The Beast of Hushing Wood

by Gabrielle Wang

The Beast of Hushing Wood- an illustrated novel for 10 - 13 year olds.

By the award-winning author of The Wishbird. A powerful magic realism story about Ziggy Truegood, a young girl who has a premonition that she will drown on her 12th birthday.

Ziggy Truegood lives in a tiny town deep in Hushing Wood, where strange things are happening. The townspeople are fighting, Ziggy feels like something is hunting her, and her beloved woods have become dark and hostile. When exotic Raffi and his grandfather arrive in town, Ziggy finds herself strangely drawn to them. But are they there to save Ziggy, or are they the hunters?

Thought-provoking and engaging, The Beast of Hushing Wood is a lovely blend of action, fable and magic realism.

With illustrations by the author

Recommended for children 10 -13 years old.

Genres: Fantasy, Magical Realism, Middle Grade

180 pages, Paperback

Published April 3, 2017

About the author

Gabrielle Wang is an award winning children’s author born in Melbourne of Chinese heritage. Her great grandfather came to Victoria during the Gold Rush, settling in the town of Wahgunyah on the Murray River. In her twenties Gabrielle lived in China and Taiwan where she studied Chinese language, traditional painting and calligraphy. After working as a graphic designer she discovered a love of painting pictures with words. Since then she has written 16 books for children and young adults. Gabrielle’s stories are a blend of Chinese and Western culture with a touch of magic. She has twice won the Aurealis Award for Best Children’s fiction, and her books have been named Notables in the CBC Awards and highly commended in the Prime Minister's Awards. She is also published internationally in US, UK, China, Korea and South America.

Reviews

[Pauline · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the small and isolated township of Dell Hollow the surrounding Hushing Woods have always been a place to be feared for the locals, all except for Ziggy Truegood, who has had a deep connection to the woods. But things are changing in this community and the woods are under threat. Ziggy is determined to find out whether the mysterious newcomer Raffi and his grandfather have anything to do with this. Set in a world that weaves together magical realism with the problems of small town life The Beast of Hushing Wood explores what it is like to be the outsider, the foreign one in a small town. Inspired by the landscape and stories of Morocco, yet set in a traditional wood, this fantasy story is magical and mystical. Gabrielle Wang is a very experienced writer and this book does not disappoint – it is mysterious yet also real, dealing with the problems that many children experience such as death, loss, bullying, and feelings of alienation and being the outsider and family break-ups. Her beautiful watercolor illustrations complement the text.

8+ mystery, tension, spirit animals, magical creatures, some tension, good and evil, family issues, tolerance, acceptance, friendship.

[Megan Higginson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mixture of realism, magic, fable, and adventure along with beautiful descriptive writing made this a wonderful tale that I couldn't get enough of.

[Christine Yunn-Yu Sun · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Beast of Hushing Wood (Puffin Books/Penguin Random House Australia, 2017) is the second book by Gabrielle Wang that I have read. Although this beautifully illustrated story (for children aged 8-13) is set in a fictional town called Hushing Wood, the writing style is amazingly similar to that in Wang’s Little Paradise (for children aged 13+, reviewed here), which is set in Melbourne and based on real historical events. Both titles are honest, gentle and reflective, with a mixed sense of nostalgia and awe.

Where Wang’s writing lacks earth-shattering conflicts and confrontations, fierce emotional struggles and (melo)dramatic thrilling actions, it is compensated by heedful observations and subtle comments on contemporary social issues in reality, which are then cleverly weaved into a story of fantasy to encourage tolerance as well as understanding and mutual respect. For example, the isolation of Hushing Wood is for a reason, and I wonder whether our young readers – many of whom are quite mature and knowledgeable these days – are willing to accept this as a result of magic. Similarly, the cultural background of the mysterious boy and his grandfather is perhaps deliberately kept vague, but there is no reason why the residents of Hushing Wood have to specifically speak the English language.

With that said, I like the fact that in Wang’s writing, there is no apparent contrast between white and black, right and wrong, or good and evil. Everything has at least one cause yet multiple consequences, and young readers are invited to ponder upon the numerous possibilities after the story ends. The unknown is always the most desirable, and perhaps a writer’s job is not to map out the future. An expert in Chinese painting, Wang surely knows the artistic and philosophical values of keeping part of her picture blank.

