New youth fantasy adventure mixed with plenty of humour

Caley Cross a new heroine who is sure to be a big hit

Caley Cross has a difficult life, to put it mildly. A 13-year-old orphan who has bounced from foster home to foster home, she is used as slave labour by the mean old bat who runs the orphanage where she lives, and she has no friends at school. Adding to her problems is the troubling recurring dream in which a hooded man is after her.

Oh, and then there’s her puzzling ability to turn dead animals into zombies ... after which she dies, temporarily.

But as strange as all that is, her life gets even weirder when she finds herself whisked off to a distant world where she learns she’s the crown princess of Erinath.

Thus the stage is set for Book One of what is sure to be a popular new juvenile fantasy series by Jeff Rosen, a Halifax-based writer who is also a noted creator of Canadian children’s television content.

“Caley Cross and the Hadeon Drop” plunges readers into a page-turning adventure tale seasoned with liberal doses of quirky humour that reminded this older reviewer of Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and its sequels from the 1980s.

Rosen, principal writer of the beloved “Theodore Tugboat” television series, has crafted an imaginative world with talking animals and where the people have inner “baests” which give them animal-like powers.

Not everyone in Erinath is happy about Caley’s arrival. She quickly becomes a target of haughty Princess Ithica Blight, leader of the “cool girls” at Erinath Academy and formerly the highest-ranking royal before Caley showed up. The new princess also provokes the enmity of General

Roon, who has been trying to warn the Council about the threat posed to the kingdom by “non-persons.”

Caley does make some friends, including two her own age — Neive Olander, a member of the royal household’s servant staff, and Kipley Gorsebrooke, a schoolmate whose dream is to win the esteemed Equidium championship — a competition in which teams of students riding flying creatures called orocs try to capture the giant queen of the nasty bugs called venowasps.

Also in Caley’s corner is the wise if eccentric Master Pim, who has a fondness for knickknacks from Earth, such as the video game Frogger. And she will need all the support she can get in dealing with the evil and powerful Olpheist, who wants something Caley has in order to rule the kingdom.

It all adds up to a story that should prove to be a hit with middle-school readers, who will be eagerly awaiting the other books to follow. It wouldn’t be surprising if it finds some fans among adult readers, too — perhaps those who have fond memories of Douglas Adams’ hilarious prose. Rosen’s writing tickles the funny bone in similar fashion.