13treasures

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Book Reviews and Synopses

13 Treasures

Michelle Harrison

Harrison, Michelle. 13 Treasures. Scholastic Inc. New York, New York. 2009.

13 Treasures is a mysterious fantasy novel written by Michelle Harrison. The author writes such a book, that it lets readers delve into the wonderful mystical world of fairies. It’s a mystery like no other. Readers have cherished this book since its publishing in 2009.

Laney is a normal middle school girl. She doesn’t really fit in with her classmates, but she doesn’t care; she has a secret. She sits in school all day just to wait for the moment when the bell rings and she can go and find the fairies in the woods. No one else can see them; and no matter how many times she tries to convince her parents that the fairies are real, they never believe her. Now she just keeps quiet, and visits the fairies secretly.

One day after school, when Laney is going to visit the fairies, she witnesses something terrible. Some strange kind of monsters have attacked the fairies, and kidnapped almost all of them. Laney just hides in the shadows as her friends are either captured or killed. When the monsters have all left, there is one small pixie lying crumpled in the middle of the fairies’ glade. Laney sits beside him as he tells her of the evil Golems, supposedly extinct enemies of the fairies. His light flickers out for the last time, and Laney realizes she must save the fairies. She finds the Golems and tracks them to their shadowy lands. Along the way, she meets a lost boy who also follows the Golems for his own reasons. He has never seen another human before, but agrees to help Laney defeat the Golems. They have captured his spirit wolf, so Laney and the boy, Tom, decide to band together to save the spirit wolf and the fairies.

While following the Golems, they find a portal. Accidentally falling through it, they arrive in the land of the fairies; a mystical land were pure magic exists. The duo then finds some fairies in the magical realm, that decide to help them defeat the Golems. With the fairies’ help, they find the Golems and decide to attack. But one of the fairies has been lying the entire time about helping them; and if they aren't able to stop him in time, Laney’s fairies and Tom’s spirit wolf won’t stand a chance.

Readers will find themselves drawn into the well written and designed magical world. They will be terrified during some chapters, and laughing in others. But, other than a few pages, the story was a suspenseful, funny, and well written tale. One decent sized problem about this novel is that the title is ‘13 Treasures’, and it has nothing at all about 13 treasures in the story.

3 out of 5 stars

Contributed by L. Hansen

April 4, 2012