Book Review: Drink the milk and believe
Not many people believe in fairy tales anymore. The belief in anything magical, whether it be fairies, dragons, witches, giants or even miracles is a rarity. And maybe those things don’t exist, but really, it’s nice to believe that they do.
Whether magic is real or not, we need to believe that magic and miracles are real. But why? Anyone can see that as the world gets worse, super heroes are coming back and fairy tales are returning to revive our minds from the suffering that is everywhere.
“Fablehaven,” by Brandon Mull, is one of the many fairy tales that has been brought to the attention of readers everywhere. Meet Kendra and Seth Sorenson, two young teenagers that are going to their mysterious grandparents’ house. The house is small with a larger-than-life barn and expansive grounds. But there’s a secret about the grounds and that enormous barn.
Kendra and Seth are given the challenge of finding the secret of the grounds of Fablehaven, and they discover that it’s magical. The barn is home to a giant cow, whose milk allows normal people to see the creatures of Fablehaven.
The yard is full of fairies and other creatures, some of which have been banned from the yard because they are evil, like the demons and the witch Muriel.
When Muriel escapes from her prison, she begins to release Bahumat, an evil demon that longs to destroy Fablehaven. Kendra, Seth, their grandparents and the groundskeeper must find the ancient church where Bahumat is hiding and stop him from destroying their home and releasing evil into the rest of the world. When the rest of her family is taken captive, Kendra must call upon the fairy queen, but to Step Hill, where the shrine resides, means certain death.
With baited breath, Kendra steps up anyway, and the fairy queen listens to her plea. Kendra soon gains control over the fairies in the yard, and they rush to her aid.
In the process, Kendra becomes Fairykind, meaning that she has been chosen by the fairy queen to be her representative on earth. Kendra can now always see the creatures of Fablehaven, and other similar havens around the world and can speak and understand every fairy tongue. All of the fairies revere her.
They rush to the ancient chapel to fight off Muriel, Mendigo, Bahumat and the imps, only to find that it is almost too late. Bahumat is released before they can stop it, and an epic battle begins between good and evil.
So the creatures are all things we’ve heard of before, but this is written with a humorous flare that is refreshing to read. Kendra and Seth are both very believable and likeable characters that most readers will find they can relate to and laugh at easily. Fablehaven has a refreshing plot, too.
There’s nothing about a young boy with a special mark with special powers, there’s nothing about a small circular object of power that must be hidden/destroyed, and, most importantly, there aren’t any chosen ones that have been marked since birth.
The Fablehaven series is a fantastic series that everyone who wants a light, easy read should pick up and devour. It’ll make anyone believe in fairy tales again.
–jill.bowers@aggiemail.usu.edu