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INTERMEDIATE FICTION
Barron, T. A.

Giant

272 pp. | Philomel | October, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-0-593-20349-1 $16.99
(2) 4-6 Merlin Saga series. This prequel to Barron's Merlin series stars young giant Shim, large even for his kind. He's proud of his size, but his loving mother tells him that "bigness means more than the size of your bones." Tragedy strikes when almost all the giants on the island of Fincayra are slaughtered by malicious King Stangmar's army of undead warriors. Shim and his mother escape the attack; in order to hide him, she strikes a bargain with a powerful sorceress to make him smaller and thus unrecognizable as a giant. The price: she will be the sorceress's servant for life, and Shim will retain no memory of her. Adrift and alone, he meets up with a faery who has also lost her family and embarks on a quest to retrieve a magic treasure stolen by the forces of evil. There is certainly no lack of incident here, as practically every chapter sees fraught encounters with wyverns, gobskens, marsh ghouls, serpents, and more. It's a bit dizzying. But throughout, Shim's personality, his true heart and courage, keeps the novel grounded, as do the pathos of his situation and the deep themes explored. Humor is introduced through Shim's singular vocabulary, which resembles that of Dahl's BFG or Alexander's Gurgi: "'Smallsy!' he wailed, his voice sounding much higher than he remembered. 'I am smallsy and shrunkelled!'" The novel ends with a promise of more adventures and a hint that they might involve fulfilling an ancient prophecy.
Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2022

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