September 24, 2013
Genre: MG
Rec. Age Level: 8-12
More by author: Breadcrumbs

 

   
Anne Ursu, beloved author of Breadcrumbs, gives readers another magical tale of adventure and heart with The Real Boy. 

Oscar is the shop boy to the most powerful magician in the Barrow, an ancient forest that surrounds a perfect city that was once almost decimated by a plague decades before. Oscar, who was brought to the Barrow from a far away land devoid of magic, spends his days gathering and preparing ingredients for the magician's potions and spells, avoiding the magician's assistant, a bully who spends his days looking for new ways to pick on Oscar, and talking to his many cats who understand him when no else seems to. Oscar likes simple things, structure, and quiet, but his small rebellion is his love of books, which he sneaks secretly from the magician's library. 

When an unknown monster begins terrorizing the Barrow and the children of the perfect city within its protection begin falling ill, Oscar must step out from the comforting shadow of life and face his fears to save day.

A gorgeous story about belonging, believing in yourself, and the true meaning of magic, The Real Boy is a fairy tale destined to earn a place in readers' hearts.
  
Notable Quote:

“I think if you'll look around, my boy," he said gently, "you'll find that no one is quite right. But we all do the best we can.”

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Giveaway: The Real Boy by Anne Ursu

Once again, Anne Ursu, author of the absolutely wonderful Breadcrumbs, enchants readers with the story of Oscar, an often overlooked young orphan and shop boy to a powerful magician. I adore Ursu's novels; lush and gorgeous writing paired with loveable characters makes Ursu a writer that should be on librarian and parent watch lists. The Real Boy is a must read for middle grade readers and older. 

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More about the book:

On an island on the edge of an immense sea there is a city, a forest, and a boy. The city is called Asteri, a perfect city that was saved by the magic woven into its walls from a devastating plague that swept through the world over a hundred years before. The forest is called the Barrow, a vast wood of ancient trees that encircles the city and feeds the earth with magic. And the boy is called Oscar, a shop boy for the most powerful magician in the Barrow. Oscar spends his days in a small room in the dark cellar of his master's shop, grinding herbs and dreaming of the wizards who once lived on the island generations ago. Oscar's world is small, but he likes it that way. The real world is vast, strange, and unpredictable. And Oscar does not quite fit in it.

But it's been a long time since anyone who could call himself a wizard walked the world, and now that world is changing. Children in the city are falling ill, and something sinister lurks in the forest. Oscar has long been content to stay in his small room in the cellar, comforted in the knowledge that the magic that flows from the trees will keep his island safe. Now, even magic may not be enough to save it.

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Review: Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

Once upon a time, Hazel and Jack were best friends. They had been best friends since they were six, spending hot Minneapolis summers and cold Minneapolis winters together, dreaming of Hogwarts and Oz, superheroes and baseball. Now that they were eleven, it was weird for a boy and a girl to be best friends. But they couldn't help it - Hazel and Jack fit, in that way you only read about in books. And they didn't fit anywhere else. 
And then, one day, it was over. Jack just stopped talking to Hazel. And while her mom tried to tell her that this sometimes happens to boys and girls at this age, Hazel had read enough stories to know that it's never that simple. And it turns out, she was right. Jack's heart had been frozen, and he was taken into the woods by a woman dressed in white to live in a palace made of ice. Now, it's up to Hazel to venture into the woods after him. Hazel finds, however, that these woods are nothing like what she's read about, and the Jack that Hazel went in to save isn't the same Jack that will emerge. Or even the same Hazel. 
Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen," Breadcrumbs is a story of the struggle to hold on, and the things we leave behind.

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Anne Ursu's Breadcrumbs wasn't quite what I was expecting. For some unknown reason, I had assumed that the novel would immediately launch into something at least vaguely recognizable as "The Snow Queen," but that wasn't the case. In retrospect, this makes sense and gives Breadcrumbs a modern, semi-believable feel. It is, in some ways, comparable to the Neil Gaiman's Stardust.


It wasn't until Hazel begins her trek through the magical woods to rescue her best friend that I truly fell for this story. I generally don't pick up middle grade level novels, but I'm making a distinct effort to venture outside of the YA realm. Picking up Breadcrumbs is the result of this effort - and marks my first foray into MG in quite some time. Because of this, I am still not completely comfortable with the MG pace and voice, which was especially present in the beginning of the novel. Once Hazel entered the forest, these troubling aspects faded into the background. I think that if I read more MG this probably would not have been the case, but I'm not used to the thinking of younger characters just yet.


The description of people and things Hazel encounters within the forest - and the stories she hears and lessons she learns - are what truly set Breadcrumbs apart. I loved the magical explanations for the disappointments of everyday life. Hazel and her best friend, Jack, didn't just grow apart, there was something much more complicated, and fantastical, going on.


I feel that if I read more MG, I might be more aware of certain nuances and other characteristics that set this book apart, but as of right now, I am only aware of the fact that Breadcrumbs is a very special novel. It's difficult for me to explain why, but I know that I would have adored this novel when I was younger, especially as I transitioned from elementary school to middle school and was experiencing the loss of my old friends and acquiring new acquaintances. I highly recommend Breadcrumbs to children and adults alike.


Walden Pond Press, Hardcover, September 2011, ISBN: 9780062015051, 313 pages