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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
Joli livre dont le contenant (le papier épais! les illustrations!) fait de l'ombre au contenu. L'histoire est longuette à démarrer ; le niveau de vocabulaire est déboussolant, pour un roman jeunesse ; les personnages manquent un peu de profondeur. Ceci dit, on y rencontre tout de même une petite fille à vélo qui, au détour d'une quête urgente & d'une route sinueuse, découvre une grande forêt en bordure de ville. Ses secrets & ses petites sociétés se déploient dans une histoire qui, malgré ses bouts raboutés, a quelque chose d'incroyablement évocateur -- peut-être les détails fins qui encadrent les pages, peut-être les autres récits qu'on devine sous l'aventure de Wildwood. Ça finit par marcher, surtout dans la deuxième moitié, & ça donne envie de passer au deuxième volume.
I bought this at a bookstore because of the cover and thought maybe my kid would like to read it.
Being a good mom I decided to read it first.
I didn’t know who the author or illustrator were, not sure if it matters.
This book is not super interesting but it is very long.
I kept thinking, “who cares?”
Not gonna give it to my kid after all.
Being a good mom I decided to read it first.
I didn’t know who the author or illustrator were, not sure if it matters.
This book is not super interesting but it is very long.
I kept thinking, “who cares?”
Not gonna give it to my kid after all.
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I do not typically re-read books, even those I love dearly, because I tend to get bored with them.
But I read the Wildwood Chronicles as a college freshman, and they were a favored form of escapism in those dark days. That was 10 years ago, and now LAIKA is preparing to release a film adaptation. So, I wanted to re-read the first book to refresh my memory.
Wildwood is as magical, mystical, endearing, wonderful, and captivating as it was 10 years ago. It's lengthy, and so naturally it can drag at times, but really it's - at least to me - quite perfect.
Beautiful writing, gorgeous illustrations, a robust plot, lovable characters, and a huge world to explore - what's not to enjoy? Meloy writes for the middle grade audience, and his books always equally nourish my inner child while also appealing to my grown-up interests and brain. He shall remain a favorite author.
But I read the Wildwood Chronicles as a college freshman, and they were a favored form of escapism in those dark days. That was 10 years ago, and now LAIKA is preparing to release a film adaptation. So, I wanted to re-read the first book to refresh my memory.
Wildwood is as magical, mystical, endearing, wonderful, and captivating as it was 10 years ago. It's lengthy, and so naturally it can drag at times, but really it's - at least to me - quite perfect.
Beautiful writing, gorgeous illustrations, a robust plot, lovable characters, and a huge world to explore - what's not to enjoy? Meloy writes for the middle grade audience, and his books always equally nourish my inner child while also appealing to my grown-up interests and brain. He shall remain a favorite author.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Infertility, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Is there such a thing as too many good ideas? There are many threads to this story that would, independently, make a good book. A little editing would've probably helped the flow and pacing.
The characters are charming and whimsical. And despite not being the smoothest reading experience, I always wanted to come back to Prue and Curtis. I didn't notice until the author/illustrator bios at the end of the book that this is written by the lead singer of The Decemberists. In retrospect, that makes a lot of things click.
A good read as a bed time story for families and kids, and good way to subtly influence children toward "non-dragons-and-wizards" part of the fantasy genre.
The characters are charming and whimsical. And despite not being the smoothest reading experience, I always wanted to come back to Prue and Curtis. I didn't notice until the author/illustrator bios at the end of the book that this is written by the lead singer of The Decemberists. In retrospect, that makes a lot of things click.
A good read as a bed time story for families and kids, and good way to subtly influence children toward "non-dragons-and-wizards" part of the fantasy genre.
I liked the story, but the execution was frustrating. The complexity of the vocabulary did not match the storyline, and drew attention to itself. There were also a couple of bits that seemed ready for parody on Portlandia. All-in-all, it didn't meet its potential, but I found the plot and characters interesting enough that I would probably read a follow-up (which is why I gave it 3 stars rather than 2). I would, however, come to it with much lower expectations than I did this book. (Boy, did this one have a lot of misleading hype!)
