After Hamelin [Paperback]

Ever wondered what the Pied Piper really did with the children of Hamelin? Bill Richardson has long been fascinated by the fate of the lost children in the folk tale that inspired the famous Robert Browning poem. In After Hamelin, his first novel for younger readers, the popular CBC broadcaster retells The Pied Piper of Hamelin through the eyes of the one child who failed to hear the Piper's seductive playing. Penelope, now 101 years old, recalls awaking on the morning of her 11th birthday to a world of silence and pain, her hearing gone and her playmates stolen by the Piper. She goes on to tell of using her newfound gift for "deep dreaming"--the art of travelling while asleep--to follow the Piper to a rocky fortress in the country between sleep and waking. On her journey Penelope attracts a motley gang of fellow questers, including a wisecracking tomcat and a swooning dragon. Together, armed only with their wits and Penelope's trusty skipping rope, they free the children and return the evil Piper to slumber.

From the valley where song is the only form of discourse, to the eerie vine-covered cottage where the Piper's dreaming body lies waiting, After Hamelin shows an extraordinary power of invention. But his best creation is Penelope herself, who combines the pluck of Pippi Longstocking and the crabby forthrightness of Margaret Laurence's Hagar Shipley. (Ages 10 to 13) --Lisa Alward

Featuring a wild and unpredictable dreamscape, this surrealistic tale begins 90 years after the Pied Piper of Hamelin's tale ends. Penelope, at age 101, is the only villager old enough to remember the events, and she records her account of what really happened to her town's children. She begins with her 11th birthday, marked by three significant occurrences. First she is mysteriously struck deaf. Then she watches helplessly as the piper lures her older sister and friends out of the city with an enchanting melody (her deafness spares her from the same fate). Next a mysterious town elder informs Penelope that she alone can rescue the children by journeying to a magic land that can be entered only through dreams. After falling into a deep sleep, Penelope embarks on her dangerous mission and, with the aid of a talking cat, a featherless snowbird and a rope-skipping dragon, she sets out to find the piper and his imprisoned victims. First-time YA novelist Richardson provides an effective framework for his narrative, juxtaposing the poetic musings of 101-year-old Penelope against the childhood adventure she meticulously recalls. Penelope emerges as a far more convincing character than her traveling companions, whose bizarre traits and talents seem too neatly tailored to advance the plot. If the events are somewhat convoluted and unevenly paced, Penelope's wise, sometimes bitter voice remains fresh and provocative. Ages 10-13. (Jan.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Gr 5-7-When Penelope wakes up on her 11th birthday in the town of Hamelin, she can no longer hear. On the same day, the Pied Piper returns to seek revenge for not having been paid for ridding the town of rats. He plays his pipe to entrap the children and leads them into the world of dreams. Unable to hear, Penelope is spared. When Cuthbert, a wise hermit, visits her, he tells her of her special gift, Deep Dreaming, and explains that she is the only one who can rescue the others. With many misgivings, Penelope sets off on her journey and with the help of various companions, saves the youngsters and renews the spell that will keep the Piper asleep and harmless. This imaginative story is narrated by Penelope, now 101 years old, and it moves back and forth from past to present and from the real world to the world of dreaming. Full of wonderful characters such as Quentin, a dragon that skips rope, the tale bounces along quickly. Unfortunately, it too often moves in a direction of convenience and coincidence without the internal logic necessary to all good fantasy. Why, for example, do doors conveniently appear with no rhyme or reason? What caused Penelope to wake up deaf in the first place? This lively continuation of the story of the Pied Piper is certainly interesting, but not totally convincing.-Barbara Scotto, Michael Driscoll School, Brookline, MA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 4-8. "I am Penelope. I am 101 years old," the heroine of this marvelous fantasy tells us many times. Richardson has retold the Pied Piper of Hamelin tale with Penelope as the character whose mission it was as a child to rescue the lost children of the town from their malevolent enchanter. Mysteriously, she lost her hearing on the eve of her eleventh birthday, so she was not caught by his spell. Given the gift of Deep Dreaming by the town seer, Cuthbert, Penelope has the highly dangerous opportunity to enter the Piper's netherworld through sleep and try to outwit him. This she does, of course, but not without a series of perilous adventures and accompanied by a colorful regiment of finely realized characters, including the dragon, Quentin, and a witty companion cat, Scally, among others. There's a pensiveness to the story that sets it apart from, say, a Harry Potter-type tale. Penelope is old now as she tells her story and, ironically, a frequent target of derision and teasing from cruel children in the town. Blending aspects of classical myth and literary fantasy, the tale builds to a fine resolution and casts a hypnotic spell. --Anne O'MalleyStuart J. Murphy^B keeps going strong with two more solid entries in the well-handled MathStart series. Anne O'Malley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Blending aspects of classical myth and literary fantasy, the tale builds to a fine resolution and casts a hypnotic spell. (Anne O'Malley Booklist 20010215)

[Features] a wild and unpredictable dreamscape ... Penelope's [the protagonist] wise, sometimes bitter voice remains fresh and provocative. (Publishers Weekly 20001120)

Delightful and thoughtful ... This intriguing tale invents a complete and believable alternative world. (Napra Review 20010101)

This fantasy novel is a tribute to the skill and vision of an amazing writer! Highly Recommended. (Susan Fonseca Canadian Materials 20010608)

Implicit in many folk and fairy tales is the question, 'Then what?'

After Hamelin picks up the story where the Robert Browning poem -- or other tellings of The Pied Piper of Hamelin -- leaves off. In a quest that is both contemporary and timeless, Richardson creates a magical world through inventive wordplay, uninhibited imagination and a facility with rhyme. Here is a raconteur who spins a narrative tale that takes readers into strange lands inhabited by unusual characters, both good and evil, where adventure abounds and unlikely saviors emerge.

Penelope is 101 years old, but she can remember the story like it happened yesterday. On the morning of her eleventh birthday, she wakes to discover she can no longer hear. It is on this same day that the Piper returns to Hamelin to spirit the children away in an evil act of revenge upon the townspeople. Spared because she is deaf to the Piper's bewitching tune, Penelope is left to grieve the loss of her friends and beloved sister Sophy until Cuthbert, the wise man of the village, reveals that Penelope possesses the unusual gift of deep dreaming. Armed only with a charm from Cuthbert and her own courage, Penelope enters the land of sleep on a treacherous quest to rescue the stolen children.

There is suspense, humor and high excitement (wrapped in dark undercurrents) as Penelope and the companions she meets along the way -- Scally, her trusted cat; Alloway, the blind harpist; Ulysses, a three-legged dog; and Quentin, a dragon who loves skipping -- journey to the Piper's mountain fortress. Their combined wits and talents see them through strange landscapes and close calls. In a thrilling climax played out in a mysterious place between dreaming and waking, they triumph over the Piper and set the children of Hamelin free.

Bill Richardson lives in Vancouver, where he works as a writer and well-known broadcaster. He is the author of several humorous books for adults, including the popular Bachelor Brothers' Bed and Breakfast titles (Douglas & McIntyre/St. Martin's Press). A talented storyteller and former children's librarian, this is his first book for children.