In this first book of the Watcher's Quest trilogy, 15-year-old Emma has long suspected that something is not quite as it should be in her life. With her long, pale face and white hair, she looks nothing like her parents or frail younger sister. She acts nothing like them, either. While her parents happily pursue their daily routine, Emma senses danger. She knows she must watch over the family day and night -- but why, she doesn't know. Things spin out of control when Emma takes a summer job caring for an eccentric elderly neighbor and is drawn into playing a strange board game. She's suddenly plagued by surreal, frightening dreams that begin to invade her waking hours. Emma is soon hurtled from her quiet farm life into strange worlds of intrigue and terror. As she becomes a participant in a bizarre game of life and death, the mystery surrounding her is solved ? and her future decided.
The Watcher (Watcher's Quest Trilogy)
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Grade 7-10-This fantasy is set in present-day Manitoba, but is loosely rooted in Celtic mythology. Emma's eccentric family moves into her beekeeper grandfather's farmhouse after his death; her mother is determined to tend the hives and support the family, while her artist father fashions a modern version of a stone circle called Bruide Henge in the cow pasture. Emma is at first disappointed when her mother gets her a summer job sitting with a neighbor's elderly father instead of indulging the teen's obsession to watch over her ailing younger sister. Soon, however, Emma becomes intrigued by the Maxims' mysterious surroundings and by the board game that the old man teaches her. The mystery continues as she stumbles into a strange world and overhears a queen plotting to steal a child. Soon she finds herself the central player in a wild game with kings, queens, and druids fighting over an otherworldly kingdom and its heir. Emma's actions will affect herself, her family, this world, and possibly several others. Filled with suspense, adventure, and colorful characters, this story will appeal to readers of Franny Billingsley's The Folk Keeper (Atheneum, 1999) and will entertain fans of the genre. While a familiarity with Celtic myths is not necessary to enjoy the story, those who know the tales will delight in finding fresh interpretations of characters rarely brought to life in children's literature.
Heather Dieffenbach, Lexington Public Library, KY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Heather Dieffenbach, Lexington Public Library, KY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Gr. 5-8. The author of Angels Turn Their Backs (1998) offers another novel that explores the connection between the real world and the supernatural. Sixteen-year-old Emma and her family have recently moved to Grandfather's farm in rural Canada, where Mom tends bees, Dad works to create a Plexiglas hinge, and younger sister, Summer, lingers with an unspecified illness. After Emma begins working for an elderly neighbor, she experiences several strange dreams that frighten her. Later she discovers that she is really a changeling, a Watcher who is charged with protecting her sister from warring factions and that the board game she has been learning is actually being played in an alternate world. This novel requires a very patient reader--someone willing to endure a confusing first half. The second half, however, moves quickly and provides plenty of excitement once Emma teams up with Tom, another Watcher. Give this to fantasy buffs, especially those who enjoyed Eloise McGraw's Moorchild (1996). Kay Weisman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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More About the Author
My new blog/website is at http://margaretbuffie.com
It is both a blog and a website. For teachers and students, you just have to click on the tabs which indicate my books. I also have a FAQ (frequently asked questions) section on the site. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Biography:
Award winning author, Margaret Buffie, was born and raised in the west end of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the U of Manitoba. An artist for many years, Margaret began writing a story that had intrigued her for a long time - and two years later, "Who is Frances Rain?" was published and quickly became a bestseller. Margaret has published nine more books for young adults. Her new novel is "Winter Shadows".
Margaret works at her home in Winnipeg during the winter and on the veranda of her cottage in north western Ontario in the summer months.
Her books have been published in the United States, Norway, Italy, Sweden, Australia, Great Britain, Germany, China and other countries.
Margaret is the recipient of the prestigious Vicky Metcalf Award for Body of Work (For writing inspirational to Canadian Youth); The Young Adult Canadian Book Award; is a two time winner of the McNally Robinson Book for Young People award, and has been shortlisted for many other awards and honours.
From Margaret: I'm pleased to say that my latest novel WINTER SHADOWS has won The Silver Nautilus Award, May 2011. This award is awarded to "distinguished literary and heartfelt contributions to spiritual growth, conscious living, high-level wellness, green values, responsible leadership and positive social change as well as to the worlds of art, creativity and inspirational reading for adults, children, teens and young adults."
Silver Nautilus Book Awards Winners are carefully selected in a unique three-tier judging process by experienced teams of book reviewers, librarians, authors, editors, book store owners, and leaders in the publishing industry.
WINTER SHADOWS was also nominated for the Canadian Library Association's Book of the Year award, as well as The McNally Robinson Book for Young People award.
Five of my books are now available on KINDLE: They are, "Winter Shadows", "The Watcher", "The Seeker", "The Finder", and "Angels Turn Their Backs".
