Kathy Egner, Ph.D. (Children's Literature)
Throughout history and across cultures, people's imaginations have often been ignited by the idea that the earth is populated by "little people." Steve Augarde builds on this intriguing idea in this first novel of what promises to be an exciting trilogy. Eleven-year-old Midge, whose mother is a professional musician, leaves her for the summer in the care of her uncle, who lives on an old farmstead in the English country. What had promised to be a very boring summer was suddenly enlivened when Midge discovered a small, wounded horse. The story shifts back and forth between Midge's adventure with the horse and the struggles of the five tribes of little people called "The Various." Eventually, of course, the two stories come together as the Various fight for their survival in the land of the "Gorgi," which is their word for the human giants who are taking more and more of their land. Augarde is a professional educator who has written over seventy children's books and who has produced artwork and music for two BBC children's series. He brings to his writing a keen understanding of the thinking, joys and fears of children, making this story one that will be hard to put down! The only disadvantage is that we have to wait for the sequels. 2004, David Fickling Books/Random House, $16.95. Ages 10 to 14.

Marya Jansen-Gruber (Children's Literature)
Midge's mother is sending her to stay with her brother, Uncle Brian, for the summer. A highly successful and very busy concert violinist, Midge's mother is off on tour with her orchestra and simply won't take Midge with her no matter how much her daughter pleas with her. Thus it is that Midge is packed off to Uncle Brian's ramshackle farm in the country. Midge is prepared to be bored out of her mind, at least until her cousins George and Katie arrive, but the most extraordinary adventure of her life soon has her too busy to feel homesick. While exploring around the farm one day Midge comes upon an injured creature. It is the most amazing animal being a tiny winged horse which is able to communicate with her in some magical way. The horse doesn't speak exactly and yet Midge 'hears" his voice in her head. The horse, who says his name is Peg, lives in an impenetrable wood with a small people that he calls "the Various." The Various are in fact what we call 'fairies" and yet they are quite different from the fairy tale little people that we read about in books. These people are "about knee-height" and only a few of them have wings. Some of them dwell underground and most are scruffy and suspicious. They are also a determined and often fierce people who are fighting for their survival. Midge soon learns that the Various are facing a very difficult future. It was because of this that Peg left the safety of the wood in the first place. The wise and remarkable little horse had gone in search of a new home or new source of food for the Various. Their own wood is providing them with less and less food and it will not be able to support them for much longer. Midge soon has the unenviable job of telling Peg, and the Various, that her uncle Brian is planning to sell off the wood to developers. What Midge does not know at first is that the Various and her family are closely tied, the one to the other. A long time ago another "Gorji," or human, girl from the farm had a relationship with the Various. How this relationship came about is a mystery but it affected both the girl and the Various she came to befriend. The question now is: what can be done to protect and save these little people? Some of them are very dangerous, whereas others are happy to accept Midge's help. In this first book of three about the Various the author creates a peculiar and exciting world for his characters. We never quite know what to expect next. The Various are unpredictable and elusive and Midge is on uncharted territory. Both Midge and the Various that she meets find themselves learning new things about one another every day. Gripping, magical, and beautifully crafted, The Various is a book which offers up a new way of looking at the world around us. 2004, David Fickling Books, $16.95. Ages 12 up.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 2003 (Vol. 71, No. 22))
A Nesbit-style fairy adventure made dark awaits Midge, the only child of her single mother, a musician. Midge has to stay with batty Uncle Brian while her mother goes on tour. Though she's furious at coming second with her mum, Midge loves Brian's farmhouse, especially when she finds Pegs, an injured winged horse, in an abandoned farm building. As Midge nurses Pegs back to health, he tells her of his people, the elflike Various, who live in Brian's forest. But Brian plans to sell the forest to developers. Midge and Pegs break ancient taboos and bring her into the enchanted wood to warn the other Various. The Various, conflicted by their own internal politics and bigotry, can't act effectively. After a slow-moving start, through an impenetrably dense thicket of pseudo-Victorian language, Augarde's story finally picks up to a suspenseful if incomplete conclusion. 2004, David Fickling/Random, $15.95. Category: Fiction. Ages 10 to 13. © 2003 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Barbara Foraker (Library Media Connection, April/May 2004)
Twelve-year-old Midge has to spend two weeks with her uncle Brian while her mother is on tour as a symphony musician. Her cousins are away, but Midge immediately falls in love with her mother's old home, a large rundown English country estate. She likes uncle Brian's laid back lifestyle and the fact that everything is left just as it has always been. Soon, however, while exploring the back hills, Midge discovers Pegs, a small flying horse, who has fallen through a shed roof and impaled himself on the steel arms of a hayrake. While nursing him back to health, she discovers a whole society of "wee folk" who live in the forest at the top of the estate. These folk have their own social classes including a queen, hunters, and oppressed metalworkers who dwell underground. By the time her cousins get home, Midge has told the small people her uncle is going to sell the "Royal Forest" and has made a mortal enemy of the hunter Scurl. The story climaxes with a royal battle in which the cousins defeat the evil hunters after a battle filled with death and mayhem. Just a bit wordy in places, this title is nonetheless a well-executed fantasy, and Midge is a delightful protagonist. Recommended. 2004, David Fickling (Random House), 448pp., $17.99 lb. Ages 12 to 18.

