Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood (Action Packs) [Mass Market Paperback]

Meredith Ann Pierce (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 14, 2003 | Series: Action Packs

First she is Brown Hannah, a drab healer living in the enchanted Tanglewood. Then, when she challenges the magician who holds her captive, she becomes Green Hannah. Next, she is Golden Hannah traveling through the land, with talking animals and birds by her side. And, finally, Russet Hannah, when she makes the long journey back to where she first grew, and learns her true story. This eagerly anticipated novel, Meredith Ann Pierce's first in five years, is well worth the wait.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This original and atmospheric fantasy by the author of the Darkangel and Firebringer trilogies introduces Hannah, who lives by the fearsome Tanglewood with a few talkative companion animals. Hannah doesn't age, and she has no memory of anything but this life of isolation. Once a month she plucks the flowers that grow from her head "Each yank made her whole scalp ache" and brews them into a tea for the wizard who lives deep in the woods. Hannah is an unusually compelling character: lost but self-assured, brave but deeply na‹ve. When she falls in love with one of the many knights who search for the treasure of the title, she begins to question the wizard's motives, eventually escaping his manipulative power and undertaking a quest to heal the knight, whom the wizard has transformed into a fox. The book loses momentum somewhat as Hannah begins her travels, largely because readers will be quicker than Hannah at piecing together the story elements. As the flowers in her hair grow unplucked, spring descends upon the land (which has been lost in an epic winter) yet she never guesses that, among other identities, she is the legendary Spring Maid of whom townspeople talk, the treasure all those knights were seeking. But this concern will trouble few readers: the prose is heady, the setting textured and the premise certain to captivate fans of the genre. Ages 12-up.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Gr 8-10-Hannah lives in the heart of a forest, the Tanglewood, with a magpie, a badger, and three fox pups as her only companions. The nearby villagers seek her help as a healer but also fear her. The young woman's only other human contact is with a wizard for whom she must regularly brew a drink made from the flowers that sprout from her hair. He guards a priceless treasure and this drink gives him the strength and magical powers to keep it hidden. Strange knights come, questing after the treasure, but none return. Then a handsome young knight arrives, and Hannah falls in love with him. During his battle with the wizard, he is turned into a fox. After imprisoning the evil wizard in a cage of thorns, Hannah and her friends set off to find the Queen who sent Foxkith to the Tanglewood. A long involved journey leads them to a ruined island where Hannah at last learns of her true nature and mission in life. This is a complex story with a strong mythical theme. It puts forth the idea of an ancient earth mother who is both life giver and sustainer. If her spirit is wounded, the earth will suffer. The characters are well drawn and believable. The language is quite lovely but there are many quirky or unusual words. Likewise, the sentence structure has an archaic feel. All this takes some getting used to. Those readers who stick with the story long enough to get hooked will find it to be a well-fashioned fantasy with a particularly delightful ending.

Bruce Anne Shook, Mendenhall Middle School, Greensboro, NC

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Firebird (April 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142500135
• ISBN-13: 978-0142500132
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,392,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An ending unworthy of the beginning, December 28, 2001

By 

Diana R. Sherman (Mountain View, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood (Action Packs) (Hardcover)

I agree with previous reviewers that this book has many good elements, however, the author does not carry these through to the end of the book. As a result, it is an uneven read.

When we first meet Hannah, in the guise of Brown Hannah (winter), it's interesting to see her struggle toward her own identity. Her world is fascinating, the flowers growing from her scalp are intriguing, and her magical abilities work beautifully within the context of the story. Her interactions with the villagers are at times touching and very revealing. The wizard who controls her is a figure of mystery. The Knights are also mysterious as they vanish into the woods on a quest for the unknown treasure. Foxkith, before his transformation into a fox, is an engaging character and love interest. One wonders how Hannah will change and grow into her powers in this environment. However, after the confrontation with the wizard, the narrative wanders.

Sending Hannah to wander through the countryside is not necessarilly a poor decision, but the wandering doesn't produce much of a result. It gives us tantalizing glimpses of a world that never quite becomes fully realized. In order to keep the narrative going, the author needs to keep Hannah in ignorance, which becomes a problem. She doesn't grasp the very basic details of the stories she hears. She never correlates the idea of the Spring Maiden (or any other seasonal maiden) with the changing of her own hair and gown. Even when people name her Spring Maiden and run, fearing to offend her, she doesn't get it. I understand that keeping her ignorant of her true identity until the end is the intention, however, she simply becomes too stupid to sympathize with.

