The River Bend Country

Helen M. Dobie was a teacher-librarian living in Woodstock, Ontario.

Muriel E. Newton-White writes her stories from the milieu of the northern Ontario woods. She has many collections to her credit and this new one, River Bend Country, is a sequel to The Land of the Long Shadows. They are both about the “Tree People,” who seem to be the spirits or shadows of the trees, and who somewhat resemble the tree that each belongs to. It is unclear whether or not they can be seen by humans. They certainly keep out of their way, distrust them, and consider them ugly creatures. They can and do communicate with and are seen by animals and birds. They can travel only on the shadows, a situation that makes any long distance journey rather precarious and that is the basis for several of the incidents in the stories. The main action is a journey taken by Rags, Tatters, Greenbark, and Popo to the Old, Old Trees to seek counsel from the Wise People because Mr. Knothole, a truly nasty character, has spread rumours throughout the grove that the Humans are about to cut down all the trees for pulpwood.

It’s a “cute” story, and for children who like “cute” I’m sure it will be a favourite. I found the characters a little wooden (if you’ll pardon the pun). They just did not develop and they were so unreal. Even fantasy people must be somewhat human for us to relate to them. Here, Mr. Knothole is thoroughly bad until at the very end he is mysteriously reformed by Popo. Popo is completely sweetness and light. They reminded me of the characters in the old Victorian Elsie Dinsmore books.

There is a certain amount of nature lore taught incidentally and a plea for more understanding not only between the different Tree People but also between Nature and Humans. If the theories had been built into the stories with more subtlety, they would probably be much more effective.

The author’s illustrations are some quite delightful pen-and-ink sketches. The outlines of bare winter trees show very clearly the differences in the shapes of the different varieties. It’s usually so hard to identify trees in winter. Her little Shadow People, however, did not look the way I had pictured them in my own mind; perhaps Shadow People should be left to each reader’s imagination.

I hope that other copies of The River Bend Country will have fared better at the hands of the printer. The first twenty pages of my review copy were a complete mess. I know this can happen very easily; I just hope it has not happened to too many copies.

This book will probably appeal to a certain type of child, but not too many of the Star Wars and Return of the Jedi generation will find it to their taste, I fear.