The wind in the wall by Sally Gardner
Illus. by Rovina Cai. Hot Key Books, 2019. ISBN: 9781471404986.
(Ages: 15+) Highly recommended. Themes: Fantasy, Myth, Fairy
tale, Cautionary tale, Pineapples. In this new cautionary tale
reading like a fairy tale of old, Sally Gardner tells the tale of a
gardener in the employ of the Duke of Northumberland. The duke is
desperate to grow and raise a pineapple and employs the gardener to
take charge of the hothouse and the plant.
From page one we know that this hapless gardener is imprisoned and
read on to find out how and why he is thus ensconced.
Because he could not grow a pineapple, the duke demotes him to be
his wife's gardener, in charge of the flower garden, a position he
does not like. And a new person is employed to grow a pineapple. But
Mr Amicus arouses suspicion. Just what is in the birdcage he takes
into his house, and why is the hothouse filled with light at night?
And just how does he manage to grow a pineapple?
The gardener creeps to the hothouse at night and spies a naked
woman, surrounded by green feathers, imprisoned in the birdcage,
tapping all the while on its bars. Mr Amicus wears the same sort of
feather in his hat. He drunkenly returns and warns the gardener to
stay away from the hothouse and his wife. Shocked, the gardener
retreats, but one night after a summer storm a tree crashes onto the
hothouse and the birdcage is emptied. Later a tapping on his door
reveals the woman and they spend the night together, she offering
the gardener one wish in return for his kindness, but warns him to
choose wisely.
The next day Mr Amicus comes looking for her and chases the gardener
into the walled garden, where he uses his one wish unwisely and is
forever trapped.
This is a wonderfully engrossing tale, full of magic and humour, of
desire, greed, infatuation, ambition . . . all those tenets that sit
well in cautionary tales. Here the story warns us to be careful of
what we wish for, with the gardener finding himself trapped for life
behind a wall.
Stunning illustrations by Rovina Cai, a masters graduate from the
School of Visual Arts in New York, who now lives in Australia,
parallel the text, sweeping the eyes across every page, the turning
of which offers a new delight every time.
Fran Knight