The red wind by Isobelle Carmody
Penguin/Viking. 2010. ISBN: 9780670074037.
(Ages 9+) Recommended. Fantasy. Winner CBCA Younger Readers Book of
the Year, 2011.
Brothers, Bily and Zluty, born from an egg live in a stone building
with a cellar in an unforgiving landscape. They are little furry
creatures, whose lives are bound by their need for food. Bily has a
garden at the side of the house which produces much of their needs,
but every season, he goes off to the forests to collect sap,
mushrooms and honey. This excursion takes him ten days. When he
returns, food is kept for the coming winter, and their cellar is
full of preserved food, jars of honey, ground cones, bags of wheat
and rice. But this time it is different. When Bily leaves for the
forest they both notice a red cloud hovering in the sky, seeming to
get closer. As Bily taps the trees in
the forests, stones fall from the sky and then heavy rain falls as
he has never seen before. Meanwhile back at their house, Zluty is
coping with the strange weather as well, but in taking refuge in the
cellar with the birds, a stranger enters, scaring them all. This
monster has been bitten and so Zluty cares for him, despite being
terrified of the large animal.
On Bily's return, the stone walls of their house have caved in with
the stones and rain, and the cellar is almost full of water. He is
bereft and digs frantically to find Zluty's body. But he is safe and
the three, Zluty, Bily and the monster, along with Redwing, set out
to find a safer place to live.
A charming story of courage and loyalty, of tenacity and survival,
the characters in this book will endear themselves to the readers,
as they bravely take off for places unknown. The detailed
descriptions of the landscape, along with the hints of the other
beings within their community, make this a magical read, a fantasy
yet with ramifications of a wider theme.
A wholly engrossing read, middle and older primary readers will find
much to enjoy in this, the first in the series, The Kingdom of
the Lost. It would make a marvellous readaloud.
Fran Knight