Over the Woodward Wall (Up and Under #1)

 

Over the Woodward Wall by A. Deborah Baker

This is a brilliant novel and premise, because while it is connected to Seanan McGuire's Middlegame and will provide some amazing context and easter eggs for fans of that book, it is also an excellent read as a standalone novel. AND it is easily approachable for middle grade and young adult readers who may be ready for some of McGuire's gorgeous weaving of faerytale and folklore, and maybe not quite as interested in as much of the blood or real-world stressors that her adult characters tend to encounter in her other books. Our characters are Avery and Zib who are as different as two children could be, and running late to school one day in their perfectly ordinary lives when they come to a huge wall blocking the road they usually take to school. They climb it to try to continue on their way to school, and so begins an adventure on the other side of the Woodward Wall.

There are a few things that make this book particularly excellent in my mind. First, is Seanan's mastery of folklore and how that fleshes out her world building of what Avery & Zib find over the wall from the descriptive colors of the plants and animals to the wandering nature of the tale and the improbable road the children take, there is just so much richness and texture to the world. Second, is the characters. As I said, Avery and Zib are as different as could be, and so their courage and fear and fierceness and loyalty comes through their characters in very different ways. It's well done in that while they may not always understand the other, and occasionally get frustrated, neither one is lesser in the other's eyes. They balance. There are also others they encounter along the way, some remain in the tale for a while and some who are there just briefly, and each character is striking and has just the right amount of detail. Third is the fact that there are and will be real world consequences for what happens over the wall, this isn't something they just get to wake up from and it was all an interesting dream.I personally like the weight and urgency this adds to their adventure.

As I said at the opening, fans of Middlegame will undoubtedly enjoy this book, and I also think it would do really well with fans of McGuire's Wayward Children series or other portal fantasies. And I do think this would be an excellent introduction for younger readers to McGuire's writing.

"None of them are what they were, and it's hard to remember how to play fair when you don't remember where you left your heart."

"Sometimes adventures happen whether or not they're requested."

"You began this story together, whether you intended it or not."

"No one is always in one piece."