Sort of like what would happen if the Narnia books and the Fablehaven books got married and had a baby. ( )

This book starts out slow and is hard to get through and kind of boring. About halfway through it starts to get better. Some of the character's backstories played parts in the end. There was a lot of foreshadowing that paid off. ( )

From September 2010 SLJ:
Gr 5–8—When a life-claiming illness sweeps across the United States, college professors Tom and Glynnis Morgan send their children to England to stay with elderly relatives they have never met. Rowan, Meg, Priscilla, and James are accompanied by malicious Finn Fachan and timid Dickie Rhys, sons of other professors. When great-great-aunt Phyllida Ash gives her six guests a list of rules the first evening (stay out of the forest, never accept food from outside the Rookery, do not tell strangers your names), they view her warnings as old superstitions. However, these admonitions have a practical basis: it is a seventh summer. Phyllida's ancestors have always been the human guardians of the Green Hill, a sacred place to the fairies since the beginning of time, and it is now her job to mediate between the two remaining fairy courts, and to keep the balance between humans and fairies. Despite Phyllida's warnings, the children are drawn into the forest, where they meet the queen of the Seelie Court. Every seventh summer, the Midsummer War must be fought between the two fairy courts if the land is to remain verdant, and tradition holds that each court will choose a human champion who will fight to the death. When the Fairy Queen asks Rowan if he will champion the cause for the Seelie Court, he gladly accepts. Meg must weigh keeping her older brother from what she believes will be certain death against interfering with an age-old practice whose absence could destroy the land. Sullivan draws heavily on her knowledge of Middle English folklore and creates a story rich with memorable characters and evocative language. The ending begs for a sequel in which readers can learn more about the history between the two opposing fairy courts and how the Morgan children fulfill their destinies.—Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA ( )

I was attracted to this fantasy by the Celtic themes, and it didn't disappoint. Reminiscent of the Chronicles of Narnia with the two boys and two girls family, the story is at times dreams, at times realistic. Rowan, Meg, Priscilla ("Silly") and James are sent to stay with a great-aunt and uncle on an estate in England when a disease hits children in the U.S. They are unprepared for their relatives' beliefs in faeries, but are soon swept into an age-old ritual war, and Rowan becomes the champion. But it is Meg who is the strongest, telling the story and wanting to protect her older brother, who comes under the glamour of the Faerie Queen. I loved the faerie lore and the fact that they were both good and bad, with few morals when it came to the human mortals. I look forward to reading the sequel, Guardian of the Green Hill. Backmatter includes an interview with the author. ( )

I'm a bit partial to books about kids in unfamiliar old houses who stumble upon magical worlds. Extra points if that old house is in the English countryside. Extra, extra points if the kids get caught up in an epic war requiring brave heroics. There was never any doubt in my mind that I would love Under the Green Hill.

I want to be so very grown-up and objective and say that what I found so attractive in this book was its own sense of place in and reverence to the tradition of books about kids in unfamiliar old houses, so on and so forth. Or that I loved the allusions to other fairy/faerie stories that I caught but will probably fly over the heads of young readers. Or that I was excited about a middle grade book featuring a position of power passed down through the maternal line, with almost inconsequential (but loved!) husbands marrying into the family to help produce the all important female heir and spare. Or even that I was enchanted by Sullivan's use of language. For example:

Dickie could tell it was extraordinary just from the smell. An odor of knowledge permeated the air, ghosts of arcane secrets wafted about by the breeze the children made when they opened the door. Here were books more rare than any first editions. ... The air seemed stale, as though no one had visited that room in decades. But, oddly, though there was dust on all visible surfaces, the library didn't make Dickie sneeze. Books have their own peculiar kind of dustiness, which didn't catch in his nose the same way cat's hair or thistle pollen might.
p.119

I could say all of that, and it would all be true (especially that last one). But what really made me fall in love with Under the Green Hill was the story, pure and simple. I'm a sucker for a good fantasy adventure, and this one is full of that goodness: a beautiful setting that is recognizable but still full of fantastical elements, betrayal, swamp monsters, life and death stakes, war-training, a wise benefactress who one can only hope will make everything okay, an enemy that isn't so evil that anyone really wants to kill him, a sensible sister who tries to be the voice of reason, and a brother hell-bent on grand acts of heroism. Plus an added bonus (that I'm also a sucker for): a selkie!

So Finn, Dickie, and even youngest brother James are a bit underdeveloped. That's okay; they each serve their purpose in the story, hindering or helping the rest of the Morgans along. There's also a little ambiguity in the beginning about when this story is set. It feels like it should be set in the past, between World Wars perhaps, what with the incurable fever ravaging America's children and names like Finn, Rowan and Dickie, but Finn despairs about the DVDs and video games he brought with him to England but can't use since the Rookery has no electricity. It's also possible that I projected a former time on a book whose time period should be last week. Regardless, time period ceased to matter once all the children reached the Rookery and the real story started.

In case you missed it the first two times I said it, I loved this book and I think you all should read it! More professionally, I think other fantasy adventure readers are sure to enjoy it, and it will be an immediate hit with readers looking for something to read once they've run out of Narnia books.

Book source: Review copy provided by the publisher. ( )