The Red Judge - Hardcover

Grade 7-9–Zed has never felt part of the Fitztalbot family and finds it difficult to live up to their expectations. Feeling responsible for an accident that leaves his much-admired older sister in a coma, he is banished by his stepfather to the house of his recently deceased paternal grandmother. Zeds background on his fathers side is a mystery to him, but he does have fond memories of spending his childhood in this house and is now cared for by a reclusive uncle. His search for meaning and redemption takes him on journeys around the countryside and involves confrontation with a strange magician who comes to represent the embodiment of an obscure legend about a Red Judge. Zed finds answers to his perplexing past that give him new resolve to live life on his own terms. The elements of this story, part teen problem novel, part dream, part survival tale, part legend, are confusing and make it hard to relate to the protagonist. The climax in the Red Judges court is more nightmare than dream. The fantasies by Jenny Nimmo and Susan Cooper make better use of darkly mysterious Welsh folklore while interweaving those traditions with the lives of modern young people.–Connie C. Rockman, Stratford Library Association, CT
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