One-of-a-kind children's author Mayne has created a one-of-a-kind fantasy character. Hob, an invisible house spirit who works hard for his family, even though they don't know he is there. "Hob's work is putting little things right, like folding away trampled thoughts, mending arguments, drying up spilt tears, unkicking bruises, or unscorching the milk pan." In this second adventure, a peddler sells Hob to a new-and seemingly perfect-family. But Hob soon discovers a huge, horrible secret living in their pond. Accustomed to smaller, domestic problems, Bog must use every ounce of his power and wit to prevent the giant catastrophe looming ahead. This novel combines comedy and tragedy, humor and pathos, with the bewitching elegance found only in the very best of children's fantasies.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Grade 4-8. This friendly little house spirit takes his work seriously?putting things to rights. Although he is best at solving small indoor problems, here he is challenged by huge outside trouble. While searching for a new home, he is unexpectedly invited into a peddler's wagon-house. At the first stop, he is surprised to find the man selling him to a farm family to help them. Their pond has gone all black; nothing lives in it or by it any more. Nothing seems to be alive in the garden or house except for something living in the kitchen drain and a water spider hiding in the house. The smoke hides in the chimney, afraid to come out, keeping the cooking fire from burning properly. The farmer's children are frightened by all of this. In his typical bumbling fashion, Hob puts the pieces together and restores order, to everyone's delight. He, of course, gets his well-deserved cup of tea. Those who enjoyed Hob and the Goblins (DK, 1994) or The Book of Hob Stories (Candlewick, 1997) will not be disappointed by this sequel. It also stands on its own for those new to these stories. Maynes's rich, innovative use of language provides nourishment for serious readers of any age. This book can work as a solitary read or as a read-aloud in families or classroom. Don't miss it.?Virginia Golodetz, St. Michael's College, Winooski, VT
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Gr. 3^-6. Hob, who debuted in picture books, then appeared in Hob and the Goblins (1994), which was written for an older audience, is back, once again fixing things that go wrong where he lives. After a peddler sells him to a nice family, Hob discovers something ominous lurking in the pond behind the family's house. He must draw on all of his resources to solve the problem: it seems that the peddler has stolen a sea serpent's egg, wrapped it in pieces of night, and hidden it in the pond. To set things right involves straightening out a disordered night sky. The magical elements in the story are appealing, but what makes the Hob books so unusual is Mayne's language, which has an otherworldliness about it that is at once intriguing, challenging, and beautifully poetic. Graced with equal parts humor and suspense, this will satisfy fans of fantasy and fairy tales alike. Helen Rosenberg
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A random walk through oddity and magic that somehow stays coherent,
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This review is from: Hob and the Peddler (Hardcover)
What can one say about William Mayne to give a real idea of the extraordinary quirkiness of his writing? He can give you North-country idiom of 200 years ago, or a simpler neutral tone of today (more or less) or country-folk's lives in 19th century Cornwall: yet always with his own twist. His language operates at 90 degrees to the rest of us. For instance, here's how Hob (his Puck or Pook-like creation) describes paddling in the waves at the sea's edge:
"We have seen the sea," said Michael. "So have I," thought Hob. "It comes up behind you and gives you a wet lick. It sucks away the sand under your feet and gallops off again." He liked this thought - used it again in "A Year and a Day," the enchanting story of the fairy changeling boy who spoke in seagull's cries: Rebecca starts up quickly from where she is lying at the edge of the sea. "She kicked the sea, getting up so fast. The sea kissed the back of her knee, very wet." Or take the thoughts of the donkey plodding along, pulling the peddler's cart, as he went on carefully getting his feet in the right order. "That one, this one, t'other one, the last one," he was repeating to himself. "How many have I got?" And what can one think about a character - a something - who lives in the bend of the sink and is called SlyMe? When you start into a Mayne book you never know where you will end up. "Hob and the Peddler" begins on somewhat familiar ground - if anything in Mayne can be said to be familiar - but by the end you are rearranging the stars in the dark fabric of the universe, and also dealing with a huge voice: "far out to sea, something hooted, once, twice, and a third time wailing like a question." As you can imagine, it can be quite hard to summarize a Mayne book. I will try only so far as to say that it involves more "adventures" of Hob, the little house-spirit - mostly invisible, at least to humans - who has to stay in any house where he is invited, and has the compulsions of a tidy housekeeper. He has to stay in a house even if they treat him badly (the people realize he is there: they can hear him sneeze even if they can't see him). He can leave only if someone gives him clothes. The peddler is a mysterious fellow who says things like "So much time has been used up in this world that there isn't a lot left" and seems to know a lot about the universe, and sea monsters, and strange pools of black water that isn't water, and...oh, I give up. You'll just have to read it.
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