The Book of Alfar: A Tale of the Hudson Highlands [Hardcover]

Peter W. Hassinger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 4, 2002 | Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

When Sander moves to the country, he is not greeted with the quiet life. His parents are fighting, and his sister, who used to be his ally, has abandoned him to become a teenager. But in the woods surrounding his new home, he finds a fairy world of dwarfs, pirates, soldiers, wandering ghosts, and a ruthless Lord of the Dunderburg who must be stopped. With the help of an unlikely friend, an ancient dwarf named Alfar, and Mini, a half-Native American girl steeped in the lore of the region, Sander embarks on a magical, swashbuckling adventure where only he can tip the balance in a world struggling between good and evil.

Screenwriter Peter Hassinger weaves fantasy with Celtic folklore in a spectacular first novel, reminiscent of Treasure Island or The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6-Hassinger ventures into Washington Irving territory with this unvarnished tale of ghosts and magic along the Hudson River. Barely has young Sander moved to the area with his family before he encounters a ghostly Hessian in a Revolutionary War-era uniform; becomes friendly with Minisceongo, descendant of the ill-fated Hessian's Algonquin lover; and catches glimpses of a little man who can disappear or change shape at will. The little man is Alfar, a peaceable, mixed-race Brown Dwarf whose powerful Black Dwarf grandfather, Dwerg, dispenses mischief from a cavern beneath the nearby Dunderberg. When Dwerg kidnaps Mini, Sander sneaks away from home to join Alfar and Bobby, a local goatherd, in a rescue. The Hudson Valley setting is evocatively described, but the story's internal logic is, at best, tenuous-Sander's father, for instance, quietly welcomes him back at the end, without even asking where he's been for the past several days-and the multiple story lines waver on the edge of collapsing into a confusing tangle. After a magic battle that Alfar loses, but somehow manages to escape by becoming a squirrel, Dwerg is tricked out into the dawn where a beam of sunlight turns him to stone, and the victims of his various enchantments, living and dead, unite to throw a party. Fans of tales set along the border between the mundane and the magical will be on familiar ground here.
John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ages 9-12. This is a wildly uneven and overstuffed time slip story, with some great lines and some engaging characters. Eleven-year-old Sander and his family move to a pre-Revolutionary War house along the Hudson River. He quickly makes the acquaintance of Mini, a local Algonquin girl his own age, and a dwarf named Alfar, who is trying very hard to live up to the expectations of his grandfather the dwarf king. The good parts of this tale are pirates, wolf packs, and Sander's dad, who believes both in history and in multiple time lines. Less successful are some wobbly characterization and venal villainy, dubious natural philosophy (is revenge really against the Laws of Nature?), and a slightly murky denouement. It's hard to put down, though, with a plot that includes a romance between a Hessian soldier and a half-black, half-Indian ancestor of Mini's, and some dizzying back-and-forth between Then and Now. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st edition (June 4, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060284692
• ISBN-13: 978-0060284695
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,575,791 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting fantasy tale, March 26, 2003

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Book of Alfar: A Tale of the Hudson Highlands (Hardcover)

"Book of Alfar" wasn't quite as good as I had expected, but it's still quite a good fantasy/historical read, with likable heroes and a fairly interesting hodgepodge of Revolutionary War history and a dash of mythology. It needs a bit of tightening in areas, but overall quite nice.

Sanders has just moved into a very old house with his father, sister and self-absorbed mother, and nobody except his mother is happy about it. Sanders deals with this by wandering off into the woiods by himself, where he meets an Algonquin girl, Mini, and a goat-boy named Billy. And he catches sight of a Hessian soldier racing by, the ghost of a young man who leaped to his death centuries before. But the ghost isn't the only supernatural thing lurking around. The pleasant, peaceful dwarf Alfar is being instructed in wickedness and mischief by his ruthless grandfather, Dwerg, Lord of the Dunderberg, who is trying to whip him into a suitable Black Dwarf.

But mere mischief (putting bees in Sanders's attic) escalates when Dwerg decides that Alfar should marry Mini, the descendant of the people who killed Alfar's parents. Neither Mini or Alfar like the idea, and after Sanders saves Alfar's life, they set out to oust Dwerg, even though Alfar's magic isn't up to the task. Along the way they will run into eternally-sailing pirates, a dwarf-created storm, and finally the Lord of the Dunderberg himself.

Hassinger does a good job with "Book of Alfar"; in some ways it's a fairly typical fantasy, but has some nice quirks like the usage of real mythology in the storyline. (I was a little distracted by the fact that "Dwerg" means dwarf, and "Alfar" means elves) The usage of things like American history, a dramatic backdrop, and the pirates who will sail forever are good touches.

Sanders is the best-fleshed-out character in the book, a likeable kid who rises to the challenges; Mini is like a less intriguing Lloyd Alexander heroine, and I'm not sure why Billy was in the book. I like him, but I didn't think he added much to the plot. Sanders's family is quite well done, and Dwerg just avoids being cartoonish. Oh yes, and his wight-cloak is quite entertaining.

There are a few flaws; the good guys all become pals almost instantly, rather than a getting-to-know-you period. Occasionally Alfar seems a bit too much like a human being. Hassinger's writing style is brisk, not very detailed, but quite a few parts of it become very intense and poetic, such as the "granddaughter" scene on the pirates' ship.

It's a pretty good fantasy story, with a few flaws but some unique usage of history and legend make it above average. Nice read.