The+Castle+Corona



By: Sharon Creech  This is a good-hearted, gently comic fairy tale set in feudal Italy. Using parallel stories that eventually dovetail, Creech introduces the Castle Corona’s sheltered, slightly ridiculous royal family and Pia and Enzio, orphaned peasant children from the nearby village. Brief, cleverly paced episodes reveal that several fixtures of castle life—the king and queen’s respective hermit advisors, and the court storyteller—subtly engineer Pia and Enzio’s appointment as royal food tasters, for purposes linked to a stolen pouch found by the children early on. The novel’s many characters are more allegorical than flesh-and-blood, and the hasty revelations at story’s end don’t entirely satisfy. But the engaging, puzzlelike plot will attract readers, as the novel’s heady themes, from wisdom to empathy to the fate-changing power of story, prompt them to deeper thought. Diaz’s full-color chapter-heading artwork and ornamental flourishes lend the novel substantial aesthetic appeal. 
 * The Castle Corona **

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