And the vignettes, some involving a persnickety Grandma acting nasty while accomplishing a kindness, others in which she deflates an overblown ego or deals with a petty rivalry, are original and wildly funny. This winning sequel takes place several years after A Long Way From Chicago (1998) leaves off, once again introducing the reader to Mary Alice, now 15, and her Grandma Dowdel, an indomitable, idiosyncratic woman who despite her hard-as-nails exterior is able to see her granddaughter with “eyes in the back of her heart.” Peck’s slice-of-life novel doesn’t have much in the way of a sustained plot it could almost be a series of short stories strung together, but the narrative never flags, and the book, populated with distinctive, soulful characters who run the gamut from crazy to conventional, holds the reader’s interest throughout. Set in 1937 during the so-called “Roosevelt recession,” tight times compel Mary Alice, a Chicago girl, to move in with her grandmother, who lives in a tiny Illinois town so behind the times that it doesn’t “even have a picture show.” The language can't sustain the book's dreamlike qualities, and its few bright flourishes get buried.

But the elements just never come together readers may not understand the deeper meanings, because -perhaps-there aren't any. Yolen could have been writing a meditation on the genre by trying to evoke the actual experience of reading a fantastic mystical work and the work could have been a presentation of classic symbols in a sort of visionary hieroglyph that would speak to readers directly, unburdened by a conventional narrative. Readers drift through an evocative netherworld, as if the traditions and symbols of this literature are in themselves, enough. There are no real relationships presented each character seems to wander alone through the mists, trying to figure out what is happening in this sad and lonely work. All the elements of epic fantasy are present: good and evil, darkness and light, a black knight, young hero, castle, creatures.

Yolen strips the genre down to the bare bones.

The story concerns two boys, Jerold and Gerund, who exist in parallel realities and become pawns in an evil knight's quest. A gruesome fantasy, as cold and disturbing as a blood-stained suit of armor in a field of wildflowers.

The Wild Hunt by Jane Yolen