The Song of Orphan's Garden

November 1, 2024
Lyriana and her 6-year-old brother, Zave, set off through a blighted winter wilderness in search of a magically sheltered garden that calls to orphans. Hewitt slips occasional rhyming lyrics and haiku into a free verse tale that's shot through with DNA from Oscar Wilde'sThe Selfish Giant. In a land that seems to be permanently gripped by bitter Winter Spirits, cold-hating giants jealously guard the other Seasons within walled gardens that only their specially talented Greensgrowers can create. The gardens must be sustained by infusions of musical magic called Fermata, which only human Songsummoners can conjure. That giants and rebellious humans have been at war for many years complicates matters--particularly for Greensgrower Brobdingnag (Wilde isn't the only literary influence here) Jonrog, who returns to an isolated garden he created years ago, only to find it taken over by orphaned tinies. He angrily drives them out, but they soon sneak back in, and what Brob sees transforms his feelings: "In every tree, a child, / and with each child // Spring blooms." Ongoing contact with two new arrivals, frail Zave and his loving big sister, Lyriana, deepens that change of heart on the way to heartrending sacrifice and a joyous renewal that signals a change of season in both the characters' relationships and the world at large. Lyriana and Zane are cued white; references to skin color cue diversity in the supporting cast. Lyrical in both themes and language, with resonances both literary and ecological. (map)(Verse fantasy. 9-13)

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December 1, 2024

Gr 5 Up-In the arctic land of Gairda, 13-year old Lyriana and her younger brother Zave have one chance of survival after their mother's passing-to find the legendary Orphan's Garden, where winter doesn't rule. Lyriana is described as having beige skin and light brown hair. Other characters are described as having a multitude of skin, hair, and eye colors. In alternating sections, Brob, a Giant boy, is banished from King Cormoran's lands with his family and steers them toward the garden he accidentally made as a younger child. Both Giants and humans seek fermata, a magical substance that human Songsummoners call forth and Giant Greensgrowers shape. Lyriana's mother was a Songsummoner, as is Lyriana, and Brob is a Greensgrower. As Lyriana and Brob's destinies intertwine, both must question what they'd been taught about the other species. Hewitt's elegant story is told in poems, mostly free verse, but also sonnets, haiku, concrete poems, and others. It alternates between Lyriana and Brob's first-person perspectives. The pacing is sharp as the perils of winter and King Cormoran's wrath loom large. The poetic form and the seasonal changes yield a strong sensory experience, so setting and plot have equal place in the story. Despite the brevity of poetry, story complexities and the importance of each poem will best suit stronger fantasy readers. VERDICT A carefully crafted fantasy adventure set in poetry, its steeper lead-in makes it less approachable than Megan Freeman's Alone. Purchase for larger fantasy collections.-Caitlin Augusta

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2024
Grades 4-7 Written in free verse, Hewitt's debut middle-grade fantasy is a cautionary tale that is reminiscent of long-ago oral traditions, told from multiple viewpoints and peopled with warring humans and giants. Readers are drawn into the survival struggles of orphaned siblings Lyriana and her younger brother, Zave--humans whose world is stuck in winter. They hope to find warmth and welcome in the Orphan's Garden, which is rumored to be a place to escape the relentless cold around them. What they don't know is that the garden was created by the giant boy Brob. Awkward and misunderstood, he has used ancient magic to grow this place of refuge and is intensely protective of it. When the garden is threatened, Brob and Lyriana set aside their disagreements to save the space for the greater good. Given the story's lovable characters and life-and-death situations to be solved, middle-grade readers will be drawn in and challenged by the selfishness and lack of communication that has spun this world. A welcome, well-written message for all.

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March 1, 2025
In this fantasy novel in verse, spare narration yields jewel-bright imagery of a frozen land where a magic metal -- Fermata -- is necessary for Humans to buy entrance into the Giants' jealously guarded, sheltered gardens. In Lyriana's experience, Songsummoners who sing Fermata into existence -- the protagonist's mother and, someday, Lyrie herself -- are exploited, Lyrie's mother even losing her life trying to make enough metal to save everyone from the cold. Lyrie hopes that rumors of a fabled Orphan's Garden are true -- that an enclave exists where the Winter Spirits don't rule. Meanwhile Brob, a boy Giant whose family had been banished by the Giant King, leads his family toward the secret garden he himself created when he was six. The author's nonlinear storytelling style meshes with the tale's alternating voices and varied poetic structures, creating multiple narratives with intertwined mysteries and payoffs, while poetry aficionados will note, among others, a sonnet, haiku, and sestina tucked in with the blank verse. Themes of trust, interdependence, and the power of music develop meaningfully over the course of this taut, beautifully rendered adventure in which Lyriana and Brob, if they can overcome their differences, have complementary roles to play in ending the tyranny of winter. Anita L. Burkam

(Copyright 2025 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)