The Veil Weavers. (Veil of Magic, Book 3). Maureen Bush. Regina, SK: Coteau Books, 2012. 139 pp., trade pbk., $7.95. ISBN 978-1-55050-482-8. Grades 2-6 / Ages 7-11. Review by Janet Johnson. ****/4

excerpt:

"Get out. GET OUT!" Gronvald growled, furious.

Keeper simply pulled out the bag and poured gold coins into his huge, cupped hand.

When Gronvald reached for them, Keeper closed his hand over the pile. I could see Gronvald's longing, almost as if it had its own magic, driving him to hoard gold

Gronvald hissed in frustration."Get on with it, then. That won't buy you much time. And don't touch my gold," he snapped at Corvus, who'd straightened his ruffled feathers and was pecking at the gold again.

Keeper nodded to me.

I cleared my throat. "What can you tell us about the ancient Ones?"

The Veil Weavers, the third and concluding story in the " Veil of Magic," trilogy, is an exciting ending to a truly Canadian story that has a familiar setting and a cast of characters familiar to any Canadian child.

     Josh and Maddy are two children who discovered a magic alternate reality that is set in the Rocky Mountains. They learn that this magic world is leaking into the human world as the result of tears in the fabric of the veil. In The Veil Weavers, two otter people, Greyfur and Eneida, come to the human world and act as Trick or Treaters at the home of the main characters. They have been sent by the Giant (Keeper) at Castle Mountain to bring Josh and Maddy back behind the magic veil because the magical world is in trouble. The veil that separates both worlds has terrible tears that won't repair themselves, and the Keeper believes that Josh can help them. Josh loves his magic and offers to go back. and his sister, Maddy, will come too for moral support.

     The Veil Weavers succeeds so well because the two main characters are close in age to the intended readership. Josh is in grade seven and Maddy is eight-years-old, ages which make it easy for readers to relate to them and believe in the story. Furthermore, the author makes sure readers understand right from the beginning that the suiblings will return home after their adventure.

     Once at Castle Mountain, the pair are presented to all the wild animals that live there and are promised all the help that the animals can give. This promise will even apply to the evil troll, Gronvald, who really doesn't want to see the veil repaired. Josh figures out that, in order to repair the veil, they have to find the Ancient Ones who wove it in the first place. After several adventures and a long trip to the mountains, they find the spiders who made the veil and arrange to have it rewoven and the tears joined, thereby saving the magical animals and keeping their world safe from humans.

     While this animal fantasy has a setting more familiar to children from Calgary and the Prairies, the troll and types of animals in the magical world will be familiar to Canadian children everywhere. The two buffalo characters, Brox and Vivienne, as well as the otter families and the company of crows to name a few, are all given characters that again will engage the readership, both male and female.

     The Veil Weavers can be read alone without readers having first read the first two books, The Nexus Ring and Crow Boy.

Highly Recommended.

Janet Johnson is a retired children's librarian and past instructor of Children's and YA fiction for the Library Tech program at Red River College, Winnipeg, MB.

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Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

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