Horns and Wrinkles

Helgerson, J. (2006). Horns & wrinkles. (Ceccoli, N. illus.). Houghton Mifflin Company. 240 pages. ISBN 9780618981786

Primary Genre: fantasy

Other elements: adventure, mystery, folklore, the importance of family

Intended reader age: 10 and up

Synopsis:

12-year-old Claire and her one-year younger cousin, Duke, live in a small town along a particular part of the Mississippi River. This portion of the River is known for its odd, magical occurrences as well as the frequent disappearances of bullies. Claire becomes embroiled in an adventure when her aunt and uncle are turned to stone and her cousin, who has been cursed with a horn that grows bigger every time he bullies, goes missing. To change her aunt and uncle back and save her cousin, Claire has to team-up with a trio of River trolls set on completing their right of passage.

Review:

Quite honestly the first thing that drew my attention to this book when I first read it was the cover; the illustrator, Nicoletta Ceccoli, is one of my all time favorite artists. I found it to be a plus that there were also small illustrations at the beginning of each chapter. These were not anything big, just a tiny illustration of an event in the chapter.

Outside of the illustration additions to the story, I found it to be a very engaging story. I particularly enjoyed the world building that Helgerson did. He created a premise for this particular stretch of the Mississippi and gave enough history to make it feasible. He did not just tell the history from the human perspective and that helped with the world building for me as well.

There were times when I didn’t understand why Claire continued on with the adventure. She repeatedly tried to make it sound like she wanted away and wanted to go home but she never took the opportunities that were presented to her. I would have been okay with Claire just owning up to the fact that she wanted to be involved, to find out who she really was, and to be the one that saved the day.

This story did bring to mind Coraline by Neil Gaiman for me; the main character questioning which world they really belong in.