On Our Bookshelf: Wildwood

       When I was a kid in probably about grade two I can vividly remember sitting on the carpet during story time and listening to my teacher- Mrs Steinhouwer- read to us James and the Giant Peach. With it's macabre details of the little orphaned James and his big bug friends I was enraptured- hooked into reading even though I could not yet read such a book myself. This book was followed by Jacob Two Two Meets the Hooded Fang and my beloved Anne of Green Gables as read to me by my Aunt that summer. These are the books that made me fall in love with reading.
      
     It was with this in mind that I went searching for something new that would capture their imaginations the same way James' epic journey inside a rotting peach.When I came across this hefty tomb- aptly titled Wildwood by Colin Meloy I will admit that my attention was caught by the illustrations on the cover- never underestimate the power of a good book cover or wine label!

      We are only a couple of chapters in and rest assured we are all appropriately spell bound. Wildwood is clearly written by a master story teller- which Colin Meloy is- weather it be a book or a song with his band The Decemberists. I really don't want to give anything away as the story is just so magical- dark and brooding just the way children of a certain age (surprisingly) like it. I will say one thing- leave one last cryptic remark on the matter- we all have a whole new suspicion of crows- looking askance whenever more than one starts to accumulate!