STRANGE BIRDS

Reminiscent of classic stories by Edward Eager as well as the work of Polly Horvath, this fanciful story has an old-fashioned feel. Eleven-year-old Anna, orphaned when her parents are lost at sea, falls into the clutches of her self-absorbed, status-conscious Aunt Formaldy. Bullied at school and ignored at home, Anna is extremely unhappy until she finds a friend and discovers a herd of miniature flying horses in the tree beside her home. The tree, which also harbors an apparently magical room of cozy furniture, turns out to have been planted by one of Anna’s ancestors who also encountered the flying horses and left a record of her experiences. A wicked circus ringmaster (uncle of the school bully) determined to capture the horses; a magical nut that causes those who eat it to shrink; a desperate flight to the mythical island known as “Pegasuteague”; and the discovery of Anna’s parents alive and well pack the story with events but fail to form a cohesive whole. Well-intentioned but overly long and sadly short on charm. (Fiction. 11-14)