Fablehaven
No. 1 in the Fablehaven series
by Brandon Mull
illustrated by Brandon Dorman
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Shadow Mountain (Salt Lake City): 14 June 2006. Hardcover: 359 pages. ISBN-10: 1-59038-581-0 Suggested retail price: $16.95 (US) Tags: cows; demons; fairies; Fantasy; grandparents; milk; satyrs; summer vacation; Young Adult; Youth Tactical strength: [6/10] |
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Kendra, thirteen, and Seth, eleven, must spend three weeks with their grandparents, who have never before allowed the children to spend any time on their remote property in Connecticut. The children's grandfather Stan lays down the law quite early: the children may go anywhere in the mansion or the large yard, but under no circumstances should the children ever venture into the woods that surround the property. In addition to this admonition, their Grandfather gives Kendra a set of keys and tells her to figure out what the keys open. Seth immediately takes to exploring the woods, and Kendra follows her grandfather's rules and explores the attic bedroom assigned to the children, although just once, she does follow Seth into the woods to see a beautiful lake surrounded by a boardwalk and gazebos.
Within a few days Kendra has used the keys to unlock several objects and discovers an almost completely blank journal. Written near the gutter toward the back of the book she finds a single instruction, "Drink the milk." Several days before, Kendra had noticed her grandfather's assistant Dale placing tins of milk in the yard for the numerous butterflies. Kendra and Seth both drink the milk, and they immediately see that what they thought were butterflies really were fairies. When the children bring up the fairies, he has a mixed reaction. He did want the children to see the fairies, but he expresses disappointment that they have disobeyed his rules and ventured into the woods.
Their Grandfather explains that he works as the caretaker of a preserve called Fablehaven set up hundreds of years earlier to house and protect magical creatures from the ever-growing human population. Knowing that he needs to find and train a replacement caretaker, he placed the clues for the children to find. The children also learn that a group, the Society of the Eastern Star, exists that wants to destroy the preserves and release the dark magical creatures on the human population of the earth. This society has secretly contacted Muriel, a witch within Fablehaven, and wants to release the demon Bahumet and destroy the preserve. During midsummer night revelries, magical creatures invade the mansion, kidnap Stan, and leave the children alone to try a rescue attempt.
Mull has written a fairly decent modern-day fantasy story that possibly could have had a fairly good chance at hitting the bestseller lists if Mull had worked with a national publishing house. Instead, he has published his book through Shadow Mountain, an imprint of the Mormon publishing house Deseret Book based in Salt Lake City. With a major publisher, this book would probably have received a decent marketing push nationwide with the necessary background support for sales through avenues such as school book clubs.
A major publisher would have probably corrected several problems good content- and copyeditors could have solved. For example, the children see a sign "Beware of .12 Gauge" (7). An experienced copyeditor should know the difference between gun caliber and gauge -- caliber appears with the initial decimal and gauge does not. (In this case a .12 gauge would have a barrel diameter of 0.073 millimeters.) An editor would also recommend fixing some logical errors. As the children come into the mansion entryway, Mull has Seth finger an expensive chess set. Logically, you wouldn't keep a chess set in an entryway; rather it belongs in a den or office -- a location where people actually play chess. Mull wanted to show that Seth has no inhibitions about handing something expensive, and he could have achieved the same effect with an object typically found in an entryway, such as a statue. Mull also takes a great deal of time establishing Fablehaven in a remote part of Connecticut, but at one point a visitor to Fablehaven leaves in a taxi. I have lived in Connecticut, and I know that unless you live in a metropolitan area, you would have a hard time getting a taxi. These minor problems distract a bit from the overall flow of the story, and with the quality of the writing, I think Mull could have in time found a national publisher that would have helped eliminate these problems.
A major publisher would have also help with providing better illustrations to accompany the text. Brandon Dorman illustrated Fablehaven in a way that doesn't enhance the reader's experience. Typically, illustrators choose to depict key moments in the plot or characterization. Dorman does illustrate key plot moments, but in a way that shows almost no activity. For example, at one point a chicken spells out a message with her feed corn. Dorman shows the chicken and the message but only includes the tips of the children's shoes in the picture. The real action in this scene comes from the children's reaction to the chicken, but Dorman chooses to exclude the children and only show the chicken, which cannot display any of the emotional content of the scene. Most of the illustrations provide depictions of locations instead of the action that takes place in those locations.
In spite of the criticisms above, I do recommend reading Fablehaven. Mull has good storytelling skills, and he does really well at creating tension during his action scenes. The book does promise a second book in the Fablehaven series, so we'll have to see if Mull's skills can sustain a series.
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