Nobody should go too deep into the forest. This can already be read in fairy tales like “Little Red Riding Hood” or in classics like “Räuber Hotzenplotz”. It will be dangerous for anyone who gets in there. If the forest is now also called “Dark Forest” and is full of creepy creatures, there is actually no longer any need for an additional warning. Barclay agrees. The eleven-year-old is not at all adventurous. Basically, he wants to be a model boy, to fit in easily in his native Biederford – a place that probably has many times more rules than residents. He, the orphan, wants to belong somewhere. But that’s not so easy with a forest like that in front of the door.
Magic – or as it is called here “wild power” – simply means: magic. And Foody dabs that powerfully and dazzlingly into her story.
One day Barclay gets too deep into the Dark Forest while collecting mushrooms. At first he is surrounded only by mouse-like creatures, but then he encounters a girl with dragons and finally he is pursued by a wolf-like creature that inflicts a deep injury on him. This connects him to Barclay, making him a “wild sage” with extraordinary powers. However, the boy is no longer allowed to show himself like this in Biederford, where they all panic about strangers and magicians.
It is a fantastic world that the American author Amanda Foody unfolds and paints over and over again right at the beginning of her children’s novel “Wilder Reich”. The realm is teeming with strange creatures such as steyerworms, gauntlets, nitneys, hook sharks, and air dogs, to name just a few. Some are cute and harmless, some are grisly and dangerous. Basically, however, they have in common that they are outside of every rule and every thought ban that the boy from Biederford is all too familiar with. Magic – or as it is called here “wild power” – simply means: magic. And Foody dabs that powerfully and dazzlingly into her story.
It’s not at all like Barclay appreciates his new powers. Rather, he would like to be able to return to his home town of Biederford. That’s why he lets the girl Viola and her dragon lead him deeper into the forest and to a town. There he hopes to find help in order to get rid of all wild wisdom. However, that is not easy. For this, Barclay has to pass several tests that make him more and more familiar with the beings and wise men in this very different world. And they really aren’t that bad.
Amanda Foody has written a wonderful mix of fantasy, friendship and development story for children. Soon “Wilder Reich” gets a literary pull that lets you hunt through the book about as quickly as Barclay with his magical powers through the not so gloomy forest. (from 10 years)
Amanda Foody: Savage Realm. a fateful test. from the American by Ann Lecker. Loewe 2022. 320 pages, 14.95 euros.