Westmark, a review

Hello, all. Have you heard of this book? Maybe not. I would venture to say probably not. Have you heard of this author? Even if you think the answer is no, it's actually probably yes.

Lloyd Alexander has won... pretty much all the awards you can win as a children's book author. Westmark got the American Book Award, which you may know better as the National Book Award. It also got an ALA Best of the Best Books for Young Adults and a School Library Journal Best Book award.

The reason I like to say you've heard of this author you might not have heard of is for a different series he wrote. The Chronicles of Prydain include a little novel called The Black Cauldron, and yes, the same one as the Disney film from the 90s. The fifth installment of the this same series, The High King, won a Newbury Award.

In his life, he won at least three lifetime achievement awards for his over 40 novels, most of which were written for children. They are the Pennbrook Lifetime Achievement Award (1991), the Parent's Choice Foundation's first ever Lifetime Achievement Award (2001), and the World Fantasy Award's Lifetime Achievement.

Ok, but what about this book? Let's get into it.

While most of the awards Lloyd Alexander received were for "children," I would categorize his books as middle-grade. Westmark, if written now, would almost certainly be put in middle-grade. It's a slim volume, my copy is only 184 pages. I read it in easy stages and enjoyed it as much now as I did the first time I read it many years ago.

This series, for Westmark is the first of three, is probably the first epic fantasy-style book I ever read. I think I was around thirteen when I first picked up The Beggar Queen, which is volume three. I remember what the cover looked like, how it felt in my hands, even now. I searched out volumes one and two just to get to that third volume and devour it. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool fantasy lover. Picking up Lloyd Alexander's work stands out in my memory like a bell-toll of fate.

Maybe you aren't so, er, emotionally attached to your fantasy. I think you'll still like this one. Especially if you have a middle-grade aged person in your life to share it with. It's prime Baby's First Fantasy stuff.

The main character is Theo, and he's a printer's apprentice in a small, out-of-the-way town. The town and the fictional country are very 1700s Europe in feeling. Theo, we are told in the first passage, "loved virtue, despised injustice, and was always slightly hungry." While it might feel like a top-lofty statement, it's his central struggle throughout the book.

Early on, his printer master dies defending his press. We learn that there is a High Minister to the mentally-absent King of Westmark, who has shut down countless printing presses so that he can control information within the kingdom. Theo almost kills a man in the struggle to defend his master.

For the rest of the story, as his acquaintances and actions lead him across the country and into numerous conflicts, he struggles with his own conscience. Is it wrong to kill a man? Is he a killer? What circumstances might make murder justifiable, and is war one of them?

On a larger scale, the reader is asked to consider the rightness, or wrongness, of Right To Rule. A rebel group is forming that wants to take down not just the corrupt High Minister, but the monarchy entirely. Theo doesn't know if this is right or not.

Through the story we meet the King of Westmark, the Queen, and the High Minister. We meet the King's physician and follow him through his untimely banishment. We meet the rebel group forming in a nearby town, and its charismatic leader, Florian.

We also meet a travelling mountebank who has several tricks up his sleeve to seduce a crowd into parting with their money. Las Bombas, at turns a count, a doctor, or an ambassador from Trebizonia, travels with a loyal servant, a dwarf called Musket. Theo travels with them for a time, long enough to pick up another stray. This new addition is a waif, an orphan girl with the ability to throw her voice. Las Bombas takes no time at all to concoct a new show around the girl's ability.

But this girl, who claims to have never met her parents, has nightmares about parents she doesn't remember. And about drowning.

All of these characters eventually slot together in a puzzle that will keep you interested until the very last page.

I usually give you all the necessary content warnings on books that I review. Westmark was written in 1981 for children. There are no content warnings to give! Even the grappling with murder is extremely PG by today's standards. If you have a middle-grade aged kid at home, I highly recommend reading this with him or her. It will present great opportunities to naturally talk about more complex thinking like war, murder, lying, and stealing. However, I think even the strictest parent will find the delivery acceptable.

It's an exciting book to read, and a quick one. Even if you don't have a kid in your life to share it with, it's still an enjoyable book to thumb through. I also recommend reading the rest of the series, The Kestral, and The Beggar Queen. Theo goes a long way in these novels, and you won't want to miss a single step of it!

If you'd like a copy of Westmark, I have my own copy available for sale on my website.

You can also find copies of Westmark and the rest of the series on Pangobooks.com If you haven't used it before, try my code (WEIRDOLDBOOKS) for a small discount on your first order. When you use my code, it helps me buy my next "Weird Old Book" to review!