Then, of course, there's the end. She finally finds what she's looking for but doesn't realize it, even though the reader realizes it instantly. The mysterious tree/woman/sorceress she speaks with, while supposed to be awe inspiring, is simply tedious. The entire ending is completely the Sorceress telling Hannah what happened. It becomes very boring. Of course, the Sorceress is also very vague about things. She frequently looses focus and has to make an effort to continue with her narrative. After taking forever to get to the point, the Sorceress becomes a non-character. Hannah does not seem to have been deeply moved. In fact, instead of tending to her beloved Foxkith immediately and changing him back into a human, she tends to others. There is no resolution with the wizard, either. An unfortunate ending.

I would recommend Pierce's Darkangle Trilogy as a much better work.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Mute Fox, a Mysterious Forest, and a Flower-headed Girl, June 15, 2002

By 

R. M. Fisher "Raye" (New Zealand = Middle Earth!) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood (Action Packs) (Hardcover)

'Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood' can be best described as a story set out in three distinct parts. The first (and most interesting) introduces us to Hannah - a young girl who lives in the Tanglewood with flowers and vines growing in her hair who must be plucked out regularly to make a drought for the Wizard that lives in the forest's heart. Apart from him, the folks of a nearby village, and her talking animal friends, the only people she comes across are the namy nameless knights that go into the Tanglewood, searching for it's mythological treasure. With one particular knight however, Hannah falls in love. She names him Foxkith, and tries to keep him from the death that inevitably awaits him.
Part Two tells of Hannah's journey into the world, trying to find Foxkith's sorcerer-queen. On the way, Hannah's hair and clothes change in colour and form, as the seasons change around her. It is here that the story begins to slow, as we become aware of the truth of things long before Hannah and her comrades do.
By Part Three, when Hannah reaches Foxkith's island home and the wind-up begins, we already know everything the 'sorcerer-queen' has to say. Consequently, it isn't that interesting.

The fairy tale elements of the story bear a great resemblance to the Greek myth of Persephone - when this goddess walked the world it was spring and summer, when she returned to her husband in the underworld, it became autumn and winter. Another familiar motif present us the triad of goddesses of many ancient religions - Crone, Mother and Maiden, although in this story it becomes Mother, Matron and Maiden. Along with these three titles to describe Hannah and her mother, Hannah is also refered to, not only as Brown, Green, Golden or Russet Hannah, but as the Spring Maid, the Summer Girl, the Autumn Lass or the Winter Damsel. Needless to say, all the titles can get a bit confusing.

This is not Pierce's best work, (disappointing after a five year absence) especially when compared to the brilliance of the Darkangel trilogy, but it *is* a worthwhile read. Meredith Ann Pierce is a masterful storyteller, and all of her works are unique. Despite the faults, the story is intriguing, drawing on ancient stories and giving them a new look, setting them in a believable fantasy world. It reads like a fleshed-out fairytale, and the though the ending is predictable, the beginning draws you in in far enough that you are compelled to keep on reading.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but just a few things..., July 4, 2001

By 

"eranney" (Madison, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood (Action Packs) (Hardcover)

"Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood" is definitely one of the best books I've read in a while. It featured all the best of Meredith Ann Pierce: good characters, a good plot, and an interesting world to explore through the book.

Tanglewood's main character, Hannah, is very well developed. It was interesting to see the changes in her personality over the course of the book manifest in the changing color of her dress. I was disappointed to find that the character Foxkith spent most of the book silent and amnesiac, and I would have liked to see more development of his character. This is my main bone to pick with the book, which brought it down to four stars instead of five stars. Also, I would have liked to have known more about the Wizard and about the Tree-Goddess. I was very curious about what the Wizard's real feelings for Hannah were, and I didn't feel that this topic was explored enough.

As with her previous Darkangel and Firebringer Trilogies, Pierce has managed once again to take a somewhat clichéd plot type and, through her style, make it fresh and interesting. I didn't understand why Hannah et al spent a good deal of the latter half of the book wandering around the countryside--this did not seem to serve any purpose in the plot, except being the medium for her change from Green Hannah to Golden Hannah. Also, I thought that Hannah's discovery of love should have been a bigger event than it was--before meeting Foxkith, she had agonized over what "love" was, but it was not clear in the story when exactly she discovered this emotion within herself.

Finally, I was intrigued by the bits and pieces of the world that Pierce showed us during the story: the Tanglewood, the village, the Holymen. The book left me wishing for a sequel, so I could continue to read more about this particular world. Pierce, as always, does an excellent job creating an engaging fantasy milieu for her story.

Overall, "Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood" is a very well-written book, which I would not hesitate to recommend to any of my friends. My greatest wish is that Pierce would make this book part of a series, as there is so much unused material from the book to work with.