I wanted to like this modern fantasy more than I did. This is often the case when I read Jane Yolen. Pied Piper of Hamelin retold. I think she spent too much time working out the rather complicated plot and not enough on the characters. ( )

A teen novel based on the legends of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. In a contemporary setting, a young girl is excited to interview a touring folk-rock band for her school paper - but she accidentally uncovers more than she meant to - a plot leading straight to the courts of Faerie.
I felt like it was a little bit out-of-touch-with-kids-today. (How many highschool students you know are fanatic about old folk-rock bands?)
But strangley, I was reading this out at a cafe and the waiter was like, "Oh, I loved that book! ( )

Not a bad idea for a YA, but the execution is not great. Characters are introduced and more or less dropped, plot resolved too easily and too quickly, characters behaving oddly (parents) and we know what's going to happen. It's not a horrible book, but read next to the other winners of the Locus Young Adult award, it doesn't quite measure up.

( )

This book was an all right read, not as well done as the following book, Troll Bridge. You have a young girl who gets to see the famous band Brass Rat, and gets permission to interview them for her school paper. It turns out that yes, the band is headed by the Pied Piper of legend, who must pay a tithe of gold or souls to Faire each year on All Hallow's Eve. When the promoter welshes on paying the band, they take all the children trick or treating to pay the tithe. Except for Callie, who suspected them all along, after accidentally eavesdropping on them the night of the concert. She's aided by one of the band members, and follows the Piper to try a rescue. What made this book a 'meh' read? The tone varied too much. The writer does an excellent job of writing the Piper, his history, why he does what he does. The tone is dark, and rightly so. Then she's thrown in Callie, and her goofy family. The book would have been much better as a straight grim tale, instead of grim with lighthearted thrown in. The following book Troll Bridge had seriousness mixed with the humor, but the tone was more consistent and less jarring. Jane Yolen is an excellent author, but this isn't one of her best. ( )

Slim but likable fantasy from a master of newfangled fairy tales and her musician son. Yolen and Stemple do a good job with their original take on the Pied Piper tale (I particularly like that they came up with various songs to go with the band), though I would love to see them revisit this and do an even longer version that would develop the characters and their world a little more. ( )