After Hamelin

What happened after the Pied Piper lured the children away? In this book, Bill Richardson tells the story of Penelope. On her 11th birthday, she suddenly loses her hearing, which saves her from the Piper's magic. Now, she is on a quest to rescue her sister and the other children.

Bill Richardson displays amazing creativity in describing Penelope's adventure as a child, and adds depth by interweaving her story as an old woman -- so old that her contemporaries have died, and she is once again left behind.

Penelope awakens on her eleventh birthday to discover she can no longer hear, but her unexplained deafness is the only thing that saves her when the Pied Piper returns to Hamelin to claim the town's children with his magical music, leaving her free to try and rescue them.

Hmmm, can't quite decide on this book. I liked the story, and the idea of what happened after the rats were gone, but I felt the story moved really slowly. Perhaps it's because I'm generally not a fan of these types of fantasy books?? I did, though, like how the author moved back and forth between old and young Penelope. It was hard to track at first, but it did provide a solid frame for the book, so that by the end you had the conclusion of both storylines.

Excellent read. A reconstruction of the mythical Pied Piper of Hamelin. This book is a telling of the story of a girl who comes to the rescue of the enchanted children, told by the girl in her elderly years.

One of my favourite books of all time! I can reread it several times in a year and still not tire of it.

YA, fairy tales