"This colourful quest shimmers with Slavic myth, sacrifice, friendship, and a daughter’s bone-deep love for her dad"
With its clear quest, a richly evoked world of Slavic myth, and relatable themes of friendship, loss and love, Gabriela Houston’s The Wind Child will delight dedicated readers who like their fiction infused with timeless magic and driven by derring-do. Recommended for fans of The House With Chicken Legs and The Girl Who Speaks Bear, this is also perfect for reading as a class, and using as a springboard to explore folklore, myths and legends.
Twelve-year-old Mara‘s dad is a mortal human, while her mother is the beautiful, powerful daughter of Stribog, the god of winter winds. Though born in Striborg’s palace, Mara “didn’t belong in it, as she was often reminded. Her lack of powers and her lack of beauty, Her lack of wit and, most disappointingly, her lack of magic. Mara was defined by the lack of all the things she should have been. And her mother was shamed by it.”
On her beloved father’s death, Mara and her new friend Torvic, a brave bear-shifter, embark on a hazardous quest to the Slavic afterlife to bring him back from the world of the dead. Disproving her mother’s view that she has no wit, Mara throws herself into a race against time that sees the pair undertake a perilous voyage to the Island of Summer. Rejecting the possibility of staying there forever, “in the sun and the warmth and the comfort”, they venture on to Baba Latingorka’s cave guided by the moon-pearl.
Alongside the elemental power of beautiful goddesses, trickster gods, and shape-shifting, serpent-tongued beasts, Mara’s struggle is very human, often physical, and always driven by love, with the thrilling finale seeming to set the stage for a sequel.
Packed with a colourful Slavic cast of tempestuous gods and frightening monsters, The Wind Child is above all a story about friendship, and how far you would go and what you would sacrifice to avoid saying goodbye to someone you love.
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Packed with a colourful Slavic cast of tempestuous gods and frightening monsters, The Wind Child is above all a story about friendship, and how far you would go and what you would sacrifice to avoid saying goodbye to someone you love. No human has ever returned from Navia, the Slavic afterlife.
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed The Wind Child and determined it is suitable for children aged 9-12 years old
The Wind Child features in the following genres: Adventure Stories, Children's and Young Adult Fiction, Children’s, Teenage and Educational, Fantasy / Magical, Featured Books for 11+ readers, Recommendations, Featured Books for 9+ readers
Paperback. £7.19, down from the £7.99 cover price. Not Available.
The Wind Child was written by Gabriela Houston and published by UCLan Publishing
The Wind Child has 231 pages
£7.19, reduced from £7.99. Not Available.
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