Abi's father marries Polly, allowing her beloved grandmother to return to Jamaica, and with her two new stepbrothers, both older and younger. The fledgling family moves into an ivy-covered cottage with a little lamp reminiscent of Narnia. The little house feels like the green magic that Granny Grace always talked about and, indeed, mysterious things start happening. When Polly reads in a certain room objects from the book seem to appear out of nowhere. Polly leaves for a business trip and the youngest, Louis, starts behaving strangely. He keeps referring to "Iffen" and finally Abi sees for herself who he is talking about. Iffen is a giant cat with long claws at first thought to be imaginary. The giant scratch marks on the door confirm that Iffen is truly real. Where did Iffen come from? And how do they get him to go back? Abi and her two stepbrothers must work together to solve this problem before Polly returns from her business trip and not give poor Dad more to worry about.
I have long loved the work of Hilary McKay. Her books are comfortable, sweet, gently magical and, well, very British. She has a handle on the workings of children and their thought processes. This new volume traces three flawed, yet distinctly wonderful, children as they adjust to their new blended family, moving, first crushes, and kind of creepy magical occurrences. Readers will relate to impulsive Max, Shy Abi, and needy Louis as they learn to work together to vanquish the unwanted Iffen. The magical element is believable and super cool-as the magic is actually read out of books. Reading characters out of books has been done before (inkheart), though never in such a believable way. Through this magical dilemma, the kids learn to be a family. Readers will wish for some Green Magic of their own and long for a move to a little fantastical cottage with a Narnia lamp. First published i the UK, Simon and Schuster left much of the "Briticisms", making the book that much more charming and, for my money, comforting. Sure to please fantasy readers and anyone looking for an escape, children will consider who and what they would like to pop out of their favorite titles.
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