Thirteenth Child (Frontier Magic, Bk 1)
Author:
Genres: Children's Books, Teen & Young Adult
Book Type: Hardcover
Author:
Genres: Children's Books, Teen & Young Adult
Book Type: Hardcover
This was surprisingly good. Though I really shouldn't be surprised as everything I've read by Patricia Wrede has been excellent. This is the first book of a new series involving magic and magical creatures in the old US while mammoths and wholly rhinoceroses roamed.
Eff Rothmer and her family moved to the Frontier when her uncle called the police on her to have her arrested (at 5 years old) because she was a potential danger to the family. As the thirteenth child, her life was viewed as cursed by everyone and she was taught (by ill-meaning relatives - but not her immediately family - and neighbors alike) that she would eventually go bad, evil that is. It's a tough way for a 5 year old to grow up. At 9 she was terrified to make friends in her new school for fear of bringing them down with her when she went bad. She was a mostly lonely child though she did have one good friend, William Graham. Her family has magic and her father teaches at the college in town. Her twin brother, Lan is the seventh son of a seventh son so he is super magical and gets all the positive attention while Eff gets all the negative since as the thirteenth child she is the bringer of doom and gloom. This book chronicles her upbringing from elementary school until she graduated high school (though they weren't called that at the time).
The difficulty of living in the Frontier is the constant fear of the wild creatures entering the city and killing the settlers. The Great Barrier (a magical shield) keeps the wild creatures - steam dragons, sphinxes, mammoths, rhinos, bison, etc - from the city but someone must always maintain the magic. With or without the danger, people are always trying to move westward. As kids graduate, they marry and join settlements that are going further west. Eff has no romantic prospects but she has decided to be a naturalist like Wash and travel to the west protecting the settlers. But that is another story, book 2 in fact, The Great Barrier. I really enjoyed this coming of age story and will continue with Eff, Lan and William's adventures in the wild west.
Eff Rothmer and her family moved to the Frontier when her uncle called the police on her to have her arrested (at 5 years old) because she was a potential danger to the family. As the thirteenth child, her life was viewed as cursed by everyone and she was taught (by ill-meaning relatives - but not her immediately family - and neighbors alike) that she would eventually go bad, evil that is. It's a tough way for a 5 year old to grow up. At 9 she was terrified to make friends in her new school for fear of bringing them down with her when she went bad. She was a mostly lonely child though she did have one good friend, William Graham. Her family has magic and her father teaches at the college in town. Her twin brother, Lan is the seventh son of a seventh son so he is super magical and gets all the positive attention while Eff gets all the negative since as the thirteenth child she is the bringer of doom and gloom. This book chronicles her upbringing from elementary school until she graduated high school (though they weren't called that at the time).
The difficulty of living in the Frontier is the constant fear of the wild creatures entering the city and killing the settlers. The Great Barrier (a magical shield) keeps the wild creatures - steam dragons, sphinxes, mammoths, rhinos, bison, etc - from the city but someone must always maintain the magic. With or without the danger, people are always trying to move westward. As kids graduate, they marry and join settlements that are going further west. Eff has no romantic prospects but she has decided to be a naturalist like Wash and travel to the west protecting the settlers. But that is another story, book 2 in fact, The Great Barrier. I really enjoyed this coming of age story and will continue with Eff, Lan and William's adventures in the wild west.
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