Summer's a great time to gobble continuing stories which feature the same characters and feed a wonder that keeps us hungry for more. Two popular young adult novelists, Monica Furlong and Lois Lowry, have finished delicious series perfect for a literary summer feast.
When Lois Lowry won the Newbery in 1993 for The Giver, her fans wanted more. In a recent interview, Lowry wrote, "I don't generally cater to the reading public's whims and wishes. But readers' reaction affected me, I think, in that it made me want to sort out things for myself"
The Giver was set in a seemingly perfect world. Only by watching the main character, Jonas, struggle to against its rules do we learn that this world is sterile, colorless, and harsh. Jonas escapes in the book's ending and Lowry received thousands of letters and e-mails wondering what happened to him.
Her second novel, Gathering Blue (Houghton Mifflin, 2000) ends ambiguously, too. Like Jonas, Kira, the heroine, lives in a fantastical world, but hers is teeming with obvious filth, poverty and cruelty. Kira an artist who can weave the future, is trying to make her way in this brutal setting. At the book's conclusion, we wonder about Kira and another young character she cares for, Matty.
Lowry's latest book, brings together characters from her two previous novels --.Jonas, Kira and Matty -all reappear in Lowry's latest book, Messenger (Houghton Mifflin, $16.00; ages 10 and up). Messenger takes place in Village surrounded by Forest. Village seems at first to be a utopian society where all are accepted and nurtured. But Village is changing, those who once were happy that this world would accept them with wounds and failings, now trade their souls to seek pleasure and perfection and they want to wall off their city to those hurt and homeless who seek solace. Forest almost becomes a character as it develops a malevolence which reaches out to maim and even kill those who leave Village.
Matty is the hero. He was a scrappy, lying, thieving boy who has been delivered to the Village by Kira. Left in the care of her blind father, Matty has been transformed by the kindness, care and acceptance of those around him. He has always been free from the torments of Forest, and so has become the messenger who reaches out beyond the confines of the small perfect world. And yet, he sense a change in the Forest he loves, the changes in Village, and the changes in himself as he discovers that he, like Jonas and Kira, has a gift. His gift can bring a frog, or a dog back to life. He could heal Kira, but Leader has told him to save his gift.
Village society is led by Leader who can see "beyond". Leader is Jonas, the protagonist of The Giver, grown to young manhood, and he is deeply concerned about both Village and Forest. There is a foreboding from the beginning of the book and this ominous feeling is realized in a dark and dramatic ending as Matty and Kira travel through a Forest where branches reach out and cut like knives, vines leak sap that burns the skin, and tendrils emerge and move "like a young viper: purposeful, silent and lethal."
This ending fully realizes the dark tone and gives both the book and its prequels a sense of completion. It also opens up a new mystery and a question as to whether any utopia can endure. Through image and metaphor, Lowry creates a fable that asks many questions without giving answers and again leaves her fans wondering. Lowry believes she's finished this series, that trilogy "has a nice ring to it, a feeling of a boxed set and some finality." But she's quick to note that someone asked her about a new mysterious character, Trademaster, wondering whether she'd write more about him. She responded, "Oh, dear."
It's a sad to finish a book you love, sadder still to finish a series and depressing when it's the last book the author wrote before she died. Monica Furlong began her Wise Child series (Random House) in 1987. Furlong invents a fantasy world that she makes so real with her writing that you lose yourself quickly in the story. Her setting has a strongly medieval feel where small villages of people care about those with whom they live and science and magic coexist, though not always peacefully. Wise Child's character and situation also invite immediate reader appeal. Her narcissistic mother, who practices dark magic, abandons Young Wise Child. Her father, Finbar, is gone for long stretches of time. Her relatives have too many children, so Wise Child is taken in by Juniper, a healer, with whom she lives happily and discovers her own potential for magic.
From the start, Furlong shows a remarkable mix of traditional magic and the kind of that is present in daily living. The emotions of her well-rounded characters seem as real as the medieval setting in which she places them. These, combined with a style that transports readers quickly won her faithful fans who were thrilled when she published her second book, Juniper (Random House) in 1990.
In Juniper we discover how the title character began life as a royal princess, was trained as a healer, and eventually left her homeland. This book has the same excellent writing, and was only slightly disappointing because Wise Child's story was not continued. Now it is! Colman (Random House, $15.95; ages 10 and up) is told by Wise Child's male cousin and begins at the point Wise Child left off. Colman is fleeing with Juniper and Wise Child who have been accused of black magic.
Colman was a minor figure in the first book. He is as devoted to Wise Child as her readers. Like Colman, the readers will begin this book by missing her magical gifts and enchanting personality. Wise Child is sullen and shrouded in darkness and it's partially this shadowy quality that allows us to know Colman better. It's not long before Furlong reveals that Colman, too, has the latent powers of a magical healer.
Colman and company arrive to find Juniper's kingdom in ruins. Where once Juniper danced in "the joy of maying", now "a body hangs on the gibbet". The large doors of her gracious castle are charred and hang from their hinges. Worse, Juniper's parents are dead, and her brother, Brangwyn, is being held captive by Juniper's sorceress aunt, Meroot who has also enslaved and impoverished their people.
It takes the combined efforts of Juniper, Wise Child, and others to rescue Brangwyn and save the lost kingdom. Wise Child and Colman must find the courage to accept the responsibility of their powers, and face the terror of Meroot's castle, armed with magical gifts they don't understand.
Throughout all three books Furlong's characters are consistent and yet, they grow. Her descriptions of situations and settings add so much character depth that you feel you've journeyed with her protagonists in lands she's made real.
Like Messenger, Colman is a satisfying series end, but Furlong fans will grieve knowing that this fine author will publish no more books. Perhaps that's the final test for a great series. Even as you experience the satisfaction of your book hunger, you start dreaming about the next literary meal the author will serve.