He and his friends must battle the evil Drygoni who, says his uncle Tal, "dig deeper and deeper into the Safonals until they are possessed ... Painless and unnoticed...." Safonals are ordinary folk who have become "bullies, young and old; gossips who say hurtful things about others when gathered in grocery stores, churches, street corners, schoolyards or on Facebook; ... and, so many more."
In order to gain Doeth power Howell must come to a place where here and there meet. It's called "The Crossingway" ($12.95 in paperback from Austin Macauley, austinmacauley.com; also for Amazon Kindle), a cracking-good YA adventure from Chicoan Lynn Elliott, playwright, novelist and Professor Emeritus of English and Creative Writing at Chico State.
Elliott revels in language-play, bringing in, as he notes in an email, "Mabinogi, tales of hauntings from Spanish and Aztec, references to Haitian culture, haunted sites from Native-American culture" and more. In Welsh, "mabinogi" means "instruction for young bards." Howell's mother, Rhiannon, has schooled him in Welsh mythology. Her brother Tal's "real name," Howell says, "is Taliesin who was supposed to be some mystical Welsh poet and friend of King Arthur."
Howell is bullied at school by Bully Harold Bully, Pug the Pyro and Sloppy Jack, who call him "howl" (yelled howlingly).
When his mother mysteriously vanishes on a trip from Mount Shasta to New Mexico, Howell begins a mind-bending transmogrifying journey to rescue his mother, save Sister Sarah from evil Tommy Foxglove, and rout the bullies (who have multiplied and taken on new forms), aided by blind Leonel, a Latino, deaf Dazmonique, born in Haiti, Jimi One and Jimi Two (twins), and Native-American Dani Walks-Her-Pony. Each has a key part to play in helping Howell brave the tests he must endure.
Will Howell succeed? It all depends on the pronunciation of a word--and a little help from his friends.
