The Weather Weaver caught my eye as a Netgalley ARC offer. Well, what a gorgeous cover! And when I read on, I couldn’t resist, especially as it’s a children’s/middle grade book. I’m very grateful to the publishers for the chance to review Tamsin Mori’s debut book.
The Weather Weaver
by Tamsin Mori
What if you could befriend a cloud?
What weather would you choose?
What if the weather matched your mood, whether you want it to or not? [goodreads]
11-year-old Stella has returned home to Shetland to spend the summer with Grandpa, but it’s nothing like she remembers. Grandpa is lost in his grief for Gran, the island is bleak and Stella feels lonely and trapped. That is until she encounters an old woman, Tamar, who, to Stella’s amazement, can spin rainbows and call hurricanes.
Soon Stella discovers that she too is a Weather Weaver. With the help of Nimbus, a feisty young storm cloud, Stella begins to learn the craft of weather weaving. But when Nimbus brain-fogs Grandpa and The Haken, a local sea witch, starts to close in on the island, she realises that with magic comes big responsibilities.
It will take all her heart and courage to face the coming storm…
Drawing on the elements, island myths and the natural world, The Weather Weaver by debut author Tamsin Mori is a magical tale so rooted in the everyday that young readers will think it entirely possible that they too can conjure up a rainbow outside their window, or catch a cloud of their very own.
My Review
I think a great many of us can empathise with Stella, who’s excited that she’s back in Shetland, where she had such great times with her Grandpa and Grandma. But she’s also feeling meh, because her parents have gone off on another expedition. And then… it’s nothing like she thought it would be.
The Goodreads blurb only gives those first three lines: the rest is from the Netgalley blurb. Something between the two would give more of a hint of the glorious story without giving so much away!
Stella is often cranky. Just as you’re feeling pretty sympathetic with her plight, she does something that I, at least, thought was pretty mean. But then, she’s lonely and confused, and the temper really does seem justified. Especially when it seems she’s learning magic, but not really.
Her cloud is adorable. Anyone who’s had a puppy will know ‘those looks’. And training a cloud is much like training a puppy, I think.
But once it gets down to the big business, which is part of what her grandmother predicted, and why her parents took her away from the island in the first place, you just know that the cloud will come through, with or without Stella’s help. But Stella has more to learn than teaching her cloud. It’s a wild and complicated world, and she has more power than she understands.
I wonder if there is more to come in this story. It’s exciting, enchanting and full of word pictures of the island–and the weather. I’d certainly like more, and I expect many girls (and boys) will, too.
I can think of a little girl who might like this book! Plus I can flip through it before I gift it!
I can think of an older one who might like it too! 🙂