The Various: Book 1 in the Touchstone Trilogy
by Steve Augarde
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Book Summary Information
Author: Steve AugardeEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-11-08
ISBN: 0440420296
Number of pages: 448
Publisher: Yearling
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780440420293
- Condition: USED - Very Good
- Notes: 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Various: Book 1 in the Touchstone Trilogy
Book Review: Looking Forward to The Sequels!
Summary: 5 Stars
As a mother who screens every book her 11-year-old daughter reads, I have been finding fewer and fewer books printed that feature a truly original plot. Since I do subscribe to a point that *nothing* is truly original anymore anyway, what I look for in a decent read includes the way the story is told. Pace and empathy have to balance each other for me, the mother reading her child's book. In "The Various" by Steve Augarde, the first book in "The Touchstone Trilogy", I found both. It's not a particularly original plot, having similarities with "The Spiderwick Chronicles" and "13 Treasures" by Michelle Harrison (previously reviewed), but I loved the treatment of the relationships between the characters, especially between Midge and, first, her uncle, and then her mother. It's great when even the minor characters grow in the course of the story. I can only think of one other author right now to compare that with: Chris D'Lacey, in writing "The Fire Within." Although the first book in *that* series is about all I can recommend to said daughter, being the conservative mother I am, I remain hopeful that the remaining two books following "The Various" trilogy will remain a pre-teen fantasy-adventure that deal with the coming-of-age issues with common sense and compassion, and that the characters stay pretty much within the ages they are at the start of the series. Kids grow up way too fast in real life already - I really prefer that the book characters they love don't do the same. Of course, said daughter enjoyed the book in a totally different way!
"The book, 'The Various' by Steve Augarde was a thrilling, fantastic book.
"When twelve-year-old Midge Walkers goes to stay the summer with her Uncle Brian because her mom is working at a concert, she expects it to be boring. Boring, but pleasant. So when she finds a tiny winged horse in the barn called Pegs, let's just say that she was VERY surprised. But then, some of the Various \ Faeries \ Piskies who dwell in the winged horse's world start trying to kill her and her cousins, Kate and George, it starts to get very dangerous as well.
"My favorite character has to be Midge herself because she was the funniest and bravest of all of them. However, I also liked Pegs as well and thought that he was very wise. The most exciting part of the story has to be when Kate fought the Various with a water gun and they thought that it was some mystical, frightful power. Also, I liked how George tricked some of the Various to go into the mud lagoon because it was funny as well.
"I would recommend this book to anyone who likes five-star books that include magic, adventure, humor, romance and, of course, a girl heroine."
Summary of The Various: Book 1 in the Touchstone Trilogy
Now available in paperback with gorgeous new cover art!A captivating story of courage and strength against terrible odds, this is the story of Midge, left to stay with her eccentric uncle during the holidays, and her adventures with the Various, a band of fairies. The existence of the Various, who are strange, wild, and sometimes even deadly, has been kept secret since the beginning of time, but when their world begins to clash with the human world, they are threatened with extinction.
This wonderfully imaginative story of love and loyalty is the first in a powerful trilogy. VOYA says of The Various: ?A marvelous blend of oldfashioned storytelling, the book has a freshness and immediacy that will intrigue fantasy lovers of all ages.?
?A rousing addition to the durable genre of British fairy lit.??New York Times
?Augarde unfolds the events gradually, allowing readers to luxuriate in the near-idyllic setting he has created and beckoning them back for future installments.??Publishers Weekly
The idea of a race of little people (fairies) living secretly among us has had a powerful hold on the imaginations of writers from Shakespeare to Terry Pratchett and Eoin Colfer. In The Various, Steve Augarde has used this fascination brilliantly to craft the first novel of a trilogy full of breathless action and wonder. When twelve-year-old Midge is sent by her concert-violinist mother to spend the summer at the farm of her sweet but bungling Uncle Brian, her initial resentment gives way to delight in the freedom of exploring the countryside. When she discovers a tiny winged horse lying wounded in an outbuilding, she is awestruck to find out that he comes from a civilization of five various tribes of little people living in a nearby wood?-something readers will have already learned from alternate chapters set in the fairy world. Disaster threatens when Uncle Brian plans to sell the wood to a developer, and Midge and her cousins find (to their own peril), that some of the little people are not as helpless as they seem. Steve Augarde draws on his visual and auditory skills as a BBC animator and picture book author/illustrator for vividly realized detail?-the dumpy and addled fairy queen, the smells and moods of the English summer, the sharply differentiated accents and personalities of each of the five tribes?-in an entrancing debut fantasy. (Ages 10 to 14) --Patty Campbell
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