Another thing I loved about it was that it was so SIMPLE. I don’t mean that the plot didn’t have depth and layers, but it seems to me that many books nowadays have plots so magical and complicated that only the crystalline mind of a child could keep track of them. (See, they have to find this talisman, but the only way they can find it is underwater, and this kid Tau-sert is afraid of water, so they go to this god, and he takes Tau-sert’s soul and divides it, only he has to be paid with this other talisman which makes your fingers fall off unless you get it when there’s an eclipse and there isn’t any eclipse, so….) I get so lost and I don’t CARE. But in Kirby’s book, I do care, and the solution of the mystery gives you that, “Ohhhhh, NOW I see…” feeling that is so hard for a writer to stage-manage.

Plus the way the Solveig’s stories weave through the plot is so satisfying, and it adds a mythic largeness to the whole drama.

This is my favorite for the Newbery!