This post, which first appeared on Jason Goroncy's blog, should have been copied here at the time...for some reason it got lost in transit, and has only surfaced four years later. Better late than never...
Some
moons ago, I posted an interview with the
Dunedin author, composer, and musician, Mike Crowl, in relation to his book, Diary of a Prostate Wimp. Mike is a good friend who has, besides his literary
foray on his surgical experiences, published two fantasy books this year for
children. One of these was based on a really delightful musical he wrote and
produced in 2012, called Grimhilda! (I posted about it here). This month, Mike
released a ‘sort of sequel’ to Grimhilda! called The Mumbersons and the Blood Secret.
The Mumbersons is a ‘sort
of sequel’ because here new characters take the lead, and only a very few of
the people from the first book appear. It’s an approach not unlike that which
C. S. Lewis adopts in his Narnia series. The Horse and the Boy, for example, has distinct connections to the earlier book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but the characters driving the tale are quite new.
Mike’s
fantasy world, like Lewis’s, isn’t explicitly ‘Christian’, although much of the
strange new world of the Bible underpins the stories. In Grimhilda!, for example, the parents of a young boy called Toby are
kidnapped by a witch, who later explains that she’s entitled to do this because
they haven’t loved their son; they’ve been too busy with their own lives. After
some initial reluctance, Toby sets out with some companions to rescue his
parents. In the background to the story we learn of another young boy who tried
to do the same thing many years before, and failed, dying in the process. This
past sacrifice makes possible Toby’s new life of loving service.
And
then there’s the blood. Indeed, a main thrust of the new story is about the
secret of Billy’s blood, and whether it can be used for good or evil.
Both
stories are adventures, with the heroes having to overcome a number of
difficulties, sometimes by their own strengths, sometimes aided by the unlikeliest
of gifts. In each story, the boy is accompanied by a female companion: in Grimhilda! she’s a bossy doll who’s come to life; in The Mumbersons, she’s a
risk-taking girl with a rather strange family background.
Like
the other two books, The Mumbersons and the
Blood Secret has been published as an e-book [and also a paperback] on Amazon, and is also available at the Dunedin
Public Library. Again, Mike has
worked closely with Cherianne Parks, his co-author, whose ideas ‘permeate the
story’, as he notes in the Acknowledgements. You can read more about Mike here.
It
isn’t necessary to have read Grimhilda! to
understand the new book. Although, of course, knowing the background of the
earlier story will add to the enjoyment of the sequel.
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