THE JEMDAR

A seemingly meek boy may be the one prophesied to save a secret magical world in Baca’s middle-grade fantasy novel.

Josea “Joe” Sabir has never known his birth parents—a woodcarver named Shohar found the infant boy in the hollow of an old tree. Shohar raises Joe as his own son, and the two share a happy but isolated life near an abandoned town in the world of Azeuar. One day, Shohar dies, leaving the young boy alone. Joe struggles to sell items (like wooden toys and clocks) in the kingdom of Cordicia as he and Shohar had done in past years. Many people, sadly, aren’t accepting of Joe, cruelly dismissing him as a cripple (he was born with one leg slightly shorter than the other). Yet some believe that Joe is the one who, according to prophecy, will save Azeuar, a “magnificent” world in danger of becoming completely unbalanced. Joe mesmerizes listeners with his music, playing a violin his father crafted for him and displaying his “deep connection” to the world and its energies. As he travels the land of Kasha within Azeuar, Joe encounters adversaries, including someone who desperately craves his magical violin and such malevolent creatures as “ruzes,” large hummingbirds with humanlike faces, sharp claws, and poisonous stingers. He also encounters friendly sorts, such as his female best friend, Jesine Amar of Cordicia, and young Dremblures, who travel through time and space as they dream. Joe may very well be a Jemdar, someone with the ability to help the Dremblures “grasp” Kasha’s magic and spread it through all of Azeuar.

Baca’s novel is fairly dense with characters. Many chapters introduce new friends and foes who exit before the chapter’s end (though most of them eventually return). Kasha, the realm in which this story is set, features simply defined places like Shohar and Joe’s small cottage, an enormous and reputedly cursed castle, and a large treehouse “teeming with countless gadgets and contraptions.” Descriptions throughout are straightforward and effective; the wonderfully named “tumigrumbler” is a magical machine that rolls into the story with “spouts, whistles, and bells” as it belches steam and serves hot drinks. It’s clear that there’s much more going on in the greater world of Azeuar than we see here, namely the oft-named beings who are an apparently rising threat but whom readers never see in this book. While Baca delivers an entertaining final act and gratifying ending, there’s a lot left over for potential sequels to explore. The cast is superbly developed—Joe is a resilient kid who doesn’t let anything hold him back and inspires other children with disabilities. Likewise, the backstories enthrall; Shohar loses friends and family in a volcanic eruption (Joe learns other intriguing things about him later), and Jesine’s dubious stepfather, a Cordicia knight, may or may not have had something to do with her mother’s disappearance. The author’s black-and-white illustrations, which resemble pencil sketches and preface each chapter, showcase such memorable imagery as a creature forming from campfire smoke and Joe caught inside a wind funnel.

A disabled youngster overcomes obstacles in this diverting fantasy with series potential.