22 May, 2014

Book Review: Song For A Scarlet Runner

From Goodreads: Peat is on the run — forced to flee for her life when she's blamed for bringing bad luck to her village. She heads for the endless marshes, where she's caught by an old healer-woman who makes Peat her apprentice and teaches her the skill of storytelling.
But a story can be a dangerous thing. It can take you out of one world and leave you stranded in another — and Peat finds herself trapped in an eerie place beyond the Silver River where time stands still. Her only friends are a 900-year-old boy and his ghost hound, plus a small and slippery sleek — a cunning creature that might sink his teeth into your leg one minute, and save your life the next.


Thoughts: This is the fifth and final younger reader book on the Children's Book Council 2014 short list. There are usually 6 books on the list and I'm not sure why there is only 5 this year. All the books are very strong and very worthy of being on the list, so maybe there just wasn't anything else that measured up.
Song For A Scarlet Runner is, I think, the first in the series. Once again the characters in this are strong and believable. Hunt takes you into another world where words have power and stories can be dangerous. People you think are evil aren't and people who appear evil at first may not be. Through her characters Hunt explores friendship, loss, the importance of making your own decisions and how decisions made a long time ago can affect the here and now. I really hope there is a sequel to this book as I would love to catch up with all the characters again.