While reading The Beast of Hushing Wood, I was also drawn to Wang’s acknowledgement at the end of the book on how journeys to various locations in Australia and overseas provided inspiration for her to enhance this story. It seems an echo to that wise saying, “Seek, and ye shall find.” Indeed, opportunities don’t always knock on where the door is. Just be ready to tear down the wall.

This review was originally published on "Voices under the Sun" blog (https://christinesunflower.com/2017/0...).

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the writing in this book, from a writing craftsmanship point of view, but I found this novel harder to get into than Gabrielle Wang's previous novel The Wishbird. Ziggy Truegood is a great character - brave, self-reliant - haunted as she is by precognitive dreams of her death by drowning at the age of twelve. We meet Ziggy as her fateful birthday approaches and at the same time, Raffi and his mysterious grandfather arrive in town. Ziggy is struggling to make sense of her world - the townspeople are fighting and strange things are happening in and around her beloved woods. She finds herself drawn to Raffi and the leopard she sees padding around after him, but she finds herself unsure too - are they related to her dreams of death? Her grandfather, who lives at Gold Leaf Lodge, has good days and bad days and though he is the wisest person Ziggy knows, he can't seem to help her unravel the mysteries of her life and her visions.
Eventually Raffi and Ziggy become friends, despite her mother's disapproval, and Ziggy learns of Khalila, the trickster, who has returned to make trouble in Dell Hollow and Hushing Wood. Grandpa tells Ziggy to key to everything is the little jade bottle he gave her, and then Ziggy is caught up in a race to save Raffi and his grandfather, and her town.
This novel has many layers and I think it would be even better on a second reading. Unfortunately I have not had time to do that yet, but I think the nuances of the prose and the nature of the story would resonate more second time around.
It is beautiful and magical and I wish I could say I liked it more - perhaps the second time around.
For readers 10 to 100

[Bethany · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Beast Of Hushing Wood is about a girl who feels she doesn’t belong. One night she has a dream about drowning in a lake next to a tree and in the dream she is bleeding. She continues having the dream every month and she knows she will die.

I rate the book 5/5 because it keeps you engaged and there are lots of surprises in the book. There is good description and many mysterious characters that keep you hooked. I could read the book over and over and never get bored. I definitely recommend the book to people of all ages! It was very fun to read and you can easily relate to the story.

[Eleanor Bull · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me two tries to get into this book, but I’m glad I persevered. The book was both intriguing and gripping in places, with a bit of scariness thrown in, (it wouldn’t have been appropriate for my 7 year old, too gory and scary). Overall, an interesting book, both fantasy and real themes about acceptance and self sacrifice.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is wonderful book! The writing is just beautiful and it creates some amazing visuals. I loved the story and Ziggy is a fantastic lead character. However, there were a couple of instances that were hard to read, when Kalila was caught in the trap and suffering and when Harvey Arnold (even though he's a jerk) is forced to shoot his dog (I hope he didn't go through with it). A great book.

[Bren MacDibble · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful! A strange little world so like our own, but so different with a dark history and an ingrown fear, and a whispering creek that promises to swallow a child the day she turns 12 but only she can break through the fear that controls them all.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book lots of surprises

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great kids story - scary bits, mysterious stuff, magic - all good.

[Bree T · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve been reading a bit more middle grade fiction of late as that’s the stage my oldest son is about to head into and I’m curious to see some of what’s around for this demographic that isn’t about bums. It’s a bit of a tricky age, especially as my son is an advanced reader but perhaps slightly immature. “Baby books” bore him but he struggles to find middle grade books that hold his interest so I’m always keen to try and find something that might interest him. Although I quite enjoyed this, I’m not sure he would to be honest. I get the feeling he’s too literal to embrace the whimsical side of this book!

Ziggy lives with her mother in a small town that borders a wood. The town is quite insular, suspicious of outsiders. Ziggy’s father was an outsider who ended up leaving and Ziggy’s two brothers went with him. Ziggy misses them all terribly and she hopes to visit them someday but her mother’s fear of leaving the town at the moment makes that impossible. Ziggy spends a lot of time in the woods near her house and doesn’t fear them as many others do. She also spends time with grandfather, a wise man who is now in a home because his mind is slipping.

Ziggy has begun having the same dream every night, that she will drown on her twelfth birthday which is in in the coming weeks. She has confided this to her two closest friends but not to anyone else and seems to be mostly struggling to deal with this on her own. At around the same time we meet Ziggy, a new student named Raffi comes to the school and Ziggy is immediately suspicious that he might have something to do with her dream.