Once again, my new website/blog is at http://www.margaretbuffie.com
It is both a blog and a website. For teachers and students, you just have to click on the tabs which indicate my books. I also have a FAQ (frequently asked questions) section on the site. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Biography:
Award winning author, Margaret Buffie, was born and raised in the west end of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the U of Manitoba. An artist for many years, Margaret began writing a story that had intrigued her for a long time - and two years later, "Who is Frances Rain?" was published and quickly became a bestseller. Margaret has published nine more books for young adults. Her new novel is "Winter Shadows".
Margaret works at her home in Winnipeg during the winter and on the veranda of her cottage in north western Ontario in the summer months.
Her books have been published in the United States, Norway, Italy, Sweden, Australia, Great Britain, Germany, China and other countries.
Margaret is the recipient of the prestigious Vicky Metcalf Award for Body of Work (For writing inspirational to Canadian Youth); The Young Adult Canadian Book Award; is a two time winner of the McNally Robinson Book for Young People award, and has been shortlisted for many other awards and honours.
From Margaret: I'm pleased to say that my latest novel WINTER SHADOWS has won The Silver Nautilus Award, May 2011. This award is awarded to "distinguished literary and heartfelt contributions to spiritual growth, conscious living, high-level wellness, green values, responsible leadership and positive social change as well as to the worlds of art, creativity and inspirational reading for adults, children, teens and young adults."
Silver Nautilus Book Awards Winners are carefully selected in a unique three-tier judging process by experienced teams of book reviewers, librarians, authors, editors, book store owners, and leaders in the publishing industry.
WINTER SHADOWS was also nominated for the Canadian Library Association's Book of the Year award, as well as The McNally Robinson Book for Young People award.
Five of my books are now available on KINDLE: They are, "Winter Shadows", "The Watcher", "The Seeker", "The Finder", and "Angels Turn Their Backs".
Once again, my new website/blog is at http://www.margaretbuffie.com
Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A frightening and intriguing story.,
By Teenreads.com (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Watcher, The (Watcher's Quest Trilogy) (Hardcover)
The summer that her parents move to Grandpa MacFey's farm, 15-year-old Emma finds that nothing will ever be the same again. Her mother has become the keeper of her dead father's bees, her father is building a strange sculpture in a nearby field, and her sister Summer is fading away.Who are The Watchers? Emma knows that they are not the people she has grown up with --- or are they? She alone in her family has the strange birthmark, two moons with an arrow shaft through them. When Tom Krift comes to work for her father, Emma discovers that he also bears the birthmark. Is her father's sculpture, which he has named Bruide Henge, a portal to another world? Who are the strange people who have suddenly appeared in the village and who inhabit Emma's dreams? Emma seeks answers from Tom Krift who claims that he too is a Watcher and that they must save Summer. Can she trust him, or is he part of the plot to harm her sister and her family? Emma's life spins out of control when she takes a job caring for an eccentric elderly neighbor and becomes involved in the board game Fidchell. Emma proves herself a worthy opponent. However, does she have the courage to play out the real game of life and death that will draw in each member of her family as she tries to understand her role in this frightening new magical world? Once again, Winnipeg writer and artist Margaret Buffie has taken seeming ordinary people and thrust them into a bizarre, magical world to create a frightening and intriguing story. --- Reviewed by Audrey Marie Danielson
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Why you have to read this and others in the series,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Watcher (The Watcher's Quest) (Paperback)
In The Watcher, 15 yr old Emma finds out that she, like others of her kind, was literaly bred to watch over important children; hence the name. In the begining of the book, Emma thinks she is an ordinary teen with a weird family. Then she gets strange dreams about diferent worlds, and a child;the niece of the dead king of some wierd world. While taking care of an elderly neighbor, she finds out that she is not who she thinks she is. Things only get wierder when a classmate, Tom Krift, starts geting interested in her fathers plexiglass henge. It is Tom that tells her that her sister is wanted,as is she.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A True Buffie Piece,
By A.Niles (Toronto, ONT CANADA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Watcher, The (Watcher's Quest Trilogy) (Hardcover)
The Watcher by Margaret Buffie is not to be compared to that of James Howe's. In this watcher, a young girl (who never quite belonged) finds out, after a series of troubling events, that she is a watcher. A character in a deadly game in another deadly world. Margaret Howe has an excellent sense of creativity and originality, as shown in this storyline. But the bright story is somewhat dulled by the characters and the setting. But the storyline is not one to be sneezed at --- while I was reading this book (though I found myself skipping through certain boring descriptions) I was held by the story itself, and the fact that this author had the creativity to dream up such a marvelous plot. With alternative universes of purple sands and orange moons, Buffie holds the readers eye and never fails to let go. So indeed this is worth a read or two (despite the open ending), especially if you've read her other works (considering Buffie's writing style is evident in all her novels).
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