13 TREASURES

Packed off to her unwelcoming grandmother’s house, 13-year-old Tanya faces an unpleasant summer, tormented by fairies only she can see and urged by Fabian, the groundskeeper’s son, to explore the forbidden woods to solve the mystery of a child’s disappearance. It takes a while for all the facets of this mystery to be displayed, but by the time Tanya realizes that the “ghost” she and Fabian saw in the woods is the same young woman Fabian’s grandfather was suspected of murdering, the reader will be hooked. Then the sounds Tanya hears in the walls behind her room turn out to be another teenager with second sight, one who has been stealing, or perhaps rescuing, babies. And what is the meaning of the 13 charms on the heirloom bracelet? In spite of some awkward writing and weak character development, there is much to enjoy here for the fan of English fantasies involving old manor houses, fairy kingdoms and changelings. This debut novel won the Waterstone Children’s Book Prize, and a sequel appeared in the United Kingdom in January 2010. (Gothic fantasy. 10-14)