The Rope Trick

Alexander, L. (2002). The rope trick. Dutton Children’s Books. 192 pages. ISBN 0525470204

Primary genre: fantasy

Other elements: family, coming of age, politics, religion, romance, coming of age

Intended reader age: 8 and up

Synopsis:

Even though she has managed to become a far better magician than he ever was, Lidi is still determined to prove her father wrong. Lidi has convinced herself that the only way to make this dream into a reality is to search out the infamous Ferramondo and learn his legendary Rope Trick. While searching for Ferramonda, Lidi and her canvasmaster, Jerico, acquire some new companions: Daniella, a child prodigy, and Julian, a first of May with a bounty on his head. Continuing on her quest Lidi becomes even more befuddled about the elusive Ferramondo, because the stories she hears always tell of slightly different man. These irregularities are not enough to stop Lidi from achieving her dream. But, when a greedy man looking to use her powers for himself kidnaps Daniella, Lidi is finally forced to abandon her quest to save her friend. 

Review:

Despite the number of books that Alexander has written, I have only read his Prydain series and the Time Cat. I think much of this has to do with how much I adore the Prydain series. I was almost afraid that I would be disappointed with his other works. I don’t think The Rope Trick is quite at the level the Prydain series is for me but the more I think about the story and discuss it, the more I find that I did greatly enjoy it.

This story was interesting to me because I felt that Lidi, the main character, was much older than the intended age of the readers. I would put her in her older teens more than anything else. There was no mention of an age for her, but she just read older for me. Much of this had to do with the times she was growing up in and the circumstance that had shaped her life. She was raised to be a traveling magician and the loss of her father placed her in the position of having to learn to perform and work on her own. She had Jerico, a surrogate father, but he always deferred to her ideas and wishes. Then there was the romance aspect that comes about with Julian and the maternal stance she takes with Daniella.

I liked that Alexander did not explain how Lidi performed her tricks until later in the story. We didn’t learn how she did the ‘Hands of Glory’ until the last fourth of the book. Alexander played on the suspension of belief that Lidi talks about in the story. Her viewers see her performing ‘real’ magic because that is what they want to see. He also brought in elements of fantasy by making Lidi perform some real magic. These instances were scarce and she never learned to control it. The ending very much reminded me of the last book in the Chronicles of Narnia series. Readers can take it at face value, but there is obviously more going on that what is just being written. This is one of the books that need to be discussed and analyzed, that is what Alexander intended.