Product Description

The old witch steals children, but did she steal Isabelle?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #159940 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 158 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780761455158
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 5–8—A 12-year-old girl is running through the woods with no memory of who she is or why she is running. Her identity is up for speculation throughout the book: Is she a princess? An animal turned into a human? The missing daughter of a couple in the village? All of these possibilities seem to revolve around an old witch who escaped the village mob with a baby the same day the girl appeared in the woods. The woman and her husband are convinced that the girl is their missing Isabelle, taken from the village by the witch six years earlier, but their older daughter, Honey, is skeptical and even hostile in her reaction. As the tale unfolds, some even suspect that the youngster is actually a creation of the old hag who was sent for evil purposes, and Isabelle wonders whether she really wants to know the truth. This is a solid fantasy and mystery that builds in intrigue and suspense as more layers are added to the story. The protagonist's true identity comes as a fantastic surprise and will have readers looking back for clues even as they shudder at the chain of events that brought about her appearance in the woods that fateful day. Like the witch, Vande Velde weaves a spell around her readers with this well-written tale.—Amanda Raklovits, Champaign Public Library, IL
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From Booklist
The day the old witch’s cottage is burned by villagers, a child who doesn’t know her own identity appears at Avis and Browley’s door, and the couple takes her in. Convinced that she is Isabelle, a little girl that the witch had stolen six years before, Avis and Browley send word to Isabelle’s parents that their child is alive. Isabelle’s mother, Mady, is certain that the mysterious girl is her long-lost daughter. Father Frayne is hopeful, too, but bitter older sister Honey is skeptical. Surely this 12-year-old whom others claim to be Isabelle is an imposter! Twists and turns abound as Isabelle’s true identity is revealed and her life increasingly endangered. Vande Velde, noted for her well-crafted riffs on fairy tales, has written her darkest yet, a story of greed, jealousy, and insidious evil that will haunt the reader for some time to come. Grades 6-10. --Frances Bradburn

Review
The amnesiac girl who wandered out of the woods isn't certain at all that she is Isabelle, a child stolen by a witch six years earlier. She isn't certain that she isn't either, though, and she allows herself to be taken in by the family that she assumes might be hers, while she tries to recapture any memories of her life. In the meantime, the hunt is on for the witch, who has taken a new infant. Isabelle's eventual discoveries about her hidden past will change the course not only of her own life but that of the taken baby, the town that welcomed her back, and the evil oldest child of her presumed family, Honey, who is convinced she knows Isabelle is not who she seems. This trim novel contains a dizzying but well-crafted array of plot twists and surprises, with almost no one in the novel actually being who they first appear to be and seemingly inevitable outcomes foiled repeatedly. Vande Velde constructs a general and timeless setting that accommodates this mystery elegantly, allowing readers to focus on the motivations of the intriguing characters themselves rather than their environment. In addition, the clever but relatively helpless Isabelle, struggling to regain a semblance of identity and meaning, is an unforgettable protagonist. Thoughtful readers will appreciate the subtlety of the sophisticated story, and the effective mystery and almost poetic flow of the language make this book stellar readaloud material as well. --The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, November 2008

Vande Velde combines her trademark spookiness with some of the motifs of fairy tales--witches, magic, stolen children--to explore themes of jealousy and villainy. A young girl of about 12, who can remember nothing of her name or her home, is rescued from the forest. She is soon taken up by a mother who calls her Isabelle and who insists that she is the daughter who disappeared years ago. The same woman's month-old baby was taken by a witch just a day before Isabelle is found, and the connection between the events is cleverly plotted and revealed. The indeterminate, rustic setting of forests, small villages and pre-industrial technology, along with the sturdy and odd, old-fashioned names, add to the folktale quality of the narrative. Questions of identity and the nature of evil run throughout the introspective narrative as the girl struggles to understand herself and her relationship with the world--even as the selfsame narrative twists and turns its way to a satisfyingly devious conclusion. A quick read; taut and superbly suspenseful. --Kirkus Reviews, October 2008

Vande Velde creates a new twist on a fairy tale complete with evil sisters and filled with suspense, danger, and a longing for home. -- VOYA, December 2008

Like the witch, Vande Velde weaves a spell around her readers with this well-written tale. -- School Library Journal, November 2008

Vande Velde, noted for her well-crafted riffs on fairy tales, has written her darkest yet, a story of greed, jealousy, and insidious evil that will haunt the reader for some time to come. --Booklist, July 2008

Customer Reviews

A nice surprise
"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.

Stolen
This book is about a girl who has lost her memory and the story of an old witch. The ending was completely unexpected in the good kind of way. The first signs of what is really happening only appear two pages before it is revealed. Wonderful book!

A riveting novel for middle to high school readers
The same day villagers finally hunt down a witch in the woods, a pre-teen appears with no memory of her past. Is there a connection between the two? Isabelle's only memory is of a mysterious chant: could she have been stolen by the witch of the woods, or lost her memory? Satisfying supernatural mystery abounds in this riveting novel for middle to high school readers.