Sisters of the Lost Marsh by Lucy Strange

When you begin this book you need to carefully read the Curse:

Be sure the first girl marries well,

The second in the home to dwell.

A third maid can do little harm

If set to work upon the farm.

Four and five must both be wed

Or six will bury you stone dead.

There are six girls in this family. Their mother has died after giving birth to the last three girls - triplets. Father or Dadder is very superstitious. The family live with their beautiful wise grandmother in her home and they work hard to maintain her farm. Their father is more interested in appearances and expects all the girls to obey him and do their chores without question.

Looking at the first line of the curse, Dadda has betrothed Grace to a local much older landowner - Silas Kirby. Just as an aside I seem to have read other books where the bad or evil man was named Silas. Grace has no interest in marrying this man but her father has already taken delivery of a handsome horse and so the deal is now unbreakable.

Then the fayre arrives:

"No one knows when the Full Moon Fayre will come. It might as well be called the Blue Moon Fayre, Grammy says. Sometimes it comes twice a season, and then not for years and years."

I imagine you are beginning to put his puzzle together. And now I can add books are forbidden in this community but Grammy has some and the girls can read and they have listed to all manner of folk and fairy tales including the story of the Marsh King. Maps are also banned.

Back to the curse. The second sister is Freya. She is destined to stay home and look after Dadda but she is secretly in love with the boy who will be her partner at the Springtide Fires. But it is the third sister who drives this story. Willa is the wild child. She is sure her Dadda hates her but she has no idea why. Then Grace disappears after going to the Full Moon Fayre and Willa decides it is up to her to follow the route taken by the fayre so she can find and save her sister. Willa has a map, a compass, the horse that Silas gifted named Flint and her head is full of stories and warnings about the possible dangers of this journey.

The writing is impressively beautiful and sophisticated without sacrificing the reader-friendly clarity of the straightforward narrator. Willa’s innate goodness and iron will carry her through adventures and physical trials, pitting her against superstitions and fairy tales alike. ... So engrossing a tale and world that readers won’t want to come up for air. Kirkus Star review

Strange is a gifted storyteller who masterfully balances good and evil, dreariness and hope. She incorporates a few perfectly timed doses of horror that will entertain middle grade readers without overwhelming them. Book Page

It’s a rare thing, when a book hooks your interest wholly and completely from the very first page, but Sisters of the Lost Marsh really achieved that. I absolutely didn’t want to put it down until I’d devoured every last word. It was atmospheric, slightly spooky at times, with a gentle hint of magic running throughout every page. I adored it with every fibre of my being and didn’t want it to end. That Book Girl

I read Sisters of the Lost Marsh in one sitting. The story just races along and the marsh and the dangerous mire feel so real - the setting of this book feels like another character. 

Lucy Strange has written a beautiful, haunting novel, an eerie and luminous mix of gothic mystery, folklore and fairy tale inspired by the landscape of Romney Marsh. This isolated setting of mist, salt marsh, ditches and lost villages is brilliantly and atmospherically evoked. Books for Keeps

I think this book will greatly appeal to keen readers aged 10+. It might also lead to an interest in finding other books about witch trials and curses such as these:

The 13th Floor

The Beatryce Prophecy

Wilder

The Witch's Boy

Fire Girl

What drew me to this book? I knew the author's name - I have read a few of her previous books (see below) but more importantly I really like the cover. Oh, and Sisters of the Lost Marsh is published by Chicken House and they consistently produce fantastic books. Read an extract of Sisters of the Lost Marsh. 

Once you have read one book by UK author Lucy Strange you are sure to want to find more. 

Our Castle by the Sea

The Secret of Nightingale Wood

The Ghost of Gosswater

The Ghost of Gosswater by Lucy Strange

Lady Agatha Asquith has had a privileged childhood but it has been strange too. Her parents have felt distant all her life and Agatha has not been allowed to spend time away from the family estate called Grosswater Hall. As this story opens her father has just died. Her mother died two years ago. Cousin Clarence has arrived to claim his inheritance as the sole male heir and he has told Agatha she must leave now, today. He has told her that her real father is coming to collect her. And in a parting shot he declares her father is a convicted thief just out of gaol. Aggie's whole world is completely and utterly turned upside down. 

There are so many mysteries here. Who is Aggie's father? Is it truly Thomas Walters the man who collects her and who lives in a small cottage with his geese? What did the Will, made by that father she has known all her life, really say? And where is the famed Queen Stone? 

Yes there is a ghost in this story but that is certainly not the main focus. Aggie is a strong, brave, resourceful girl who is determined to find out the truth. I especially loved the tension in this story when Aggie visits the remote island graveyard at night with the mist and rain swirling around her - creepy and delicious.  What a delight this book is! The surprise revelations about the true identity of Agatha completely took me by surprise.

You can read an extract from the book here. In this short video Lucy Strange reads from her book.

Perfect for independent readers seeking a book to really escape into as the nights get darker, or a gentle bedtime read to snuggle up with. Book Trust

This is a Gothic story, very well told, with a beautiful and brave heroine, a villain, tombs, a missing opal, a huge fire and a very terrifying dog. Books for Keeps

Here are the other two books on this blog by Lucy Strange which I also thoroughly enjoyed:

The Secret of Nightingale Wood

Our Castle by the sea

I would pair The Ghost of Gosswater with The Truth about Verity Sparks and The Haunting of Charity Delafield.

Our Castle by the Sea by Lucy Strange

"The fire wasn't the only act of sabotage. Just a few days later, three telephone lines in the village were cut, including the line to the police station. At first it was blamed on high winds, but when the man came to repair them, he said it was obvious the lines had been severed deliberately."

