The Wolves of Woden

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

The Hidden World (1999), Alison Baird’s first fantasy novel for young
adults, showed her mastery of the genre, one that The Wolves of Woden
confirms. The setting is St. John’s, Newfoundland, 1940.
Fifteen-year-old Jean shares the anxiety felt by her family, since the
island is a British colony and Britain is at war.

While picking berries with her friends in the rough, wild terrain
southwest of the city, Jean enters another world, a mysterious one. It
is Annwan, a magical realm whose inhabitants also fear an enemy
invasion. When things become too horrific in Annwan, Jean finds herself
back in wartime Newfoundland, and when that threatens to overwhelm her,
she returns to her friends, Princess Gwenlian and Druid Lailokan, in the
magical world. Their shared quest helps her to understand the horrors of
World War II.

The Wolves of Woden, with its fast-paced narrative and satisfying
characters, is young-adult fantasy at its best. Jean’s beautifully
realized adventures may remind some readers of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia
series. Highly recommended.