The Stolen Child

by: Keith Donohue

Published by: Doubleday

Review by Kathy Perschmann

The Stolen Child is Keith Donohue's first novel, and what a first novel!

Seven-year-old Henry Day runs away and hides in a hollow in a huge tree. He is petulant after being punished for neglecting his toddler twin sisters when asked to watch them for a few minutes while his mother took a shower. There he is set upon by a bunch of small feral children, who tie him up and dump him in the water of a nearby river. After nearly downing, he is told he is now one of them--the faeries, hobgoblins, never aging--living apart from humans until someday it is their turn to change places with a human child.

He has been replaced! Another "child" has been found who looks just like him, who pretends to a knowledge of his short past, and who fits into his family with few adjustments. The Stolen Child alternates the story of the new Henry Day, who was "stolen" by the faeries in the 1850s from a German family, where he was a piano prodigy who loved music, and the story of the first Henry Day, now called Aniday, as he lives for years as a fairy in the deep woods with his pack of faeries.

Speck is Aniday's best friend, and he joins her nights in the crawl space under the library, where they have set up candles stolen from the church, and they read books stolen on forays into the library, and Aniday writes his biography. Tragic events and the expansion of the town into the woods lead to a confrontation between Henry Day and Aniday.

Armchair Interviews says: A lyrically written fairy tale for adults about identity, memory, family ties, and love--this book will stick in your heart for a long time.