The Wikkeling

The Short of It:

The world that Arnston creates is both scary and magical but most of all…fun.

The Rest of It:

Many of you following me on Facebook or Twitter have probably heard me say (more than once) that The Wikkeling was “strange.” When I first started to read it, I could not shake the creep factor. The cover is freaky and the book itself is not a traditional size. It’s wider, includes lots of handwrtitten script and has creepy illustrations of people without faces. BUT, once I got past the slightly, unsettling feel of the book itself, I found myself liking the story quite a bit.

The story is set in the future. Henrietta lives in a world where every move is tracked. She sleeps in a room with a BedCam and her mother is able to show more find her via the GPS locator on her phone. When taking a test in school, the results are immediately tabulated and sent straight to her parents for review. Even her bus ride home is monitored. Her world is a world of gadgets, yet she lives in an “old” house. Her house is one of the few old houses left. Nearly every other one is pre-fab and made of plastic. This old house gives her “house sickness” which causes tremendous headaches. The headaches she has in common with two new friends, Gary and Rose. They too, suffer or have suffered with house sickness so they quickly form a bond.

However, when Henrietta discovers that her attic is a secret passageway into the past and is home to a giant house cat by the name of Mister Lady, she and her friends begin to explore the past by visiting it regularly. With the help of a Bestiary (a compendium of beasts), they discover the true nature of their headaches and set out to find the truth.

The Wikkeling is marketed as a children’s book but adult readers who enjoy magical worlds and creatures will also enjoy this book. The secrecy surrounding the attic is fun and the fascination and preservation of real books held my attention. As ads are screamed at them at every opportunity, their escape to the attic is comforting. It’s warm and inviting and full of books.

My copy of The Wikkeling includes entries for these magical creatures and they are written in script on gray colored pages. The book I received was an ARC, so perhaps the issue was addressed with the final copy, but I had a hard time reading that script on such a dark, gray background. The fact that I wanted to, is a testament to how much I enjoyed this aspect of the book. Including it made me feel as if I were flipping through my very own Bestiary, which I’m sure was the point.

What fascinates me about this book is that the technology discussed within it, is technology that we are currently using today. GPS trackers and cell phones are everywhere and although advertisements are not streamed to us via our automobiles, I’m sure it’s just around the corner. As we become more high tech, we lose something in the process and that’s really what this book is about.

I think older kids, 10-12 will enjoy this book, but anyone younger might not be able to get over the creep factor of those faceless drawings and long-fingered creatures. Overall, a fun read! show less

Life is carefully programmed and supervised, the constantly gridlocked traffic belches flowery fumes and everything is smooth and moves without disruption. Students practice for their Competency Exams on a daily basis, and are completely protected from danger. Henrietta is at the bottom of her competative class, and is considered unlikeable by all her classmates. Her headaches also make her stand out, which only makes her more miserable. But then one night, Henrietta finds a wounded cat in her attic (completely forbidden and against the rules and dangerous!), and then Henrietta meets Gary and Rose, who also have headaches, and who also see the shadowy figure following them around. Together they might just solve the mystery of the show more figure, their headaches, and what a cat really is.

This is a brilliant book. Arntson weaves a cautionary tale about the dangers of being completely protected, and the hazards of being in a totally homogenized and automatic society into a gripping story about three children who learn to trust each other, and the wild housecat which they name Mister Lady. There are some disturbing bits, and I wouldn’t recommend it for kids under twelve or thirteen, but I would recommend it to anybody who has felt out of step with the world around them, and definitely to anyone who loves books.

“Henrietta is the main character of this story. This whole book will be about her – and it’s worth mentioning at the outset a few things that aren’t going to happen to her.

She will not become beautiful when someone gives her a new hairstyle.

She will not find a miracle cure for her pimples when an angel sees she’s a good girl inside.

She will not find out that she’s actually a princess, and she won’t become happy forever when a prince marries her.

Those books are out there, and your school librarian can help you find one. This isn’t it.” show less

This was a book that was a library discard, purchased for a a dollar. It looked interesting, but sat on my shelf for awhile, until I finally pulled it out for something easy to read, but interesting. And this book certainly satisfies those requirements.

Its a book aimed at children, I'd probably say 8 to 13 crowd. The story has a fairy tale-like quality, but instead of a world filled with scariness, this world is aimed at ultimate protection, for example, everything is plastic with no corners, or that parents are notified whenever a child moves locations. However, safety is taken to a point where the entire world is sanitized, from history to literature. Add in the focus on test scores, where that is the only thing that matters in show more school, to the point where class, and school rankings are updated each day.

