Monica Furlong is best known in the United States for her two award-winning books for young adults, Wise Child and its prequel, Juniper. In her homeland of England, she was many things-journalist, biographer, novelist, feminist, activist, and social commentator and critic. To all of these roles she brought her abiding commitment to the Christian faith and her simultaneous disillusionment with established social structures. Confronting injustice and hypocrisy wherever she found it, she campaigned for changes to laws that discriminated against homosexuals and successfully led a movement for the ordination of women in the Church of England.Monica Furlong finished Colman, the sequel to Wise Child, just before her death in January 2003, in Devon, England. She was seventy-two years old.
In a surprising turn for an author who tended to focus on wise,
powerful women, Furlong's posthumous follow-up to Wise Child (1987)
and Juniper (1990) assumes a boy's point of view. While the second
book stepped back in time to tell of Juniper's training as a doran,
narrator Colman, Wise Child's devoted companion, picks up the new
narrative precisely where the first book left off, just after the
central characters have narrowly escaped Juniper's execution as a
witch. The travelers seek asylum in Cornwall, where they discover
that enemies from Juniper's past have subjugated her father's
people and kidnapped his heir. Colman's guileless voice is
appealing, but readers may long for more dimension to his character
as he serves mostly as an admiring observer of fierce Wise Child,
gentle Juniper, and curmudgeonly Euny, who draw upon Furlong's
unique brand of earthy wisdom and white magic to restore harmony:
"Good things, unexpected things, happen when people who love good
take risks and work together." A foreword by Karen Cushman, part
eulogy (Furlong died in January 2003), part precis of the story
thus far, lends a bittersweet flavor to this long-awaited sequel.
-Jennifer Mattson, Booklist
This suspenseful novel concludes the saga that Furlong began in
Wise Child (Turtleback, 1987) and Juniper (Knopf, 1992; o.p.), with
the main characters returning to Juniper's home kingdom where she
was a princess. For those who have not read the first two books,
the beginning will be confusing. As the tale unfolds and the
characters' personalities become evident, readers should be able to
pick up the thread and follow the action. Juniper has been trained
as a doran, a person with special magical gifts who strives for
good in the universe. Wise Child is her apprentice, and Colman is
their young friend. Another key ally from the earlier books is
Cormac, a disfigured man whom Juniper has healed from leprosy. When
this intrepid group arrives in Cornwall, they learn that Juniper's
parents are dead. Her evil aunt, Meroot, and Meroot's Gray Knight
have seized control of the kingdom and severely oppressed the
people. Colman, Cormac, and Wise Child go to the palace and spy on
Meroot, who is using Juniper's brother, Prince Brangwyn, the
rightful heir, as a sort of regent to blackmail the survivors of
the realm. The plot grows ever more complex as Juniper's mentor is
found to be in service to Meroot and the children are captured and
thrown in a dungeon. The story will keep readers turning pages
right up to the satisfying resolution. Overall, this title is a
powerful conclusion to the trilogy, but it does not stand alone as
well as the other two volumes.--Bruce Anne Shook, Mendenhall Middle
School (Greensboro, NC). School Library Journal
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