For as long as they can remember, the Protectorate has been under a fog. Not just in a weather sense where a greyness blocks the sunshine from reaching this town, but also in spirit and feeling. This subdued town dubbed the City of Sorrow has endured the loss of its youngest member every year on the day of sacrifice.

No one likes it, at least of all the parents of the new baby chosen to be taken into the surrounding forest and left there. But all in the Protectorate know that if they don’t let the elders shoulder this terrible burden, the witch who demands a yearly gift of a a child will wreak havoc and chaos on all and the entire town will suffer.

A witch named Xan (Zarn) does appear on the same day in the same spot every year, watching the elders leave a baby behind in the forest. She has no idea why they do this, but understands that if she doesn’t rescue these children, they will no doubt be taken by wild animals. Little do the people of the Protectorate know that their babies aren’t eaten by a witch but fed starlight and cared for until the witch finds them a loving home in the free cities on the other side of the forest.

One young man, training to be an elder in the Protectorate, can’t stomach what his fellow eldermen do, eventually resigning his apprenticeship all together. Even since he saw a women flail and scream when her baby was taken, then get locked up in a tower run by the local religious sisters, she has never left his mind.

One year, Xan rescues yet another child left to die, except this time she feeds it moonlight too. This is a mistake as moonlight is magical and soon so is this baby. Xan has fallen in love with this baby girl, and names her Luna, deciding to raise her as her grand daughter. Xan has friends to help – an ancient bog monster who is a gentle, kind, wise being and also a poet. A tiny dragon is part of this blended ‘family’ too.

Life passes, Xan ages, Luna grows and so does her messy magic. Xan has a solution but must pay the ultimate price. Back in the Protectorate, the ex-elder apprentice has his own child now, knowing he must stop the town elders from taking him…

What makes this Newbery Medal (2017) winning middle-age novel so special is the way it is structured – the way it is written.

The reader gets to know each character and how they are linked to the characters around them. Both in a town ruled by sorrow, fear and control, and also in a nearby forest that is feared by the townspeople for something that does not even exist.

Those who are thought to be good are anything but, and those who are feared shouldn’t be. This is often true in life outside of fiction, and this story highlights it brilliantly through story without it being didactic (preachy). In this story the townspeople who do what they have always done without question, finally realise that questions are their road to freedom. Accepting the status quo is not always best.

I could even apply this to superstitions or even the fake news phenomenon and how an idea becomes rooted and is hard to shift. The story itself is so cleverly built, layer upon layer, leading the reader into a tale of fantasy, lies, and oppression, and then empowering them with empathy, wonder, hope and love to a gripping twist and satisfying conclusion.

Author – Kelly Barnhill

Age – 9+

(2016, Newbery Medal Winner, Fantasy, Witches, Dragon, Bog Monster, Kindness, Empathy, Hope, Truth, Growing up, Magic, Love, Blended Family, Award Winner, Control, Sorrow, Fear, Lies, Oppression, Origami, Crow, Paper Birds, Secrets, Historical)