Stolen [Hardcover]

The story opens with a witch huddled in her home with a baby as an angry mob of villagers break down her door and set fire to her house. Why? Because she is a witch who has stolen one too many of the villagers' children. As the opening chapter ends, the witch casts two spells of unknown effect. The next chapter opens with a young girl running frantically through the woods near the witch's home with no memory of who she is or how she got there. She is taken in by a kind family, but the mystery of her identity and the witch's two spells haunt this story as it twists and turns through the past and present, and truth, lies, and misunderstandings.

Don't be deceived by the shortness of this book. Vivian Vande Velde is a master at writing short books while weaving characters and plots with unexpected depth. Stolen is no exception, and it keeps the reader guessing until the very end while tugging at both heartstrings and concepts of morality. Recommended.

A girl runs through the forest. As she runs, she realizes she has no memories prior to running. She remembers running, although not why she is running or from whom or where she is trying to go. Nor does she know her name.

As she starts to question her identity, dogs come after her. She dashes up a tree and stays there until she's rescued by their owners, who take her in and care for her. Her lost memories become fuel for gossip as they attempt to help her uncover her identity.

One couple believes she could be their daughter, who was kidnapped by a witch six years ago. They come and take her away to a new life filled with expectations and danger.

Readers are left to fill in the blanks and figure out the clues to discover the girl's real identity. The cover produces a spooky atmosphere that will make readers curious. Vande Velde creates a new twist on a fairy tale complete with evil sisters and filled with suspense, danger, and a longing for home.

Reviewed by: Jennifer Rummel

"Stolen" is about a girl who wakes up running through the woods, being chased by dogs. She "wakes up" because she has no memory, none at all -- she remembers running through the woods, being chased by dogs. The dogs tree her, and even wound her, before she is rescued by their owner, who hears them barking wildly -- as excited as if they had tracked down quarry that had long eluded them. The man, a farmer named Browley, takes the girl home so his wife, Avis, can treat her wounds. There the girl meets their granddaughter, Ravyn, and her dog, Hercules Turnip -- and the only reason I included the family's names is so I could write that last one, it's so good. If I ever have a child, I will seriously consider Hercules Turnip Humphrey.

The family does not know the girl, but they take her in, hoping that her amnesia will be temporary and she will remember her name and where she came from, and why she was running through empty woods near a village where she does not live. Once word of the girl reaches town, there seems to be an answer: Mady and her husband Frayne had lost their daughter Isabelle six years before, when the witch who lived in the woods apparently stole her. Isabelle would be the same age as this girl is now, so Mady comes to see -- and is overjoyed to find that her daughter is returned at last!

Maybe. Despite Mady's assurances that this girl must be Isabelle, the woman's face and voice, the name Isabelle itself, and the reminiscences Mady showers on the girl, do not spark a single memory from her. But since Mady seems so sure, the girl goes home with her, hoping that seeing the farmhouse where she may have been raised will ring a bell.

That doesn't do it either. But the situation quickly raises suspicions once the girl meets Mady's oldest daughter, the spoiled and self-centered Honey, and Mady's aunt, the wealthy and cantankerous Isabelle -- for whom the girl, if she is indeed the stolen daughter, was named. But Mady coaches the girl before she meets the aunt, telling her fond memories of the missing Isabelle's childhood so the girl can react as if she remembers for herself. It becomes clear that Mady tried very hard to place her daughter to become Aunt Isabelle's heir, and despite differences in appearance and the continued lack of true memories, Mady is determined to put this girl right back in Isabelle's place.

And as it turns out, she succeeds, though not in a way she had ever imagined.

It's a nice little book, with an outstanding twist at the end. I expected a surprise, but never the actual solution to the mystery, which comes complete with several surprises. There is a tease in the first chapter of the book that led me down the wrong path, as the author intended, and that was very nicely resolved in the end. I didn't think there was enough comeuppance for the villains, but justice is served, nonetheless -- and how can you go wrong when there's a dog named Hercules Turnip? It was a fast but satisfying read.

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