At 230 pages in, I'm setting this aside to return to the library. I'm bored, and the author just used the incorrect terminology "I could care less" (ahhhhh!) in dialogue which makes me think this book is only selling because it's by someone who sings in a famous band. I may come back to it...or not. I'd rather read 500 pages of a really good book/author.
With Colin Meloy holding strong as one of my favorite lyricists—for witty grandiloquence as well as engaging and evocative composition—I had high expectations for a novel by the same man. It was with sadness that I found my expectations overshooting the mark by far. Meloy has succeeded in storytelling before, in standalone songs and in longer concept albums or rock operas like The Hazards of Love, while presenting them with at some points amazing use of language. In Wildwood, the aspects of storytelling are installed comfortably, but the presentation slacks.
Herein we have the story of Prue McKeel, whose baby brother Mac is one day abducted by a murder of crows into the Impassible Wilderness: this alternate universe's take on Portland, Oregon's Forest Park. It is up to Prue and her eager classmate Curtis to brave the legendary and mysterious patch of land that no human has crossed into for generations. Within, as you can both guess from experience with the Decemberists and glean from Carson Ellis's illustrations, they encounter human-sized talking animals, a woman called the Dowager Governess (so Meloyish that I couldn't read the phrase without hearing him singing it in some orotund couplet over Jenny Conlee's accordion), and a rather miscellaneous mosaic of old-fashioned settings ranging from turn-of-last-century America to Civil War era depending on what part of the I.W. you're in at the time.
Knowing these things going into the book I thought there'd be very little I wouldn't enjoy. As I mentioned, I was saddened to find that the mastery over the English language that I know Meloy to have had flattened like the two-week-old two-liter of root beer in your fridge. It didn't feel to me as if the language had suffered a change for the benefit of much younger readers than I; present still was Meloy's penchant for outdated or rare terms for things that children would have to have a parent understand (once the parent looked it up for themselves). Much of the writing seemed rambled and, while not aimless, as if it was taken to wandering and windowshopping on its way to its destination. The dialogue, too, became cumbersome at times.
This is not to say that it was thoroughly unenjoyable. The story is rich with adventure and fantasy, sure to have a child spellbound to its facets. And, being a Portlander who happens to live in St. Johns and checked this book out from the very library the story starts from, it was fun to be taken on a magical tour of some other Portland, of some other Forest Park (which was, admittedly, more imaginatively renamed in the novel) that I could see from my kitchen window. I just came to points in this book where I scanned ahead for the next point where I would be invested in what was going on.
Herein we have the story of Prue McKeel, whose baby brother Mac is one day abducted by a murder of crows into the Impassible Wilderness: this alternate universe's take on Portland, Oregon's Forest Park. It is up to Prue and her eager classmate Curtis to brave the legendary and mysterious patch of land that no human has crossed into for generations. Within, as you can both guess from experience with the Decemberists and glean from Carson Ellis's illustrations, they encounter human-sized talking animals, a woman called the Dowager Governess (so Meloyish that I couldn't read the phrase without hearing him singing it in some orotund couplet over Jenny Conlee's accordion), and a rather miscellaneous mosaic of old-fashioned settings ranging from turn-of-last-century America to Civil War era depending on what part of the I.W. you're in at the time.
Knowing these things going into the book I thought there'd be very little I wouldn't enjoy. As I mentioned, I was saddened to find that the mastery over the English language that I know Meloy to have had flattened like the two-week-old two-liter of root beer in your fridge. It didn't feel to me as if the language had suffered a change for the benefit of much younger readers than I; present still was Meloy's penchant for outdated or rare terms for things that children would have to have a parent understand (once the parent looked it up for themselves). Much of the writing seemed rambled and, while not aimless, as if it was taken to wandering and windowshopping on its way to its destination. The dialogue, too, became cumbersome at times.
This is not to say that it was thoroughly unenjoyable. The story is rich with adventure and fantasy, sure to have a child spellbound to its facets. And, being a Portlander who happens to live in St. Johns and checked this book out from the very library the story starts from, it was fun to be taken on a magical tour of some other Portland, of some other Forest Park (which was, admittedly, more imaginatively renamed in the novel) that I could see from my kitchen window. I just came to points in this book where I scanned ahead for the next point where I would be invested in what was going on.
Sort of a mash up of Narnia and Labryinth (yes, the David Bowie movie). A fun read, great illustrations.