You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

A review by caitdub
Wildwood by Colin Meloy

3.0

Bought this for my niece and then I started reading it myself, go figure.

Enjoyable. Loved the illustrations, and the storyline moved along. But this read more like a very familiar mashup of some of my favorite childhood stories rather than its own standout. As I was reading, I was thinking of Witch and the Wardrobe (without the symbolism), Robin Hood, Brer Rabbit and so on.

Reasons this book is easily spotted as a hipster-magnet, or at least a book born of two hipsters:
1) It's set in Portland.
2) The main character, Prue, is a preteen, but she knows how to change her own bicycle wheel. Psssshhh.
3) The language is often too large for the subject
4) The adjective I'd use to describe the book = whimsical

I feel bad writing it, but when I think of this book, "cute" comes to mind. Probably not the best compliment. I don't think this would have made it without the illustrations by Meloy's wife, Carson Ellis. Well done, Ellis. If I was OK with defacing books (which sadly, I'm not), I would tear out a few of the plates and frame them.

PS. Did anyone else notice all of the typos? I could definately tell where the publisher was skimping on costs. Yikes.