The Real Boy

Misfit orphan Oscar is content to be his magician master's menial "hand." Then Master Caleb disappears, and children in the magically protected City suddenly begin to sicken. Using Pinocchio as her point of departure, Ursu creates a highly rewarding and involving adventure, with a tight plot, resonant themes, a clearly limned fantasy landscape, and a sympathetic main character.

Misfit orphan Oscar is content to be his magician master's "hand": doing the menial work of preparing herbs; staying in the cellar with his cat friends. Then his orderly world explodes: Master Caleb disappears and bane-of-Oscar's-life apprentice Wolf is mysteriously killed, leaving Oscar to mind the shop -- Oscar, who, like a person with Asperger's syndrome, lacks interpersonal skills and can't decode facial expressions. Even worse, children in the magically protected City suddenly begin to sicken, and together with his new friend Callie, a healer's apprentice, Oscar must find both cause and cure. Using Pinocchio as her point of departure (with a little "Red Riding Hood" thrown in for good measure), Ursu skillfully implies a connection between Oscar and the little wooden puppet boy. . .which turns out to be a clever piece of misdirection. But not quite, because in fact Oscar does become more of a "real boy" in the end. It's all highly rewarding and involving, with a tight plot, resonant themes, a gripping adventure, a clearly limned fantasy landscape, and a sympathetic main character. Callie and Oscar's sometimes prickly relationship sparks the dialogue, while Oscar's self-doubts feed the considerable emotional content. As in Breadcrumbs (rev. 1/12), there are holes in the story's logic (why should the ailing children have different symptoms when the source of the problem is the same?), but readers will forgive the book's flaws as they root for Oscar to come into his own: "You're not made at all, Oscar. Don't you see?. . .You get to do the making." Final art unseen. martha v. parravano