Um. I like a couple of Pamela Dean's other books so much, Dubious Hills and Tam Lin, that my expectations for this were a little high. But it seemed a fairly ordinary fantasy crossover novel. Some nice touches, the bits about the reality of the world, the one cousin's disbelief, the characters - but nothing particularly deep. ( )

(#55 in the 2008 Book Challenge)

Every October I reread Pamela Dean's Tam Lin because it's such a good Halloween book. But this year, I couldn't find my copy of Tam Lin, I'm sure I have it somewhere, but it hasn't resurfaced since we moved last spring. I'm sure it will eventually. Fortuitously, I was able to read The Secret Country instead. It's the first book in a trilogy about five cousins who play an on-going pretend game about a fantasy kingdom, and it becomes real and the kids are shocked and surprised and there they are. Because it's based on their own game, they have a general sense of how the "plot" is supposed to go, but things don't always work out the way they expect. The kids are fantastic characters, I love how they alternate between being thrilled to be in a magic adventure, and then indignant when they realize there isn't any normal breakfast food.

It did remind me of a funny thing about Pamela Dean books -- that they are filled with things that go completely over my head, but seem like the kind of things that will make sense if you read the book again knowing how things turn out ... except they don't. Like Tam Lin is full of Nick and Robin doing things like exchanging meaningful glances, and I know how the book ends and I still have no idea what they were supposed to be so glanciful about. And Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary ... forget it. I have no idea what's going on most of the time. Usually I would be annoyed by this, but in the case of Pamela Dean, it makes me feel confident that she's brighter than I am. So it's good that she's in charge of the story.

Grade: Solid A, although I will have to read the entire trilogy to be sure.
Recommended: Very thoughtful, thorough YA fantasy, and it's serious but not so serious that you wish you were reading a book about grim totalitarian societies. ( )

Creative- I really enjoyed reading this book

For the past summers, cousins Ruth, Patrick, Ted, Ellen, and Laura have played in an imaginary fantasy kingdom called the Secret Country. However, this year things are different. This year they stumble upon swords that take them to the real Secret Country where they are thrown right into the plots of their imagination. But is it real or is it fake? And how can they avoid the inevitable events that they themselves have created?

I liked this book a lot. All five cousins are interesting characters, intelligent and literate and the kind of kids I wish I had known growing up. It would have been easy for Dean to create stock characters such as “the loud one”, “the shy one”, “the pretty one”, etc, but she avoids such cliches and fleshes out each cousin in his or her own right. For example, Patrick is insufferable but I like him anyway. I also enjoyed the concept of an imaginary world turning real. How often have I wished for my own Secret Country? I thought Dean handled adeptly the problems and questions of such a transformation. Rather than use it just as a gimmick, she explored its implications.

The Secret Country, as a place, is fairly typical fantasy fare. There’s dragons and unicorns and kings. If you’re looking for extensive, original world-building I don’t think this is the right book for you. But what Dean is good at is creating a sense of mystery. The Secret Country seems banal but there is a touch of the unknown that goes along with it, questions posed but unanswered. It gives you the incentive to read on.

Overall, The Secret Country is an intelligent, compulsively readable fantasy. ( )

The series is relatively light fantasy, with quite a few literary quotes and allusions. A fun read, with a bit more to think about under the surface. My only complaint is the seeming lack of copy-editing. Lots of punctuation errors in this edition. ( )