The DWJ Project: Earwig and the Witch
Mar. 26th, 2012 02:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swan_towerWith this, we reach the end.
Earwig and the Witch is an illustrated children's book (aimed at ages 8-12) published this year, though it was prepared before Jones passed away. It tells the story of a girl called Earwig, who lives quite happily at an orphanage, where she's able to make everyone do what she wants. But then a very peculiar couple comes along and adopts her, and for the first time in her life, Earwig finds herself facing a challenge.
It's a short book, of course, and (perhaps because of Paul O. Zelinsky's illustrations) has a distinctly Roald Dahl vibe about it. If I find myself wanting more -- more about Earwig's friend Custard, and more about the circumstances that led to her being left on the orphanage doorstep, years ago -- that's par for the course, rather than any particular flaw in the story itself.
***
And of course, I do want more. I saved reading this book until today, and knew that sitting down with it would make me sad, because it's the last one. There's a collection of Jones' essays underway, and I'm looking forward to that; there may be unpublished manuscripts or half-finished books that will yet find their way out into the world. If any such things appear, I'll read them, because I want to soak up any last drop that I can. But in essence, there will be no more fiction from Diana Wynne Jones.
She was, as I said before, the reason I became a writer. Her books have been with me for more than two-thirds of my life. I don't love all of them; this re-read has uncovered a number that don't click with me for some reason, and a few that aren't very good at all. But her body of work is amazing.
Requiescas in pace, Diana Wynne Jones. And thank you.
Earwig and the Witch is an illustrated children's book (aimed at ages 8-12) published this year, though it was prepared before Jones passed away. It tells the story of a girl called Earwig, who lives quite happily at an orphanage, where she's able to make everyone do what she wants. But then a very peculiar couple comes along and adopts her, and for the first time in her life, Earwig finds herself facing a challenge.
It's a short book, of course, and (perhaps because of Paul O. Zelinsky's illustrations) has a distinctly Roald Dahl vibe about it. If I find myself wanting more -- more about Earwig's friend Custard, and more about the circumstances that led to her being left on the orphanage doorstep, years ago -- that's par for the course, rather than any particular flaw in the story itself.
***
And of course, I do want more. I saved reading this book until today, and knew that sitting down with it would make me sad, because it's the last one. There's a collection of Jones' essays underway, and I'm looking forward to that; there may be unpublished manuscripts or half-finished books that will yet find their way out into the world. If any such things appear, I'll read them, because I want to soak up any last drop that I can. But in essence, there will be no more fiction from Diana Wynne Jones.
She was, as I said before, the reason I became a writer. Her books have been with me for more than two-thirds of my life. I don't love all of them; this re-read has uncovered a number that don't click with me for some reason, and a few that aren't very good at all. But her body of work is amazing.
Requiescas in pace, Diana Wynne Jones. And thank you.
