AYLEN ISLE
by Aud Supplee
In this YA fantasy, teens undertake a rescue mission in a magical alternative world.
The third book in Supplee’s fresh, well-crafted Winnie and the Wizard fantasy series begins with the return of 14-year-old Winnie Harris, her 6-year-old stepbrother, Mikey, and teenage magician Kip to Winnie’s family beach house on Earth after a dangerous mission on an alternative “Frama” world known as Hutra. (The “Frama” worlds, introduced in Book 1 [Frama-12, 2022], are accessed through the use of “Frama-scopes,” magical devices once solely the province of powerful time guardians.) Winnie, famed on Frama worlds as army general Windemere, learns that the pet toad Mikey brought back from Hutra is actually an enchanted princess from Aylen Isle. In a dream visitation, Princess Gwen begs Winnie to take her home and undo the spell. Winnie can’t resist. She “had already encountered her share of crazies” during her previous Frama missions. “But a fairy-tale world? The possibility sounded too nutty to pass up.” Besides, Winnie needed to return another travel companion, a large bird, to its original world to ensure its survival, so she might as well do both. By mutual consent, the three adventurers and the toad/princess jump through a time portal to Aylen Isle. With an ear for well-paced, plot-furthering dialogue and a flair for worldbuilding, the author molds familiar fairy-tale tropes (tree sprites, “leafling” fairies, two princesses, and a kingdom in peril) into a dynamic adventure involving “mother” trees as healing havens, carnivorous plants, an attempted royal coup, a lethal, gatekeeping “Myst,” and sentient, magic “glow stones.” This vivid fantasy can be enjoyed on its own. Readers of the first two books, however, will find a rewarding progression of intriguing elements, including an amphibian military general that inhabits Mikey’s small body, Winnie and Kip’s thorny and evolving relationship, and the motivations of Winnie and Kip’s interfering nemesis, Krell, whom innocent Mikey still loves as his “non-Dad.”
A gripping adventure enhanced by a creative plot, lively dialogue, and strong female characters.