Three siblings who have been carted from one orphanage to the next learn that they were born to fulfill a prophecy in this page-turning first novel by John Stephens. When the children land in Cambridge Falls, N.Y., the boat master who ferries them across to their new lodgings warns the oldest: "You be careful in that place. You watch out for your brother and sister." Fourteen-year-old Kate, 12-year-old Michael and 11-year-old Emma discover they are the only three charges in this eerie turreted black stone orphanage. In fact, they seem to be the only children in the area.
Stephens, who comes from a television background, creates an atmospheric world for Kate, Michael and Emma, bounded by sheer cliffs and plunging waterfalls. As the siblings explore their new dwelling, a door appears where there was none, and they discover a cave-like room and a green leatherbound volume with blank pages. Michael places a photo in it for safekeeping, which sends the three back to a time 15 years earlier, when a sorceress called the Countess ruled Cambridge Falls. The stunningly beautiful and wicked Countess uses the town's children to blackmail their fathers, whom she's sent to the mines to look for a treasure--the very book that sent the trio into the past.
The author endows each of the siblings with strong traits: Kate, the only one of the three with a vague memory of their parents, lives by her wits, and her sole mission is to take care of her brother and sister. Michael's obsession with all things dwarf comes in handy when he and Kate are taken prisoner by an army of dwarves charged with guarding the green leatherbound book (yes, that one, 15 years in the past). Emma may be the youngest, but she displays a great deal of courage. One of the most moving relationships in the book develops between Emma and the giant Gabriel, a descendent of the Anishinaabe people, who live alongside the dwarves in the mountain. Michael's fascination with the dwarves, too, leads to some surprisingly poignant moments. For those who enjoy a good heinous villain, the Countess enlists creatures called morum cadi, or "deathless warriors," which the villagers call "Screechers" for the boneshaking sounds they make. She also keeps a monster on a floating prison offshore, to which she sentences her greatest enemies.
As the plot progresses, we learn that the Countess serves an even more malevolent wizard who seeks the green leatherbound Atlas--one of three books that contain all the world's magic, scattered hither and yon when the magicians felt outnumbered by "humankind." The children's greatest hope is Dr. Stanislaus Pym, whose connection to the three siblings goes back further than they know. The nature of the children's role in a "prophecy" involving the trio of magic books remains to be revealed in the rest of the planned trilogy. Readers will want to continue on this journey with Kate, Michael and Emma, and will hope that characters such as Gabriel and Granny Peet, the Anishinaabe wisewoman, will continue along with them. --Jennifer M. Brown