Customer Reviews

Wild Robin

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

 

 

Robin is an irritating brat who throws tantrums and shirks his responsibilities on the family farm. His loving sister Janet covers for her annoying sibling by doing his neglected chores. One day, when Robin behaves so badly that even Janet loses patience with him, he runs away to the edge of St. Mary's loch, where he falls asleep in a fairy ring. The Queen of Fairyland carries him away, and when he awakes in his beautiful new home, Robin is permitted to play and eat to his heart's content.

After an unspecified period of lazy happiness, Robin is bored and lonely. An elf sees Janet crying over her lost brother and sends Robin to her in a dream. During the course of this dream, Robin tells his sister how she can rescue him. Janet must hide in the greenwood until the Queen's cavalcade passes, then she must pull a rider from a black horse and grip him tightly until she can throw her green coat over him.

Janet does this, but struggles wildly to hold on to the rider as he changes from a giant toad to a serpent to a swan. She finally throws her coat over the wriggling entity and he changes into her brother Robin. The fairies have lost their power over him forever, Robin promises never to run away again, and the book ends.

Susan Jeffers' simple but attractive oils illustrate this tale, but she fails to convince the reader that selfish Robin is worthy of rescue. He never vows to mend his ways, and the book ends before the reader finds out whether his behavior has improved. The brief narrative also fails to explain why Janet would want to help this troublesome wretch.

The book's flyleaf says that Wild Robin is a retelling of "Tamlane", an old Scottish ballad, but the copyright page says that Wild Robin is based on a tale in Little Prudy's Fairy Book by Sophie May (Rebecca S. Clarke). Perhaps one of these originals demonstrates a loving relationship between the lost boy and his rescuer. This book doesn't, and it is therefore a disappointment.