The Wreath by Chris Howard and Chloe Howard -- reviewer Lee Pletzers

Lykeion Books

379 pages, US $14.95
ISBN: 0-9773807-1-8



This
is the story of Kassandra, a just turned thirteen year old girl living
at St. Clement's Educational Center in central Nebraska, and afraid of
water. She has only two friends in the entire school and the school
bullies pick her on due to her being different. For one thing, she has
scar tissue between each finger and toe, she cannot cry -- not a single
tear, and Ms. Ithilbrix the governess of the girls 9-15 year old hall
seems to have an unhealthy and painful attraction to the young girl.

On
her thirteenth birthday, the 9-15 year old department headed to Red
Bear Lake. This is not a trip for her birthday; in fact no one seems to
remember except her. The trip goes fine at first, Kassandra finds a
nice large tree to read under and enjoy the day, peacefully. Plus she
wants to be as far away from the water as possible.

Unfortunately,
Ms. Ithilbrix crashes into her and for punishment, orders her onto a
leaking canoe with the school bullies, who row out to the middle of the
lake and rock the canoe until Kassandra falls in…And this is where the
story really takes off.

Fighting her way to the top but unable
to make it, she succumbs to the murky depths and inhales water.
Inhales? Yep, Kassandra can breathe under water, and she can swim too.
This is bliss, she is confused, yet happy and she feels perfect (at
home) in this underwater world.

Then she hears a beautiful
song, a song she thinks is from her mother. The soothing lyrics lure
her deeper into the blue when they suddenly stop. Searching madly, she
swims deeper into the murk. Suddenly, a green…sea monster attacks her.
It looks kind of human, apart from the skin tone, the large teeth and
the ability to breathe underwater.

With a scream, "Go away!" the sea creature leaves as if her words were like arrows.

From
this moment on, her life will never be the same. She wears a Wreath
passed onto her by her mother, when Kassandra was only a baby. To hide
her from a King, the child is left on a rock in the middle of a stormy
ocean. Gregor is a fisherman sent to pick up the child and deliver her
to a woman who collects heart shape pebbles on the beach. He fails and
Kassandra is sent by the king to St. Clements and the torturous hands
of Ithilbrix.

It seems as though the Wreath wearers are all
inside the Wreath when they die. Two have awakened when Kassandra awoke
in the Lake. In this book you will meet Wreath wearers, Praxinos and
Andromache (who teach her old Greek and sword fighting technique in her
sleep and are always at each other’s throat), and Kassandra's relatives
from the house of Rexenor. You will also come across the Olethren, a
250,000 strong, army of the dead and an amusing science teacher. Let’s
not forget: River-witches, mages, and ocean creatures of tremendous
size, which emerge from a single teardrop.

I found this book
very interesting, my first ever full on fantasy and YA, since I myself
was a Young Adult. I feel a lot of kids and those young at heart (re:
Harry Potter) may enjoy this book. I did at first think the size of the
book is a bit of a put off, especially at trade paperback size but the
story flows very fast and barely lets up throughout the entire ride.
There were a few lengthy scenes on the properties of water via the
science teacher. I was wondering after finishing the book, “Were those
‘talks’ really needed?” and I don’t think they were. Most readers don’t
need hard details or facts to be taken away by a story; they just need
the storyteller to be good with the set-up and delivery, and Chris
Howard, with the help of his kid-daughter, sure can tell a story.

You’ll
be whipped away and totally enthralled from the introduction of
Kassandra and the weird things that happen to her as she learns her
destiny and discovers her family. Family seems to be the main theme of
this story. Humor is strewn throughout in all the correct places,
breaking up the suspense and giving us time to take a breath, though
not a long one, before the plot is laid on us again.

You won’t
be disappointed picking up this book and taking it home with you, and
it is a story your entire family can read and enjoy.

Writing style: 3.9/5 (overuse of ‘like a…’ and ‘as if…’)
Plot: 4/5 (very gripping and has the possibility to be extended and built on)
Back
story/ reasons of character actions: 3/5 (Some of the reasons why
things happened the way they did were not clearly explained. There was
just enough information for me to nod my head and say, “Oh, I see.
Okay. Cool.”)

The idea behind this book has the possibility to
be so much more. I’d like to see it extended into a mini-series as it
ended with such a nice ending, leaving a lot of room for the next book.