Windswept
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
From New York Times bestselling and Newbery Honor–winning author Margi Preus, a gripping middle-grade fantasy about a girl who must save the children of her world from being Windswept.
In Tag’s world, children are disappearing. “Youngers” who venture Outside are windswept—vanishing in the swirling snow—Tag’s sisters among them. Many have tried to find the lost children; all have failed. And since the Other Times, the Powers That Be seem intent on keeping it that way.
Little remains from those times: snippets of songs, heaps of plastic trash, and a few banned texts—including a book of fairy tales.
An unlikely crew of Youngers join forces—Boots, who can climb anything, Ant, who will eat anything, Ren, who will say anything, and Tag, who doesn’t appear to have any talent whatsoever. With their dubious skills, the fairy tales, a possibly magic ribbon, and an unwillingness to accept “that’s impossible,” they set off to rescue their windswept siblings in this spellbinding fantasy.
Includes a Map and Black-and-White Illustrations by award-winning artist Armando Veve
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Newbery Honoree Preus presents an intriguing dystopian fantasy steeped in fairy tales. Thirteen-year-old Hyacinth, called "Tagalong," has lived her entire life indoors, safe from the treacherous wind that snatched under-15-year-old "youngers" and whisked them away to places unknown. Seven years after her own three sisters were windswept in a sudden snow squall, having sneaked away from the once-prosperous family's guard, a map to a secret gathering is slipped through a knothole in the door that Tag peers out of daily. Spurred to break out of the boarded-up house, Tag heads to the meeting with a forbidden book of fairy tales and a seemingly magical ribbon, only to witness the deep corruption of the "olders" tasked with keeping the "youngers" safe. Tag and a motley group of new friends set off on a quest to find their missing siblings, encountering witches, trolls, and enchanting magic along the way. Via sensate prose (outside "tasted sweet and spicy and slightly dangerous") and jam-packed worldbuilding that borrows from Norwegian fairy tales, Preus smartly employs the fairy tale form to investigate ethics around avarice, exploitation, and communal priority. Veve's occasional graphite illustrations contribute to the fairy tale feel. Characters read as white; back matter includes a list of referenced fairy tales. Ages 10–14. Author's agent: Stephen Fraser, Jennifer De Chiara Literary.