Janice M. Del Negro (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, May 2004 (Vol. 57, No. 9))
Twelve-year-old Midge has been left at Mill Farm with her eccentric uncle Brian by her musician mother, who is on tour with a respected orchestra. While exploring the farm’s outbuildings, Midge discovers a wounded animal--a small winged horse, a member of the tribes of the Various who live in the bramble-protected woods on the edge of the farm. Midge, who already feels strangely linked to the farm by her discovery that she was born there, feels it is her duty to save Pegs, the winged horse. Her successful effort draws her into the world of the wood, the habitat for the tribes of little people that have lived there for generations. Midge’s news that her uncle plans to sell the farm to developers causes consternation amongst the tribes and even endangers Midge when some of the misguided folk consider her to be the source of misfortune. The arrival of Midge’s cousins George and Katie both complicates and helps the situation: George bluffly accepts the reality of the folk after inadvertently seeing one, and even the clothes-obsessed Katie rises to the occasion when wee renegade hunters with murderous intent come after Midge. This is a layered contemporary fantasy reminiscent of White’s Mistress Masham’s Repose. While the grownups emerge at the end to resolve any practical dilemmas (Uncle Brian can’t sell the farm because it’s "protected," Midge’s mother gives up the orchestra to turn the farm into a bed and breakfast), the magical elements are successfully wrought, and Midge is a believable, engaging character. Offer this to young readers with a taste for fantastical whimsy (perhaps even fans of Pratchett’s The Wee Free Men , BCCB 7/03) and see if they don’t look at that patch of dense foliage just a little differently. (Reviewed from galleys) Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2004, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2004, Fickling, 448p, $18.99 and $16.95. Grades 5-9.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Fall 2004)
Twelve-year-old Midge's discovery of an injured miniature flying horse leads her to an even more amazing discovery: the forest on her family's land is home to many tribes of fairy folk. Augarde's portrayal of "the Various" tribes is rich and not at all twee (his fairies are often armed and dangerous). This is a nice fat British fantasy novel, satisfying, accessible, well grounded--and primed for a sequel. Category: Intermediate Fiction. 2004, Random/Fickling, 448pp, $16.95, $18.99. Ages 9 to 12. Rating: 3: Recommended, satisfactory in style, content, and/or illustration.

Mary Arnold (VOYA, October 2004 (Vol. 27, No. 4))
This first story in a planned trilogy, a Nestle Smarties prizewinner, harks back to the classic fairy stories collected by Andrew Lang, with a bit of Natalie Babbitt's characters in the beautiful, wild Somerset Levels. Twelve-year-old Midge's glamorous mother is on tour with the orchestra, and Midge must make the best of staying with Mum's brother on the family farm. Exploring the deep woods nearby, Midge makes a startling discovery-five tribes of "little people, fairies," whose secret existence has always been threatened by humans, or "Gorji." But if Uncle Brian follows through on his plan to sell the land, they might be destroyed for good. A marvelous blend of old-fashioned storytelling, the book has a freshness and immediacy that will intrigue fantasy lovers of all ages. Readers will sympathize with the sad and dumpy little fairy queen, cheer the fragile and gutsy winged horse, and root for the star-crossed small lovers as they wonder how Midge and her cousins will save the Various, when the tribes seem determined to work against their own best interests. Augarde, who has illustrated more than seventy picture books and animated several BBC series, should garner a built-in audience for the next books. VOYA CODES: 4Q 3P J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Will appeal with pushing; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2004, David Fickling Books/Random House, 448p., $16.95. Ages 12 to 18.