97. The Stonewalkers – Vivien Alcock

Poppy is a liar and that seems to be her defining characteristic besides not knowing who to put her green patina bracelet she found on. Not the statue who will come to life in the garden is the answer. A girl called Emma who is in her class and a total cream puff believes Poppy about the statue, especially when she sees the footprints, and then they go in search of Belladonna, as that is who the statue is of, and find that Belladonna is sort of angry for a formerly inanimate stone and also has woken up some other statues, including one to be her boyfriend. Poppy and Emma are promptly kidnapped on the moors while searching and can’t get away effectively because Emma already twisted her ankle while trying to storm away from Poppy on her bike.

This is for young persons, like younger than YA reader young persons, and so it left something to be desired by way of an explanation for what was going on with the statues. I still don’t know. A statue wanting a boyfriend is not the clearest of motivations for stone sculpture and then they went in a mine with kidnapped children for also unclear plot reasons other than the mine being mentioned earlier. I was at least hoping for something more mystical than a bracelet and chain from a pot with decorations that look like Greek pottery…but there was no information presented to back anything.

The girls did learn a lesson being captured by statues, how to conserve orange soda in a pinch and that they both definitely love their parents even if they don’t always get along. All righty then.

Merricat and Peregrine know how to get out of a tight squeeze, or do they? They may know what motivates statues.

Something more mystical like… Thorfy in a parking lot. But! There are standing stones back there and technically the partially realized ghost of a torn down stadium where both Judas Priest and Neil Diamond played and had their parking lots documented. Legends, very mystical in their own right. Like Thorfy.
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