The Stolen Child
10 journalers for this copy...
Seven year old Henry Day is kidnapped by fairy changelings living in the dark forest near his home - ageless beings whose secret community is threatened by encroaching modern life. They give him a new name ~ Aniday ~ and the gift of agelessness - now and forever. Another changeling is left in his place and he has to adjust to a new way of life as Henry, hiding his true identity from the Day family. But he can't hide an extraordinary talent for the piano and his father begins to suspect that he is an imposter...
Thank you for sending this to me Xana!
amberC (NT)
Sally906 (NT)
piemunga (Syd)
back to me then on to ~
katrinat (UK)
KiwiinEngland (Ire)
MsTeddy (Fin)
penelopewanders (Swi)
marko167 (Swi)
Ravenbear (QLD) ~ wants to be last
-> back to me Lisagt
(This order may change if other readers are interested)
I will pass it along to Sally at our next meet-up.
Henry Day wanders away from his family home somewhere near chicago and goes missing. His frantic parents join locals in searching for their child in the nearby woods - and are overjoyed when they find him. Only the child they take home is not the real Henry - it is a changeling - and the real Harry is now living in the forest with the other changelings waiting for his turn to take the place of a child and return to the human world.
In normal situation each Henry would forget his past, but in this situation each retain a portion of knowledge about where they came from - and were they want to go - they are just not sure how to do it. So who is the real Henry - the one who is born Henry - or the one who has become Henry the man? Each Henry is aware of the existence of the other, but the changeling doesn't want to go back to the forest, and the original Henry doesn't know how to escape it.
The story is told in turn by the two Henry's leading up to the climax. I say climax but in reality the book doesn't really get exciting at all, it just plods along. Then I kept wondering why the changeling's needed a human to impersonate - why didn't they just pretend to be lost children and start their life like that.
I can't say it was an experience - I kept reading it hoping that something would happen - but it never did. - I have read better modern day fairy tales such as The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly.
Released 15 yrs ago (6/13/2008 UTC) at
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
mailed off today
thanks!
Released 15 yrs ago (8/13/2008 UTC) at -- Controlled Release, New South Wales Australia
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
posted off today
Released 15 yrs ago (8/22/2008 UTC) at Hammondville, New South Wales Australia
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Posted to katrinat to continue the bookring.
I will post this as soon as I have the next address
Released 15 yrs ago (10/6/2008 UTC) at -- Controlled Release, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- United Kingdom
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Went Saturday, the next person is away at the mo, so it may take a week or so for the book to be JEd as received
Thanks to all involved.
For a lot of the book I thought Henry Day (the changling) was obnoxious, for example his response to the death of his father, and I was unsympathetic to anything he was going through until the end. I also couldn't understand why Aniday didn't try and get home. I suppose as Aniday was seven when taken, by the time he figured out the situation a number of years had gone by which would make it too late to return.
Released 15 yrs ago (11/11/2008 UTC) at
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Posted to MsTeddy this afternoon.
Travel well little book, and I hope you don't find Finland too cold!!!
It seems very interesting and I had to force my self to put it down for making this JE.=) It tavelled fast and I'm sure it hasn't got a gold, because there is no snow yet in Finland..;)
I'll send the book off to Switzerland later today.
I have PMed for the next address, will try to send on as soon as I get it. Thanks for making this available.
Marko167 has asked me to wait until January before sending. So this is sitting pretty in my "to be sent" box for the time being.
Released 15 yrs ago (1/14/2009 UTC) at ☑ 'Controlled Release' > Country > Province > City, .---controlled release---. Switzerland
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
After a longish vacation here in the Alps, a bit of skiing and lots of good food, it's now back to work, even for those of us who live here year round. So this book has finally said its goodbyes and packed its bag and is now on its way down to Basel to continue its job as a ring.
Thanks so much for making it available, and happy 2009 everyone.
Anyway, I'm not certain what I thought of this book. I liked the story but for such a short book I found it a bit dull at times and I wasn't altogether comfortable with the implied sexuality of the faeries, bearing in mind they were said to be in child's bodies.
All in all an OK book.
Thanks for sharing.
M.
All around there are books sipping cool drinks under shady palms while other books participate in a wide variety of beach sports. There is plenty of sand, surf and sun here for all of the lost and wayward books to enjoy.
It is hoped that very soon a new journal entry will come to rescue this book from the island and send it back out into the BookCrossing world so that it may continue on its journey. It is hoped that the new journal entry will tell all the interested parties where this book has been this long time and where it will be traveling to next.