Robin Jarvis is apparently male and British; a good deal of his other books are about mice. Here I will betray one of my other prejudices: I don’t actually like books about anthropomorphic animals, with the possible exception of dragons (and even then, it better be the best dragon book ever). Fortunately, this one isn’t actually about mice. In any case, many of his books are set around or near London, which is where he lives, although he was born in Liverpool. He started life as a model-marker for film and television and started writing in his spare time — that was almost twenty years ago. This is supposedly the first book in a trilogy, although book 2 may or may not be published in the UK, and he’s apparently just finishing book 3.

Gamaliel Tumpin is a werling; they’re smallish humanoid creatures (perhaps a foot tall) who live in the Hagwood. He’s about to start his first day at werling school; his older sister, Kernella, has been going for two years now, and she feels superior. However, there’s a young male werling that Kernella worships; his name is Finnen, and he’s amazing at everything at school. Gamaliel, however, is not; he can’t wergle (change shape) and he’s too short and chubby to be fast and graceful at anything else. His group still has to go out and observe animals; Finnen is the mentor. Will he be able to learn from Finnen? And what are these other creatures searching the forest?

I think the only problem with this book is how derivative it is. The story is solid; the characterization is decent if unimaginative (writing about the kid who can’t do anything right at school and his annoying sister?); the dialogue is okay, if overly peppered with a made-up but semi-hobbit dialect. Those who haven’t read or particularly heard about the Lord of the Rings novels (and The Hobbit) or certain Russian fairy tales would probably find the story rather innovative; I’d probably recommend it primarily for younger readers for those reasons. However, in too many ways, it’s Lord of the Rings with the serial numbers filed off.

That having been said, a good deal of fantasy stories are LotR with the serial numbers filed off; the fact that it’s about simple short folk who speak in a charming, countrified manner and live in and around trees doesn’t exactly make it unique among fantasy novels. The characters are charming, if a little bit harsh; there’s enough action and gruesomeness in the book to make it a bit chilling for much younger readers; the balance is pretty good, though. Also, Mr. Jarvis included some interesting word choices in the book, both real words and words he made up. It would probably expand the vocabulary of most readers; it did mine.

I can’t really say anything terribly bad about this book; it was a cute, short read (I think it took me two hours to read total) and I only paid fifty cents for it. Although it wasn’t precisely to my tastes, I did like it, and I can see that it would be appealing to younger readers. It probably reads out loud very well, as well. However, if you’ve read Tolkein’s masterwork (or seen the movies, including the animated Hobbit) and aren’t a fan of knockoffs, I’d recommend avoiding this book. Would I read the sequel? Maybe, but I don’t know that I’d pay to import the British version. 3.5/5 stars.