The Land of the Silver Apples
By Nancy Farmer; Rick Sardinha (Illustrator)
(Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books, Hardcover, 9781416907350, 512pp.)
Publication Date: August 21, 2007
Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook, Compact Disc, Paperback
Categories: Action & Adventure - General, Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic
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THE CHILDREN
FROM THE SEA OF TROLLS
BRAVE THEIR WORST
NIGHTMARES -- UNDERGROUND.
Jack is amazed to have caused an earthquake. He is thirteen, after all, and only a bard-in-training. But his sister, Lucy, has been stolen by the Lady of the Lake; stolen a second time in her young life, as he learns to his terror. Caught between belief in the old gods and Christianity (790 AD, Britain), Jack calls upon his ash wood staff to subdue a passel of unruly monks, and, for his daring, ends up in a knucker hole. It is unforgettable -- for the boy and for readers -- as are the magical reappearance of the berserker Thorgil from a burial by moss; new characters Pega, a slave girl from Jack's village, and the eager-to-marry-her Bugaboo (a hobgoblin king); kelpies; yarthkins; and elves (not the enchanted sprites one would expect but the fallen angels of legend). Rarely does a sequel enlarge so brilliantly the world of the first story. Look for the conclusion in The Islands of the Blessed in 2009.
Nancy Farmer has written three Newbery Honor Books: The Ear the Eye and the Arm; A Girl Named Disaster; and The House of the Scorpion, which, in 2002, also won the National Book Award. Other books include Do You Know Me, The Warm Place, and three picture books for young children. She grew up on the Arizona-Mexico border, and now lives with her family in Menlo Park, California.
"Jack, Pega, and Thorgil prove strong and capable in ways they themselves never suspected, and readers will look forward to the final installment." -- Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review