Petra (Pet) lives in a lighthouse on the Kent coast in England just across from France. World War II has begun and the Germans are advancing on France. Petra gives the reader insights into daily life in her small town and the changes people are making because of the war. Gas masks, blackout curtains, rationing, and more recently suspicion. Petra's mum is German. People from Germany are considered to be the enemy.  Mrs Angela Helene Zimmerman Smith (Mutti) is taken to a hearing where there can be one of three outcomes:

Category A "aliens were considered a serious threat and were to be locked up in internment camps"
Category B "were not be locked up, but they faced restrictions on where they could live and what they could do"
Category C  "were not considered dangerous at all and were free to continue living as normal."

Petra is sure her Mutti will be a category C but she is not. Someone produces maps, drawings and charts in a package that was intercepted on its way to Germany. Mutti is seen, by the court, as posing a threat to national security and she is taken away to an internment camp.

Petra sees strange things going on around her village. She is also acutely aware of the legend surrounding the standing stones near the lighthouse (read the prologue link below). Her sister, Magda or Mags has become distant and silent, her father has dangerous secrets and one of the local boys seems to acting suspiciously. Petra finds important information in many forms but she is not sure who she can tell.  Is her father really the spy? Who is the white haired man who lives in a remote cottage not far from their lighthouse? Why has her mother 'confessed' to something she did not do?

This writing is atmospheric. It contains so much carefully researched history but all of this is presented in context and not as an intrusive layer. This is historical fiction at its best. I knew nothing, for example, about Operation Pied Piper. I also loved all the details about the life and work of a lighthouse keeper.

This is a story that can stand along side other classic stories of WWII such as Carries War, When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit,  The War the Saved my Life, and Goodnight Mr Tom.

The slow dismantling of Petra’s faith in her loved ones adds a delicious instability to the growing unease of this WWII thriller. Kirkus

You can read the story prologue here. Listen to this review which is filled with enthusiasm and plot details. Here is an interview with Lucy Strange.  You can see Lucy Strange here. Listen to an audio sample from page 224.

Themes in middle grade war novels

The confusion of living through these times:
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
Rose Blanche (picture book) by Roberto Innocenti
An elephant in the Garden by Michael Morpurgo
The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier
When Jays fly to Barbmo by Margaret Balderson

Evacuation and it's consequences:
Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
Vinnie's War by David McRobbie
The War that saved my life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Carrie's War by Nina Bawden
Letters from the lighthouse by Emma Carroll

Spies, survival and resistance:
What about me? by Gertie Evenhuis
The Little Riders by Margaretha Shemin
The upstairs room by Johanna Reiss
Letters from the lighthouse by Emma Carroll
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
A hero on a bicycle by Shirley Hughes

Enemy Aliens:
Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata
Our Castle by the Sea by Lucy Strange

Evacuation of Dunkirk:
Our Castle by the Sea by Lucy Strange
The little ships (picture book) by Louise Borden

I would follow Our Castle by the sea with Letters from the Lighhouse. You might also like to read another book by Lucy Strange which I enjoyed: The Secret of Nightingale Wood. Adults might like to search out the movie Their Finest.

The secret of Nightingale Wood by Lucy Strange

Connections ..

At the end of last term a number of my classes and I shared the wonderful book The Talking Eggs. Blanche, the hero of the story, goes to the house of the old woman and encounters multicoloured chickens that sing like nightingales.  I like finding connections like this.  We don't have nightingales here in Australia but I found this little film of one singing and it certainly is a beautiful sound.   The famous fairy tales of Hans Christian Anderson and in particular The Nightingale  is another interesting connection with The secret of Nightingale Wood.  On the 2nd April we celebrated the birthday of Hans Christian Anderson and copies of this fairly tale were part of my display.

"I had always been Henry, even though my full name was Henrietta Georgina Abbott. Maybe my parents wanted two boys.  Now that my brother Robert had gone, they had two girls. Just me and Piglet."

Listen to an audio sample read by the author herself from Chapter 8.  Here is a review well worth reading.  In this video the author talks about her book.

Lets start by looking at the names in this book :

Hope House - Little Henrietta does not stop hoping her mother will recover
Nightingale Wood - a place of mystery and magic
Helldon - the old lunatic asylum and a place that terrifies young Henry.

I read one review with the word atmospheric - the perfect word to describe this mysterious story. Henry with her mum, dad and new baby sister (nicknamed Piglet) have moved to Hope House - a long way from their original home in London.  Clearly there has been a tragedy.  Her brother Robert is dead but readers have to be patient to discover how this has happened. These events are slowly explained in a style reminiscent of The Secret Garden and Tom's Midnight Garden.  Almost as soon as they arrive at Hope House, Henry's father leaves.  The children are left in the care of Nanny Jane and a village lady called Mrs Berry who comes each day to cook their meals.  Father has also enlisted the help of the local doctor - Doctor Hardy.  Henry is immediately suspicious about his motives and methods and her fears are further confirmed when the doctor declares he intends to send Mrs Abbott to Helldon and carry off little baby Piglet to his own house.

"Dr Hardy's hands were fat and crushing, but his wife's were cold and scaly and her fingernails were thick, yellow claws.  I felt as if I had just shaken hands with a giant lizard."

Throughout this book there are references to classic children's stories, poetry and famous fairy tales.  Perhaps reading this book might inspire young readers to seek out these classics.

Here are a few :

• The Railway Children
• The Secret Garden
• Wind in the Willows
• The Owl and the Pussycat
• Alice in Wonderland
• The Red Shoes
• The Pied Piper of Hamelin
• Peter Pan
• Treasure Island
• Little Women