The Watcher

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

Margaret Buffie’s five previous young-adult novels were rooted in
realistic fiction, with an overlaid fantasy plot being woven into the
contemporary story. However, in The Watcher, Buffie moves almost
completely into the fantasy genre, and with much success. Like most
fantasy, The Watcher’s plot is complex and not easily summarized in a
few words. Essentially, Winter “Emma” Sweeney, 15, is possessed by a
seemingly irresistible urge to watch over Summer, her sickly
eight-year-old sister, and Emma does not understand why. The family has
recently relocated to Emma’s mother’s childhood home, a prairie
honey farm where Emma’s father, an environmental artist, is
re-creating the ancient Stonehenge in Plexiglass. Two apparently
disparate happenings involving Emma eventually find their resolution in
the modern Stonehenge. A mother-arranged summer job propels Emma into
“babysitting” an elderly newcomer with whom she plays an
“addictive” board war-game, Fidchell. As well, Emma begins to
experience “dreams” in which she finds herself in truly strange
lands, where she overhears bits of conversations about a search for a
young girl. Because Emma is the book’s narrator, readers learn what is
meaningful about the various events at the same time Emma does. That
reality ultimately involves beings from other worlds (“in many plains
of existence”) who are engaged in playing the Game, a competition
where winning is the only goal no matter what the cost, and where this
planet is just another tiny playing field. As in all good fantasy,
Buffie creates a most believable alternative “world” filled with
surprises. Highly recommended.