The Leap

#99
Title: The Leap
Author: Jonathan Stroud
Publisher: Hyperion
Year: 2001
Genre: children's/young adult, fantasy & science fiction
233 pages
Not nearly as complex as Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy, this is essentially a modernized folk tale, with a fantasy base and a certain amount of young adult-level horror to spice it up. I found it effective, though the plot was predictable. However, this is an understandable aspect of folk tales (and I'm not a young adult reader). Stroud gives us a nicely obvious but unremarked-upon contrast between the protagonist's cheerless industrial town and the alluring natural (and supernatural) world to which her quest takes her.

Invite young adults to read this now, then move on to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and The Stolen Child when they are ready for more sophisticated versions.