It's 1347 and fifteen-year-old Will, an orphan boy, lives at Crowfield
Abbey. Sent into the forest to gather wood, he rescues instead,
a creature from a trap - a hob, who shares with Will a terrible
secret.
Somewhere in the forest behind the abbey where he lives, is a grave.
And buried deep in the snow is an angel.
But how can an angel die? What has it to do with the monks of the
Abbey?
When two hooded strangers arrive at Crowfield asking questions about
the angel's grave. Will is drawn into a world of dangerous Old
Magic.
The Crowfield Feather was short-listed for the Times Children's Fiction
Competition in 2008. This is a stunning debut novel and the
first of a two part series.
This story really did suck me in. Will is a boy who survived his family dying in a fire. The local abbey took him in as an odd-job man and he has befriended at least one of the monks. The old abbot is dying and there is a feeling of change about to come over the monastery. The story opens with Will rescuing a Hob from a trap and this is a catalyst for a big change in his life, a change that will mean that nothing will ever be the same again for him.
I really liked this story, Will is a great character and I really felt for him, you wonder as you read if he's going to survive and how he's going to survive. Brother Snail is also a great character and you can see the authors knowledge creep in. She's an archaeologist and you can see some of the detail about medieval monasteries from archaeology and from notes in manuscripts (some of the details about some of the readers at meals I recall from my own studies) to give it a good backbone, but the story she constructs around that backbone is quite good and interesting and I would recommend it to both adults and young adult readers. It won't take me as long to get around to reading the next one as the first!
Reading updates
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Started reading
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1 June, 2012:
Finished reading
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1 June, 2012:
Reviewed