The Book of Storms

by Ruth Hatfield, Greg Call (Illustrator)

Overview

Eleven-year-old Danny O'Neill has never been what you'd call adventurous. But when he wakes the morning after a storm to find his house empty, his parents gone, and himself able to hear the thoughts of a dying tree, he has no choice but to set out on a quest to find answers. He soon learns that the enigmatic Book of Storms holds the key to what he seeks . . . but unraveling its mysteries won't be easy. If he wants to find his family, he'll have to face his worst fears, battle terrifyingly powerful enemies, and confront a shadowy and demonic figure: Sammael.

This powerfully written debut reveals a world where magic seamlessly intertwines with the everyday and nothing is black and white. For Danny, the only certain thing is that time is running out . . . and he must hurry if he wants to rescue everything he holds dear.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250073464
Publisher:	Square Fish
Publication date:	06/07/2016
Series:	The Book of Storms Trilogy , #1
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Ruth Hatfield is a sometime archaeologist, sometime technician who lives in Cambridge, England. When she's not writing or digging or making circuit boards, she spends her time belting around on a bike and roaming the countryside on her cantankerous horse. The Book of Storms is her first book.

Greg Call is a Society of Illustrators award-winning artist best known for illustrating the Starcatchers and Neverland book series.

Editorial Reviews

The gripping pace and complex moral musings pair with a setting that is so vividly described that it becomes a character itself. Readers will eagerly anticipate the next volume in this anticipated trilogy.” —BCCB

“The extraordinary comes out from hiding behind the ordinary in Hatfield's debut novel . . . This fanciful book brings new awareness of the natural world.” —VOYA

“*Confident storytelling lays a solid foundation for Book 1 of this original middle-grade fantasy trilogy . . . A powerfully conceived and executed story that adds a wholly original element to the fantasy genre.” —Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW

“* Hatfield doesn’t shy from depicting violent deaths or the occasional bit of gore, but the story is never gratuitous—the frights are just enough to keep readers’ hearts racing as they read late into the night.” —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

10/27/2014
Eleven-year-old Danny O’Neill awakens after a thunderstorm to find he’s been abandoned by his parents and suddenly is able to speak to plants and animals. Setting out to find his family, Danny is plagued by the terrifying creature Sammael, a sandman who inhabits dreams, bargains for souls, and wants Danny dead. With a distinctly British wit, debut author Hatfield weaves a dark and twisted tale in the vein of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, as Danny searches for the titular book—“just a flat black shape in the darkness, full of some kind of promise”—along with his cousin and protector Tom. In this trilogy opener, Hatfield creates an imaginative, whimsical world filled with distinctively voiced flora and fauna and other strange characters, including her personification of Death as an old woman who cradles the newly deceased like a grandmotherly angel. Hatfield doesn’t shy from depicting violent deaths or the occasional bit of gore, but the story is never gratuitous—the frights are just enough to keep readers’ hearts racing as they read late into the night. Ages 10–14. Agency: Lindsay Literary Agency. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

07/01/2014
Gr 5 Up—This debut novel is an entertaining fantasy adventure set across a modern European landscape. The book follows 11-year-old Danny O'Neill as he struggles to piece together the seemingly incomprehensible details left behind by a devastating storm. The quest takes him deep within himself where he must find courage that he never knew he possessed. The conflicts that arise range from loneliness and feeling like an outcast to demonic forces and strange powers of communication. The book is paced well throughout, aside from a climax that leaves a little to be desired. Readers will truly root for the protagonist and find very relatable characteristics within the villainous Sammael. Hatfield also manages to include some deeper topics that will hit home hard with some students, an applaudable feat considering the overall fun nature of the story. The true beauty of this tale lies in the personification that runs throughout the entirety of the novel. Not only does Hatfield take readers inside the thoughts and minds of all sorts of flora and fauna, but she uses their observable traits to guide their humanistic presence in very believable ways.—Chad Lane, Easton Elementary, Wye Mills, MD

School Library Journal

★ 2014-10-01
Confident storytelling lays a solid foundation for Book 1 of this original middle-grade fantasy trilogy. Eleven-year-old Danny wakes up one morning after a tumultuous thunderstorm to find his parents gone and the giant sycamore in his backyard destroyed by lightning. Poking around the remains of the tree, he discovers a stick that, when held, allows him to communicate with all of the natural world—plants, animals, insects; even rivers and storms. When his parents—storm-obsessed ever since the storm-related death of their first child, a sister Danny never knew—do not return by the following morning, he sets off to find them. As Danny searches for his parents, Sammael is searching for Danny, as the stick, a taro, is powerful magic that he wants for himself. Sammael is an otherworldly entity who is part sandman—planting dreams into people as they sleep—and part devil, making deals in exchange for souls (souls that, in wonderful narrative cohesion, transmute to grains of sand after death). Complex and morally nuanced, Hatfield's story harkens back to European and ancient Greek mythology in its anthropomorphizing of dreams and fears (Death, a silver-haired woman with red eyes, plays a key role) and its portrayal of nature as character rather than setting. A powerfully conceived and executed story that adds a wholly original element to the fantasy genre. (Fantasy. 10-13)

Kirkus Reviews