Celandine - Hardcover

Steve Augarde has worked as an illustrator, paper-engineer, and semi-pro jazz musician. He has written and illustrated over 70 picture-books for younger children, and has produced the paper-engineering for many pop-up books, including those by other artists--as well as providing the artwork and music for two animated BBC television series.

Steve is married with two daughters. The author lives in Yorkshire, England.

Gr. 7-10. This prequel to The Various (2003), which focuses on Midge's great-aunt Celandine, amplifies the little peoples' saga. Celandine's beloved brother is lost in the Great War, and boarding school is a horror; the set pieces about the war and about the cruelty of girls and female teachers are powerful and terrible. But on her parents' farm, Celandine has found a way to the Various--winged warriors, travelers, foragers, and others, who do not mingle or trust one another and call humans ogres and Gorji. They possess two great treasures, the touchstone and the orbis. The safety of and the relationship between these artifacts form the unresolved core of the story line. Both worlds are finely imagined, down to the details of a tiny Various child or the burdensome maintenance of Celandine's thick golden curls. This is a fast and compelling read despite its length, although it ends with the fate of the Various unknown and Celandine about to make a cliff-hanger of a choice. Celandine is a teen protagonist who doesn't fear her own darkness but hasn't yet mastered her gifts. GraceAnne DeCandido
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