HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE

I tore eagerly through Howl’s Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones. Jones wrote one of my favorite young-adult books ever, Fire and Hemlock, and I may have read some of her other books when I was a kid, but they didn’t stick in my mind. I wasn’t aware she wrote Howl’s Moving Castle until after I saw the movie, and I was immediately curious to find out how much of the weird, wonderful film was really from the original source material and how much was a product of Miyazaki’s rich imagination. The answer, it turns out, is about half and half—the film is a pretty loose adaptation, paralleling the book at first and keeping most of the same elements, but soon shooting off in other directions. Despite their differences, I had about the same reaction to both versions: “I’m not sure I really understand what’s going on, but I like it!” The book would definitely benefit from repeated readings—in fact, I was relieved to see that the School Library Journal reviewer called the book an “intricate, humorous and puzzling tale of fantasy and adventure which should both challenge and involve readers....At times, the action becomes so complex that readers may have to go back to see what actually happened, and at the end so many loose ends have to be tied up at once that it’s dizzying. Yet Jones’ inventiveness never fails, and her conclusion is infinitely satisfying.” Thank you, Sara Miller of White Plains Public Library, N.Y.! I was afraid it was just me being shamefully confused by a novel aimed at 6th-graders. Anyway, thumbs up to a truly inventive and riveting (and, sigh, romantic) story—I might even read the sequel, Castle in the Air, sometime.