The story itself is about taking risks, and learning from them. From climbing a pile of chairs into a magical attic, or even crossing the street. As for the Wikkeling, he's actually a scary figure, and in true fairy tale fashion, never explained. The ending is not a surprise, the children in the story learn something, the Wikkeling is vanquished, and life is changed.

As an adult reading this book, I felt like I was missing out - just who was Henrift AndI, and how did this world become what it is? Or why is the Wikkeling the only reason there is a such a focus on safety? But for a kid, I suspect they quite like it. show less

Henrietta Gad-Fly lives in a world where safety is the number one concern. Her school bus has not only seat belts, but head straps. Her clothes have yellow visibility stripes. Her parents can monitor her 24 hours a day via mobile phone and Bed Cam. That is, until Henrietta's Bed Cam mysteriously breaks, and her adventures into the past begin. Can she and her friends figure out why they get terrible headaches? Or what is going on with the wild house cat in Henrietta's attic? Most importantly, can they discover the secret of the creepy flickering monster known as the Wikkeling?

With excellent illustrations and a cool dystopian premise, this book has a lot of shelf appeal. I was very into it until about 60% of the way through when I show more started to feel confused by everything going on. I think first-time children's author Arntson didn't quite build a world with consistent internal logic. There's the [b:1984]-ish setting, and then there's the magic-ish attic and the monster-ish Wikkeling. It somehow didn't mesh well for me. I was never sure what was going on with the view from the attic or why the kids could see the Wikkeling.

So, it left me a little befuddled, but I really liked a lot of the details: the honk ads, the perfumed pollution, the supremacy of the Competency Exam, the underground Subscribers, the Bestiary. I ended up buying a copy because I got impatient for my library hold to be fulfilled, and it really is a beautiful book to have on your shelf. I also saw Steven Arntson speak to a group of kids at our Mock Newbery and he was great. show less

4.5 stars!
Oh my goodness! I just randomly grabbed this book off the shelf at the library. I had NO idea what a treat I was in for.

The cover looks so old school, which I thought maybe would make readers skip over it, but after reading it- I couldn't imagine a better cover!


I couldn't describe this book any better than how James Dashner did:

"A truly original piece of work. Swinging from funny to creepy to intriguing, it kept me enthralled throughout."

Seriously though! This book had me laughing out loud one minute and then shivering in fear the next. It also had a wonderful middle section of beautifully illustrated creatures. It was so original. It truly fascinated me!

If you like Dr Who or Neil Gaiman (specifically Coraline) you need to show more read this! show less

I wasn't sure what I would think of this book when I accepted it for review. But it being labeled a dystopian got my attention and I couldn't turn it down. I'm very glad I didn't because this was a fun and unique read. It also had a bit of a quirky tone to it that really made it even better!

This is set in our world in the future and everything is computerized and books are actually considered dangerous (mold can grow on them *gasp*). I got the giggles at times when reading because in school they have to type things like "Why swimming is dangerous", "Why running is dangerous", etc. Everything is way over the top about being safe. Now that's not the focus of the story at all, but we get to see it a bit when Henrietta goes to school.

This show more book definitely has a middle grade tone to it but even as an adult I found myself being okay with that and still enjoying it. The characters aren't real in depth (it IS middle grade) but we get to know them pretty well and their personalities are all interesting and unique. And they each grow quite a lot.

I think my favorite things about this book are how it shows us what we could become in the future if we become completely computerized. Books would become obsolete. And even when cities take over everything then there is no more wildlife at all. Just the world itself was very interesting. I also liked that this book was a touch fantasy. Not high fantasy at all, but just a touch and it was perfect! The book also has amazing illustrations scattered through it and has some entries, handwritten, from a Bestiary book that Henrietta gets from her grandfather. These journal like entries are about creatures and has illustrations included which I found to be very cool!

Overall this was really a great read and I recommend to anyone who enjoys dystopia, loves cats, enjoys a touch of fantasy and loves to read middle grade books. show less

children's fantasy with sci-fi elements (time travel, futuristic technology, computers possessed by mysterious entities). Original and very spooky. MUCH scarier than Coraline was, would definitely recommend to kids who want more horror in their books.