Grade 5-9-- Another installment in Wrede's appealing fantasy series, this title will be best appreciated by those already familiar with her cast of characters and their previous adventures. However, those who first encounter Queen Cimorene, King Mendenbar, Morwen (an untypical witch), and Telemain (a very verbose magician), along with their various animal friends and familiars in this book will certainly be inspired to seek out Dealing with Dragons (1990) and Searching for Dragons (1991, both Harcourt). Once again the problem is wizards: they're draining the Enchanted Forest of its magic and, worse, they've invaded the castle and stolen Mendenbar's magical sword. The quest to retrieve it and restore the Enchanted Forest is filled with adventure, peril, and humor, despite the fact that the bulk of the story takes place in only a few days. Wrede's strengths are numerous: sparkling dialogue, amusingly fractured fairy-tale conventions, solid characterization, plenty of action, and truly terrific chapter headings. Both her vocabulary and her sense of humor are pleasingly sophisticated, making this a fun and challenging read. The end result is a captivating and convincing fantasy that sets the stage (and whets the appetite) for future adventures. --Lisa Dennis, The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Description:
From School Library Journal
Grade 5-9-- Another installment in Wrede's appealing fantasy series, this title will be best appreciated by those already familiar with her cast of characters and their previous adventures. However, those who first encounter Queen Cimorene, King Mendenbar, Morwen (an untypical witch), and Telemain (a very verbose magician), along with their various animal friends and familiars in this book will certainly be inspired to seek out Dealing with Dragons (1990) and Searching for Dragons (1991, both Harcourt). Once again the problem is wizards: they're draining the Enchanted Forest of its magic and, worse, they've invaded the castle and stolen Mendenbar's magical sword. The quest to retrieve it and restore the Enchanted Forest is filled with adventure, peril, and humor, despite the fact that the bulk of the story takes place in only a few days. Wrede's strengths are numerous: sparkling dialogue, amusingly fractured fairy-tale conventions, solid characterization, plenty of action, and truly terrific chapter headings. Both her vocabulary and her sense of humor are pleasingly sophisticated, making this a fun and challenging read. The end result is a captivating and convincing fantasy that sets the stage (and whets the appetite) for future adventures. --Lisa Dennis, The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
The third
Enchanted Forest Chronicle'' has the most perfunctory of plots, but fans of Dealing with Dragons and its 1991 sequel will be pleased nonetheless to revisit their favorite characters negotiating Wrede's effervescently logical magic. The evil wizards have stolen King Mendenbar's sword; its loss imperils the forest, and a doughty crew of seven sets out to rescue it: Morwen the witch and two of her talking cats; sensible Cimorene, now queen, and pregnant; magician Telemain, whose parodic technospeak is so relentlessly clever that it's a relief when he falls into a trance; Kazul the dragon; and a blue donkey, a former rabbit, hapless attractor for magic gone awry. There are other amusing new characters here--notably the confirmed traditionalist who helped steal the sword--but mostly the focus is on the comical repartee and the magic itself; a recalcitrant mirror's plaints when it's used as a telephone are laugh-aloud funny. Like return visits to Oz, this doesn't have the original punch but it's still good fun; a cliffhanger close promises another sequel. (Fiction. 11+) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.