The Wee Free Men (Discworld) Mass Market Paperback Author: Visit Amazon's Terry Pratchett Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0060012382 | Format: PDF, EPUB
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Amazon.com Review
Nine-year-old Tiffany Aching needs magic--fast! Her sticky little brother Wentworth has been spirited away by the evil Queen of faerie, and it’s up to her to get him back safely. Having already decided to grow up to be a witch, now all Tiffany has to do is find her power. But she quickly learns that it’s not all black cats and broomsticks. According to her witchy mentor Miss Tick, "Witches don’t use magic unless they really have to...We do other things. A witch pays attention to everything that’s going on...A witch uses her head...A witch always has a piece of string!" Luckily, besides her trusty string, Tiffany’s also got the Nac Mac Feegles, or the Wee Free Men on her side. Small, blue, and heavily tattooed, the Feegles love nothing more than a good fight except maybe a drop of strong drink! Tiffany, heavily armed with an iron skillet, the feisty Feegles, and a talking toad on loan from Miss Tick, is a formidable adversary. But the Queen has a few tricks of her own, most of them deadly. Tiffany and the Feegles might get more than they bargained for on the flip side of Faerie! Prolific fantasy author Terry Pratchett has served up another delicious helping of his famed Discworld fare. The not-quite-teen set will delight in the Feegles’ spicy, irreverent dialogue and Tiffany’s salty determination. Novices to Pratchett’s prose will find much to like here, and quickly go back to devour the rest of his Discworld offerings. Scrumptiously recommended. (Ages 10 to 14)
--Jennifer Hubert --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Grade 6–10—This new edition of the first book in Pratchett's excellent "Tiffany Aching" series (HarperTempest) features full-color illustrations that are true to the author's keen descriptions. Fans of the original won't find faults: Tiffany looks like a true nine-year-old, and the blue-skinned Wee Free Men seem appropriately fierce and funny at the same time. Three well-chosen foldouts show key plot transitions as Tiffany first sees the Wee Free Men, later steps into the fairy world, and ultimately unleashes her full powers. Plentiful spot illustrations and creative use of space show that the illustrator has clearly entered into the spirit of Tiffany's world. Significant words occasionally appear behind the text in light gray, appropriate for a girl who has read the dictionary (because "no one told her you weren't supposed to"). Line drawings of Wee Free Men frequently appear along page borders as they hang from, climb up, and occasionally steal the letters of the text. Recurring passages that tell the backstory of Tiffany's Granny, merely italicized in the original edition, are now cleverly highlighted by insets resembling yellowed paper. Pratchett's expertly written fantasy works fine without any pictures, but these attractive images are quite effective without overwhelming the words. For less sophisticated readers, the visual elements may serve as reference points to help them navigate the rich setting and cohesive but complex plot.—
Steven Engelfried, Multnomah County Library, ORCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Direct download links available for Download The Wee Free Men (Discworld) Mass Market Paperback
- Series: Discworld (Book 30)
- Mass Market Paperback: 375 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins (August 15, 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0060012382
- ISBN-13: 978-0060012380
- Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 1.1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Terry Pratchett won a Carnegie Medal for his first children's book set in his Discworld, "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents." He has a good shot at a second award for "Wee Free Men." It's that good.
Nine year old Tiffany Aching was born on The Chalk. The Achings have lived on The Chalk and tended their sheep for centuries. Tiffany's grandmother was the matriarch of the Aching clan, and while she never called herself a witch, she never denied it, either. Tiffany is still trying to adjust to the death of her grandmother, and to the birth of her sticky little brother, Wentworth, when she is attacked by a monster out of Faerie. One thing leads to another, and before long she must rescue her brother from Faerie, be the kelda of the Nac Mac Feegle, the Wee Free Men of the title, and save the world from the terrors of Faerie. Because there is no one else.
One of Pratchett's many skills is inversion. In "Amazing Maurice," he inverted the Pied Piper of Hamlin. In "Wee Free Men," he inverts children's fairy tales in general. Instead of a magic sword, Tiffany has a plain old iron frying pan. Instead of a wise mentor, she has a toad who used to be a lawyer. Instead of an army, she has the Nac Mac Feegle. The Queen of Faerie, Tiffany's antagonist, is about as far from a noble Tolkien elf as you can get. Because the Queen of Faery has the power to steal your dreams, your worst nightmares, and trap you inside them.
And Tiffany must confront the Queen on her own ground, in the land of nightmares, where the monsters are terrifying and real. You don't have to reflect very long to understand Pratchett is working at several levels. The themes are meaningful and accessible to children without the slightest condescension.
"The Wee Free Men" is Terry Pratchett's second foray into Discworld-for-Young-Adults coming a year and a half after "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents" and six months after his last 'regular' Discworld book, "Night Watch". It revisits ground from "Lords and Ladies" and "Carpe Jugulum", which is fine, because with usual Pratchett flair, he tosses in enough wry satire, strange humor and generally good storytelling that you don't always notice when he goes back to some of his older material.
While the Nac Mac Feegle (the Wee Free Men last seen in "Carpe Jugulum"), little woad-tattooed Pictsies, do feature in a large chunk of the book, the heroine is Tiffany, a nine-year-old witch's granddaughter and budding witch herself who must be the singularly most sensible (but still likeable) character I've ever read in a book directed at an audience less than 18 years old. She struggles to cope with the death of a grandmother who, even though she died more than a year ago, has still had a huge impact on her life. She also struggles with making sense of the world - both as a young girl and as a human being, and she struggles with the Queen of the Elves/Fairies (last seen in "Lords and Ladies") in what becomes a metaphor for maturity and clarity in a large, scary world. Pratchett's moral is that just because you're not yet officially an adult, it doesn't mean that you can't understand the world any less well. This is a theme he's played with before, but it's always appropriate no matter how many times he brings it out.
As a huge Discworld fan, I really enjoyed this book - possibly even more than "The Amazing Maurice...", although it's probably not at quite the same level of literary excellence as his previous work.
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