Ziggy is a fun character, she’s brave and funny but with vulnerability to her too. I liked her affinity with the forest and her lack of pretense. She dresses differently to the other girls at school and acts differently but she stays true to herself. There are a lot of themes in this book that revolve around that sort of thing – being different, bullying and ostracisation at school, small town small mindedness, that sort of thing and I think that a lot of children within the 10-13 year age range would find things to identify with.

I enjoy magical realism so I liked the way that was woven into the story and there were some really interesting things happening but the build up felt better than the pay off, like it all rushed toward a conclusion in a way and the the conclusion took up a very small amount of page space. I have never read Gabrielle Wang before and the world of middle grade fiction is new to me. I didn’t even really read it when I was at the age it’s aimed at – I was always aiming to read higher. I feel like I need to learn more about it and books like this are a really good place to start. I’d love to read some more from this author, particularly The Wishbird.

I found this book quite a nice story, tackling some pertinent themes but there were times when I definitely wanted a little more from it – a fleshing out of characters, some supporting information or even just another conversation. The illustrations are cute, simple and yet somehow detailed as well and would probably serve to break up the text for struggling readers and give them a visual.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Beast of Hushing Wood is an adventure style novel perfect from children on the cusp of young adulthood, but not necessarily ready for the older themes of Young Adult books. It's the kind of book that will appeal to adventure/risk takers and lovers of magic and the unknown. It's a book that continued to surprise me and kept me guessing for the entire 180 pages of the novel.

With adventurous themes and settings, magical aspects and mythological beings, there is a lot to take in and love about The Beast of Hushing Wood. When the book opened, I expected a self-discovery-slash-coming-of-age style narrative and while there are elements of both of those things in the story, the narrative has so much more to offer in a remarkable short amount of pages.

For one, it’s illustrated! I can’t remember the last novel I read that had illustrations scattered throughout the pages and so I really enjoyed the illustrations that spanned everything from a two page spread to small chapter style headings. Not being familiar with the author’s previous work, I wasn’t aware at the time of reading that Wang is both the books author and illustrator and looking back knowing this gives the book a larger than life feeling. You can literally see and read the tale unfold before your eyes as the author intended it to be and that’s kind of magical in itself.

I loved the book’s sense of otherness. The world of Hushing wood and the town Ziggy and her friends call home is crowded in by the woods and not kind to foreigners. But then there is Ziggy, a spirited eleven year old who knows her own mind. She’s not easily mislead by the closed mind towns folk and uses logic and her limited knowledge of the world to problem solve. If anything I think the world needs more books about young girls like her. What’s more the use of Eastern mythology and the re-telling of those tales brings a sense of wholeness and completion to the story. By including these tales that many westernised kids are not used to, Wang is both teaching and widening the readers knowledge and social construction, while adding another level of mystical and compulsion to the book.

But perhaps my favourite aspect of the book was the insistence on the power of one’s imagination. There are countless examples within the novel that express to the readers that your imagination is fantastic. With children from 12 plus heading to a highly indoctrinated and exact educational system, our imagination and it’s place in our day to day lives is often forgotten and left behind. We are not taught to be creative and imagine life outside the walls presented to us, but it happens every day as a child, and again as a reader of any age through books

“But the imagination isn’t real,” I say.

“People only say that because their power of imagination is weak. When it becomes strong, your imagination can take you to incredible places. These are real places, although you cannon touch them with your hands.’ He taps his chest. “True imagination is your door to a real world. Sometimes people glimpse this world when they’re not looking straight at it.”

The Beast of Hushing Wood is a highly imaginative and creative story that will appeal to readers of all ages. The best way I can sum up the book is to suggest that it has the power and intensity of adventure of J.R.R Tolkein (with perhaps no where near half as many characters), the magical and paranormal immersion and focus of Holly Black’s The Darkest Part of the Forest, the mythological presence of Rick Rordan’s Percy Jackson’s Series but the light heartedness and tenderness of a book suitable for readers from 10 plus, while remaining a safe stepping stone into Young Adult themes and narratives.

This review was originally posted at The Never Ending Bookshelf on 18th April 2017 and can be found here: http://wp.me/p3yY1u-1cL

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very pretty, a bit scary, quite simple