Customer Reviews

Parsley Sage, Rosemary & Time

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I remember picking this book up in a public library when I was about 10 years old as one of the books listed on my summer reading list. At the time, I put off reading the book because it seemed to be just a story about a young girl's summer experience. The title ("...and TIME") should have tipped me off that something unexpected would occur. This is the book that made me into a voracious fantasy/science fiction reader. I recently bought a copy of the book to read again and while it must be admitted that the writing pales when compared to another favorite, Sabriel (also written for children/young adults), I still found myself interested in revisiting the twists and turns of the story. I would definitely recommend this book for children as it transforms a seemingly ordinary summer into a surprising adventure outside the realms of the ordinary. Worth the effort to get it.

I remember loving this book as a girl. It was one of my favorite library finds!I'm looking forward to reading it again, and passing it down to my daughters.

Parsley, sage, rosemary, and time are stone markers in an overgrown herb garden in Wychwood. Parsley Sage is also a cat, Rosemary a prim and solemn ten-year-old. Stand in the center of the patch of Time at three o'clock on Midsummer Eve and the Way opens between the elms called the "Dreaming Trees".

Spoilers...

Once past the wych elms, it is the autumn of 1722. Rosemary meets Baba and Wim from her century and the widow, Goody Cakebread, who is about to be taken up, allegedly on charges of witchcraft, but really because of the rich timberlands that the greedy Parson Grout wants to own. The three kids end up in York Gaol with Goody Cakebread, and escape with the help of a bottle of apple cordial from the widow's magic cupboard. They encounter the widow's son Tom, who has been gone for 12 years, and the Sokokis who know about the dreaming trees between two worlds. While Rosemary wants to get back to her own time, she laments about not knowing what happens to the Cakebreads. Back in her own century she learns the end of their story in a surprising and satisfying turn of events.

this is a wonderful story about a practical girl in an unrealistic, but very real, time travel adventure. the reader can make guesses throughout the book, but the author does include surprises in the last chapters that make you wish the book didn't end.