And she begins to wonder about the deaths of her parents and those of her companions-especially after the seemingly hale old woman who is teaching her to dye expires the day after telling her there really are no beasts in the woods. Comfortably housed with two other young orphans-Thomas, a brilliant wood-carver working on the SingerвЂ™s staff, and tiny Jo, who sings with an angelвЂ™s voice-Kira gradually realizes that their apparent freedom is illusory, that their creative gifts are being harnessed to the GuardiansвЂ™ agenda. The Guardians ask Kira to repair worn historical scenes on the SingerвЂ™s robe and promise her the panels that have been left undecorated. In KiraвЂ™s village, the ambient sounds of voices raised in anger and children being slapped away as nuisances quiets once a year when the Singer, with his intricately carved staff and elaborately embroidered robe, recites the tale of humanityвЂ™s multiple rises and falls. Instead, the Council of Guardians intervenes. Despite her gift for weaving and embroidery, the village women, led by cruel, scarred Vandara, will certainly drive the lame child into the forest, where the вЂњbeastsвЂќ killed her father, or so sheвЂ™s been told. Born with a twisted leg, Kira faces a bleak future after her mother dies suddenly, leaving her without protection. Lowry returns to the metaphorical future world of her Newbery-winning The Giver (1993) to explore the notion of foul reality disguised as fair. She comes into her own at the rousing climax, but that takes a long time to arrive stick with Michael BuckleyвЂ™s вЂњSisters GrimmвЂќ tales, which carry a similar premise in more amazing and amusing directions. Sometimes Kendra joins in trying to head off her uncommonly dense brother. MullвЂ™s repeated use of the same device to prod the plot along comes off as more labored than comic: Over and over an adult issues a stern but vague warning Seth ignores it does some mischief and is sorry afterward.

Those others are held in check by a complicated, unwritten and conveniently malleable Compact that is broken on Midsummer Eve, leaving everyone except Kendra captive in a hidden underground chamber with a newly released demon. Teenagers Seth and Kendra are dropped off by traveling parents at their grandfatherвЂ™s isolated Connecticut estate, and soon discover why heвЂ™s so reluctant to have them-the place is a secret haven for magical creatures, both benign and decidedly otherwise. Witty repartee between the central characters, as well as the occasional well-done set piece, isnвЂ™t enough to hold this hefty debut together.

Fable haven