The Hidden World

Teya Rosenberg is an assistant professor of English specializing in
children’s literature at Southwest Texas State University.

Maeve O’Connor’s father has lost his job, her mother is bitterly
unhappy, and 15-year-old Maeve herself is depressed about not getting a
part in her school play despite her obvious talent. Sent away from
suburban Ontario to visit relatives in Newfoundland, Maeve finds comfort
in the stories and landscape of the south shore of the Avalon Peninsula,
but soon after she finds her grandmother’s brooch and diary, strange
things start to happen. Maeve finds herself in an otherworld called
Annwn, involved in an adventure that becomes increasingly dangerous. She
comes to realize that her grandmother’s one novel, a fantasy that
Maeve has loved and memorized, is the recounting of actual events from
her grandmother’s girlhood. As her grandmother did, Maeve becomes a
sort of legendary figure in Annwn, a helper from what is to them the
otherworld of Newfoundland. In the process, she is able to put her
family’s and her own problems in perspective.

Drawing upon Celtic traditions of the Faery, ideas from Arthurian
tradition, and the unique landscape of the Avalon Peninsula, Baird has
created a compelling story and evocation of Newfoundland. The story
suggests explanations for many myths, legends, and folk traditions while
at the same time creating an exciting adventure and quest.

My one regret about this story is a comment at the end: Maeve’s
father says, “But Newfoundland never changes—thank God. I’ve come
to yearn for a place without progress, a place where the countryside
isn’t being devoured by housing developments and strip malls, a place
no one’s trying to improve.” Of all the fantastic events and places
in The Hidden World, this is the one bit of fantasy that has no truth,
as anyone in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland, will tell you. The story is,
nevertheless, well worth reading, will delight fantasy fans, and is an
excellent addition to the tradition of such Canadian fantasists as
Catherine Anthony Clark, Ruth Nichols, Welwyn Wilton Katz, and Joan
Clark. Highly recommended.