Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Brave young island girl takes on the mysterious Jumbies
The Jumbies By Tracey Baptiste. Ages 8 to 12.
Who’s afraid of the deep, dark woods? Not Corinne La Mer, a strong-minded girl living on an island with her fisherman father. When two pesky boys take Corinne’s prized necklace and attach it to a wild rodent, Corinne doesn’t hesitate to run after it into the woods.
She reclaims the necklace, a gift from her mother, who died when Corinne was small. But a rustling in the bushes and a glimpse of gleaming yellow spots in the dark give her a moment of worry. Is a dangerous animal lurking nearby? Or perhaps it’s something even scarier: a jumbie.
Jumbies are creatures in island folk tales. Some are spirit babies or werewolves that live in the forest. Others look like beautiful women dressed in white. Even when they lived among people, they were “always waiting for their moment to attack, mostly out of pure wickedness”.
Most of the island children – and some adults – believe in jumbies. But Corinne’s father, Pierre, called the stories nonsense. So that’s what Corinne believes, or so she reminds herself after running out of the woods.
When a beautiful, mysterious woman appears in the market the next day, the islanders are curious. Where did she come from? What does she want? Even more strange is her appearance at Corinne’s house and her sudden interest in Pierre.
Corinne knows her father to be a good judge of character, but she is troubled that Pierre seems to like the woman, whose name is Severine. When the girl and her friends realise that Severine is not what she seems, they are determined to help Corinne’s father. But Severine’s plans involve more than Pierre, and Corinne must use her smarts and her courage to save the islanders. – Washington Post