Sang Spell [School & Library Binding]

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 11 and up | Grade Level: 6 and up

Read by Ron Rifkin
4 hours 47 minutes, 3 cassettes

Josh is hitchhiking from Boston to Dallas to begin a new life, trying to sort out the changes that have skewed his world since an accident killed his mother and made a mockery of his dreams. No longer will he be what he was—an important person in a high school he loved. Instead he will be starting his junior year in a place where no one will know him, on one will care.

He wanders up a road he has taken away from the interstate, where he has been thumbing rides, looking for a village where he might find shelter from the unexpected August cold and rain. When a car comes along, it looks like a ride to somewhere. And that's what it proves to be. But the somewhere he finds is not the somewhere he expected. It is a place that knows him, knows the darkness inside of him; that offers food and shelter, and also confronts him with choices he does not know how to make. It probes his past, examines his possible futures, and finally pierces the wall of despair he has built around himself.

Sang Spell is a fantasy built on the hopes and dreams of a people who longed for a place of peace, for a way out of the dark and the rain. Some might think finding such a place to be a miracle, but not John. To him it is a nightmare, a prison he cannot escape. Sang Spell is an adventure into a place of forgotten people, the Melungeons, and into the boundries created by the human mind.

--This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor earned countless fans with the touching morality of Newbery Award-winning Shiloh and the laugh-out-loud realism of Achingly Alice. But aficionados may be surprised to find that Naylor's Sang Spell reads more like a haunting mystery. Grieving over the sudden death of his mother, Josh Vardy is reluctantly hitchhiking to Dallas (to begin a new life with his aunt), when he is mugged and left beside a remote mountain road. A woman driving a horse and cart takes him to a strange, fog-bound, primitive village, where there are no cars or telephones or electricity. The homespun villagers turn out to be a long-lost people of mixed ethnicity, called Melungeons. They accept Josh into their community, but will only answer his questions with evasiveness and enigmas. Mavis, a broad-shouldered young woman his own age, befriends Josh when he is put to work with the others gathering ginseng, a valuable root they refer to as "'sang" and trade once a year to Chinese merchants. Over and over again Josh tries to escape--by road and by river--but finds that somehow all routes lead back to this village that time has forgotten. When Josh finally joins in the villagers' rituals and celebrations, his feelings of despair about his own future begin to transform and heal. And after his loyalty to the Melungeons is tested, Josh finds that he is free at last to make the decision to leave. (Ages 11 to 15) --Patty Campbell --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In a starred review, PW said that the author "combines elements of Brigadoon and Lost Horizon with little-known historical lore to create a haunting story of a youth's journey from dissolution to wholeness." Ages 11-up. (Apr.)n
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 11 and up
  
• School & Library Binding: 224 pages
• Publisher: Turtleback Books: A Division of Sanval (April 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0613286324
• ISBN-13: 978-0613286329
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,472,278 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I guess I've been writing for about as long as I can remember. Telling stories, anyway, if not writing them down. I had my first short story published when I was sixteen, and wrote stories to help put myself through college, planning to become a clinical psychologist. By the time I graduated with a BA degree, however, I decided that writing was really my first love, so I gave up plans for graduate school and began writing full time.

I'm not happy unless I spend some time writing every day. It's as though pressure builds up inside me, and writing even a little helps to release it. On a hard-writing day, I write about six hours. Tending to other writing business, answering mail, and just thinking about a book takes another four hours. I spend from three months to a year on a children's book, depending on how well I know the characters before I begin and how much research I need to do. A novel for adults, because it's longer, takes a year or more. When my work is going well, I wake early in the mornings, hoping it's time to get up. When the writing is hard and the words are flat, I'm not very pleasant to be around.

Getting an idea for a book is the easy part. Keeping other ideas away while I'm working on one story is what's difficult. My books are based on things that have happened to me, things I have heard or read about, all mixed up with imaginings. The best part about writing is the moment a character comes alive on paper, or when a place that existed only in my head becomes real. There are no bands playing at this moment, no audience applauding--a very solitary time, actually--but it's what I like most. I've now had more than 120 books published, and about 2000 short stories, articles and poems.

I live in Bethesda, Maryland, with my husband, Rex, a speech pathologist, who's the first person to read my manuscripts when they're finished. Our sons, Jeff and Michael, are grown now, but along with their wives and children, we often enjoy vacations together in the mountains or at the ocean. When I'm not writing, I like to hike, swim, play the piano and attend the theater.

I'm lucky to have my family, because they have contributed a great deal to my books. But I'm also lucky to have the troop of noisy, chattering characters who travel with me inside my head. As long as they are poking, prodding, demanding a place in a book, I have things to do and stories to tell.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Take a chance..., March 20, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Sang Spell (Mass Market Paperback)

and read this book. I wasn't sure if it would be good or not, but I desperately needed something to read and ordered it from a book club. I was hooked from the first compelling sentence. Josh had to go to Texas to live with his aunt after his mother's death. Hitchiking to his destination, he got beaten up by a man who offered him a ride. Later, a woman in a horse and buggy took him to Canara, an alternate universe. He was confused about the unusual civilization, but time unraveled the mysteries and his grief. Soon, he made friends and developped loyalty towards the town. Will he ever be able to leave? Does he want to? I highly suggest you read it to discover what happens.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book, April 24, 2001

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Sang Spell (Mass Market Paperback)

Josh is an average teenager with a good life, until his mother is killed in a car crash. He decides that instead of taking the bus down to Texas to live with his aunt, he wants to hitch~hike. When he decided to turn off the main highway onto an isolated road, he is picked up by a stranger who gives him a ride instead of walking out in the rain and cold. When he is attacked by the driver, he is left by the side of the road with no money, no food, and a broken rib. Josh is picked up by a woman with a horse and a wagon and comes to live with the people of Canara. When he heals and makes friends, he decides to leave Canara, and be on his way. The only thing is, there's just no way he can get out...

I really liked this book mainly because it kept you in suspense chapter after chapter. Every time Josh tried to leave Canara, he couldn't, and that left me wondering what would happen to him next. The author made his adventures easy to understand, but sometimes I had to go back and read a chapter, to search for key events or clues. I also liked the fact that there was a little romance tied into the story. It added a realistic touch to the plot. The ending was good, and would make a great plot for a sequel to Sang Spell.

I didn't like when Josh was back in Canara for days at a time. It got boring when there was no action, and the pages seemed to go on forever.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an adventure as well as a fast, easy read book.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a compelling, wonderful novel., May 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sang Spell (Hardcover)

I picked this book up for a book report after looking at the recommended books list. I wasn't expecting much because most of the books on the list aren't that great. Sang Spell was very suspenseful, and sometimes frusterating. It was a bit of a scary feeling to be trapped in an unknown world. The ending was good, and I wasn't sure what to expect. I'm not sure how I would have ended it. Another great story by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor!