I just got a copy (it came out in 2013) of The Time Fetch, by Amy Herrick. It's probably considered YA. (I learned this weekend that I am not alone. A panel discussion of editors revealed that 55% of YA books are bought by adults for themselves. YA is the big growth industry right now.)
It's ideal for this time of year, being set in the lead-in to the winter solstice.
Herrick's book reminded me somewhat of the late Diana Wynne Jones's work. It's hard to put into words, but there's a quality of the way the magic works that is like Jones's more mind-bending books, though Herrick's is not quite so confusing as, for instance, Fire and Hemlock.
The story begins when a homework assignment to bring in a rock results in a boy's picking up something that...isn't a rock. There is a garden gnome that isn't, as well, and there are witch-like beings and school girls and mothers and so on, it's not just a boy's story.
Warning: There's a terrible pun that is led up to and never used.
It's ideal for this time of year, being set in the lead-in to the winter solstice.
Herrick's book reminded me somewhat of the late Diana Wynne Jones's work. It's hard to put into words, but there's a quality of the way the magic works that is like Jones's more mind-bending books, though Herrick's is not quite so confusing as, for instance, Fire and Hemlock.
The story begins when a homework assignment to bring in a rock results in a boy's picking up something that...isn't a rock. There is a garden gnome that isn't, as well, and there are witch-like beings and school girls and mothers and so on, it's not just a boy's story.
Warning: There's a terrible pun that is led up to and never used.
