The Wand & the Sea

The Wand & the Sea

The fantastical adventures continue—this time with pirates—in the magical sequel to The Key & the Flame , which Publishers Weekly called “sprightly” and “exciting.” It’s been a year since Holly and Ben Shepard first traveled to England and journeyed with their friend Everett to a fantastical realm called Anglielle. Now Holly and Ben are back, hoping to again join Everett and return to the land ruled by a ruthless king and sorcerer who have outlawed magic. But when they arrive, Anglielle is not what they expect: Their friends are imprisoned and the alliance is scattered. Ruthless King Reynard and the sorcerer Raethius are determined to find the very Adepts they exiled in the first place. But why? It’s up to Holly and the boys to sail to the Isle of Exile and find the Adepts first, but that means enlisting the help of the Water Elementals—and a pirate captain with a secret agenda. Gr 4–7—Holly, her brother Ben, and neighbor Everett reunite in the sequel to The Key and the Flame (S. & S., 2013). The children met a year ago on holiday in England, discovering a portal into the magical country, Anglielle. They return there to continue Holly's magical training as an Adept and to rescue her loyal "rebel alliance" from evil King Reynard, but the rescue ends with everyone in the castle moat. They escape on Captain Morgan's enchanted ship, the Sea Witch, and set sail to locate Anglielle's missing Adepts. Sorcerer Raethius's attempts to steal Holly's powers derail the journey. Caterer's writing is stronger in this book. Holly and Everett express genuine regret and longing as they mend friendship fences. The story takes fewer detours, and the pace of the action is more dramatic. However, the story still lacks organic depth. Continuity problems take their toll on the work's integrity. The author details the female sailors then skips the men. Holly and Everett do have emotional revelations, but Caterer fails to develop them or continue the growth throughout the novel. Holly's companions leave her abruptly for hours on an island, later explaining that they had left her to "regroup," which hardly seems plausible given her perilous situation. Characters have personality quirks but not fully fleshed out backstories. Django Wexler's The Forbidden Library (Penguin, 2014) places a female character in similarly perilous and fantastical situation with more clearly delineated cause and effect. VERDICT Purchase only where the first title is popular.—Caitlin Augusta, Stratford Library Association, CT Claire M. Caterer is the author of The Key & the Flame and its sequel The Wand & the Sea . She lives in Kansas with her family. Visit her at ClaireCaterer.com. The Wand & The Sea Chapter 1 A Story Untold Holly Shepard was unlike most twelve-year-olds in that she didn’t at all mind sharing a cramped cottage bedroom with her pudgy, snoring, laptop-loving younger brother. It didn’t bother her that she was four thousand miles from the place her parents called home, which was a little house in a little suburb in a big square of cracked land baking in the American Midwest. July was different here, in England. Not that everyone in Holly’s family appreciated this damp, chilly village. Her brother, Ben, preferred a place with more electrical outlets. Her mother would get wrapped up in work; her father tried to remember to drive on the left. When they had arrived yesterday, after fourteen hours, three airports, and one rental car, her mother was already regretting they hadn’t rented a bigger cottage in a larger town, perhaps one that had a cricket team for Ben to join. (As if he would ever join a team of any kind.) Her father recalled that the grocery didn’t carry the coffee he liked, and asked if her mother would pick up some in Oxford, near her office. But Holly was bothered by none of this. Instead she woke up content and well rested in the limestone cottage in Hawkesbury, with its creaking plaster and dark oak planks that smelled of lemon. Holly hadn’t left home. She had come home. And in any case, she didn’t plan on staying long. Holly tiptoed around the bedroom, careful not to smack her head on the eave, and grabbed her clothes to change in the bathroom. She skirted Ben’s bed without waking him. The world outside was sodden. The deep gray sky darkened the stone cottage, its white plaster walls glowing in the weak morning light. Holly slipped out the back door, ducked under the garden arbor ringed with hollyhocks, and sat down on the flagstone steps that led into a wide green valley. Through the mist she could just make out the shadow of Darton Castle on the far hill. It was a pile of medieval ruins now, like dozens scattered around the English countryside, but Holly remembered its cruel king and bloodthirsty knights. She pulled her poncho close around her. She had no desire to visit the castle. But the dense forest, which spilled through the west side of the valley, beckoned her. She double-checked her watch—which was also