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Forest of Wonders is the Start of a Magical New Journey
When it comes to fantasy novels, I tend to stick to my tried and true favorites—Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia—but I’m excited to add Forest of Wonders, the first book in the planned Wing & Claw trilogy by Linda Sue Park (the Newbery Medal-winning author of A Single Shard), to my overflowing bookcase.
It’s not enough to say that Forest of Wonders is a fantasy novel. It’s not enough to call it an adventure story or an epic, either. Simply put, the book is magical. And its heroic, unforgettable protagonist, Raffa Santana, is a boy you’ll fall in love with immediately. He’s a young, still-learning apothecary, but he has an incredible gift for the art. He feels constantly held back by his parents, and his eager desire to learn, coupled with his insatiable curiosity, makes his father even more disapproving.
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When Raffa comes in contact with an injured bat, he uses his gift and his thirst for knowledge to create a cure from a vine found in the Forest of Wonders. His love for apothecary is evident in the way he looks at every speck of nature; every herb, and every leaf in the Forest as part of the magic. Everything, in Raffa’s eyes, is capable of being made into something else. And nothing proves this more than when the bat he cures becomes a lot bigger than a healed creature—the cure Raffa has created from the vine in the forest has given the bat the ability to talk. It propels Raffa into a journey where he learns that his thirst for knowledge is just as capable of doing harm as good, and he wonders, where does that leave his heart and his curiosity? Raffa’s love for animals is matched only by his love of apothecary, but he learns very quickly that not everyone with the same gift as him is ready to use it for good.
I don’t want to spill too many details, but this book is wonderful. It touches on friendship, on love, on the relationship between man and nature, and our duties as part of humanity to use our gifts and power responsibly. Forest of Wonders even brings to light the struggle we all have at some point—of doing what is right versus doing what is necessary to save others.
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But aside from the lessons on morals, family, and responsibility, Park has created a story that is rich and compelling. It is the perfect story for a voracious reader with lots of new vocabulary, with a lovely descriptive style that isn’t pretentious or hard to read. Park is even able to layer in the culture and ancient history of apothecary without the story reading like a lecture, giving kids plenty of education and insight into a world they likely know very little about. I’ve never been particularly science-minded, but Forest of Wonders will propel even the most lackluster science student to do their own research on apothecary, botany, and nature in an effort to learn more about these subjects.
And the story of Raffa and his love for animals? What could have easily been a juvenile tale of talking animals and a boy befriending hurt creatures, instead has nuance and depth. It’s impressive how Park has made Echo the bat a rich, layered character, who never sounds childish or silly. There is also quite the cast of characters, but each one is so effortlessly created, that it’s easy to keep track of all of them along with their complexities and roles in the story.
In short, Forest of Wonders is a lovely, magical, adventurous fantasy novel with flawed human (and animal) characters. With its various elements of nature, ethics, and compassion, it’s sure to be a classic. I love that it’s going to be a trilogy, because one book of Raffa wasn’t enough. And the way this first story ends? Oh, you’ll be pre-ordering the sequel before you even close the cover.