My edition not listed here. A mildly interesting fantasy, picked up for the illustrations because they're by [a:Trina Schart Hyman|6603|Trina Schart Hyman|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1372538777p2/6603.jpg], one of my favorites. I have no regrets about the time spent with this book. ;)

My old library copy is avl, gratis, to US members. I'd love to share it with you, plz ask in a PM! ( )

Judith and her brother Tobit live in a modern city apartment building with their parents. One day they walk into a glowing wood near their home and are transported into another world, whose night is filled with blue and purple stars, and whose woods are full of dwarves and Kobolds. Eventually they learn from the very long-lived Lady Iorwen they are the descendants of the king (Lady Iorwen's son) who went missing and was presumed dead five hundred years ago. Judith and Tobit go through many episodes of physical danger before the final confrontation with Hagerrak, a long-lived usurper who rules the kingdom rightfully belonging to the royal household of the Wanderer.
This book would be an appealing adventure if the characters were more fully developed. They are portrayed with stilted emotions only in fits and starts, and the whole construction of this unnamed land and its inhabitants seems liberally borrowed from the likes of Tolkien or C. S. Lewis, but without the depth of development. Perhaps this is due to the style in which it is written, which wavers between common third person and the overly simplistic voice of an impersonal narrator. ( )