A Walk Out of the World

The author says, when she was young, she dreamed of walking out of this world and into another. She realized that dream by writing this book. Like many other well-crafted stories for children I have not found this one to be any less sweet when I read it, not (as I did at first) as a young teen, but as an adult. Track down this story at a library, and for a brief while, walk into another world.

Two children, brother and sister, cross over from this world to a fantasy world and are instrumental in overcoming the evil dwelling there - the plot is familiar to any reader of fantasy novels. But "A Walk Out of the World" is not just another competent-but-familiar Young Adult fantasy. Written when the author was eighteen, this lovely novel has a haunting, lyrical quality to it that lingers long after, a knowing innocence and a gentle strain of melancholy that touches the soul. Most fantasies are symphonic in scope - this one is a string quartet, with an aching cello sobbing softly, sweetly at its heart. Long overdue for reprinting!

Two children, brother and sister, cross over from this world to a fantasy world and are instrumental in overcoming the evil dwelling there - the plot is familiar to any reader of fantasy novels. But "A Walk Out of the World" is not just another competent-but-familiar Young Adult fantasy. Written when the author was eighteen, this lovely novel has a haunting, lyrical quality to it that lingers long after, a knowing innocence and a gentle strain of melancholy that touches the soul. Most fantasies are symphonic in scope - this one is a string quartet, with an aching cello sobbing softly, sweetly at its heart. Long overdue for reprinting!

If you have young adults at home, you must get this book. I first read this book in middle school and fell in love with it!! It is a fantasy novel in the best spirit of Tolkien or C.S. Lewis. It is a wonderfully written tale of two children who feel that something is missing from their lives, and find what is missing when they are swept into another world. In this world, they help fight against an old evil, and, in the process, they discover themselves.