It is a day of yellow fog, and the Folk are hungry. They ate the lamb I brought them, picking the bones clean and leaving them outside the Folk Door.writes Corin(na), The Folk Keeper of Rhysbridge in his journal, Folk Record (this novel).Dear readers, The Folk Keeper as a book, as a novel, is a personal journal of Corin Stonewall.So please bear with me as i refer to the book, this story, as the Folk Record henceforth in this review.Corinna Stonewall is a 15 year old orphan who changes herself to Corin,a boy to become a Folk Keeper at Rhysbridge Foundling Home.Her job is to keep FOLKs away, so that they don't destroy crops, kill animals and hurt humans. And what are FOLKs ? Well they are fierce, wild and terrifying creatures and if they are not fed well and if they get angry, they become very destructive.Nobody has ever seen FOLKs,not even Corinna. FOLKs live in Cellar.Corin is taken from Rhysbridge to Marblelaugh Park in Northern Isles to protect Lord Merton and Lady Alicia's estates of FOLKs.Lord Merton is the only person who knows Corinna's secrets.He knows she can tell accurate time and that her hair grows two inches every night.In cliffsend, she meets Finian.Its in Northern that Isles she finds her true self.Its here that she comes to make choices of her lifetime.My thoughtsThe Folk Keeper,Folk Record is a retelling of selkies' legend. What is/are selkies ? This is what wikipedia threw at meSelkies (also known as silkies or selchies) are mythological shapeshifting creatures that are found in Faroese, Icelandic, Irish, and Scottish folklore.Selkies are seals that can shed their skin to become humans.The story is dark, and quite frankly i loved all the darkness in Folk Record.Corinna is an orphan with absolutely no memory of her parents or her origin . Her choice to become Corin, I think, comes from her desire to have power.Corin is a person who makes her powerful, who lets her live her life her own way. Corin is the person through whom she can get back at world.Corin triggers this unapologetic vengeful alter ego of her. And you can see this in Folk Record hereNo one can tell a falsehood about Corinna Stonewall and remain unpunished.Matron should have known that.She should have known I'd take a fierce revenge.You have to.The world will otherwise use you shamefully.Did Corinna want to become Corin. Or did she become Corin and lose herself as Corinna? I loved the struggle wherein parts of Corinna mix up with that of Corin's, where Corinna struggles to be accepted and cared for, while Corin would have not bothered about it.Is it possible to choose an identity for yourself and live with it throughout ?Thank you Ms Billingsley you have given me an unapologetic heroine, one of her kind, one who will be remembered for a long time.There is a romantic aspect mentioned in Folk Record.Let me tell you its just a part of the Folk Record but a beautiful and lovely part to wait for, till it happens.The Folk Keeper might seem to be a small package at 162 pages.Now if you think you can get through the book easily, I am afraid you might miss the immeasurable depths hidden in this whimsical, at times(very rarely) poetic prose.And what you get in this small package is a folklore of its kind and a story of its kind.
Years ago orphaned Corinna became Corin and started a new life as a Folk Keeper. A Folk Keeper is important. It is they who keep the Folk satisfied so they don't cause the crops to spoil and animals to sicken and die. Everything changes when she is taken to be Folk Keeper at Marblehaugh Park, a manor house by the sea. By the sea, Corinna is suddenly overwhelmed by powers she didn't know she had, and begins to piece together who she really is.I loved Chime by Franny Billingsley but hadn't read anything else by her. The Folk Keeper has some similarities with Chime, in particular the story twists and turns and keeps you guessing and then all comes together wonderfully in the end. The Folk Keeper wasn't anywhere as confusing as Chime, which I always warn kids that they won't know what's going on for the first half but stick with it because it gets awesome.Corinna decides to become a boy because she's suffered through life as a servant for others. As a boy, she can be a Folk Keeper. She has no training, of course, but she learns by listening and bribing others and becomes quite a good one. Corinna has constructed for herself a very careful world devoid of emotions or attachments. If someone does her wrong, she quickly and quietly gets revenge on them. This is how she has survived alone for many years. She is cold and vindictive and careful to make sure everyone respects the position she has so carefully built for herself.Corinna is thrown when Sir Edward and Lady Alicia come asking for her by her true name, as she's gone as Corin for years. She meets with Lady Alicia's husband, who speaks with her briefly before dying. He wants to take her into his household. She refuses, but agrees to come if she can stay Corin and be their Folk Keeper. So Corinna, still as Corin, travels to the seaside where Marblehaugh Park is.At Marblehaugh Park Corinna meets Lady Alicia's son, Finian. Finian is heir to the estate, but all he wants to do is build boats and sail. Corinna, for all her boasting and confidence in her abilities finds the Folk of Marblehaugh Park are nothing like anything she's experienced before. They are ravenous and blood thirsty and Corinna is hardly able to hold them off. In order to arm herself against them, she makes a deal with Finian. He will tell her secrets of the estate she might be able to use to protect herself against the Folk, and she will give him convictions to be able to stand up to his mother and stay with the sea he loves.Corinna has more people in her life then she ever had before. She is actually beginning to care about people, which she doesn't like at all. She is also experiencing strange things. Why did she take to sailing so easily? Why did swimming in the water feel so natural that one night? What is Sir Edward hiding? Why did Lady Alicia's husband want her here in the first place? Who is the Lady Rona?Just like Chime, everything comes together wonderfully in the end. Corinna pieces everything together and then must make a choice: stay with the people she perhaps has grown to love, or return to her true home.Great middle grade fantasy with mystery, betrayal, and a little bit of romance.
What do You think about The Folk Keeper (2001)?
Blurb from the back coverCorinna Stonewall is fifteen years old and an orphan. She is also Rhysbridge Foundling Home's Folk Keeper - a difficult and dangerous job which consists of looking after and controlling 'the Folk' - spiteful, maverick, savage creatures who live in the cellar and will only be prevented from spoiling the milk, terrifying the livestock and other disruptions by gifts of cream, salt pork and similar luxuries. But there are many questions about Corinna. Who are her parents? Why does her hair grow two inches a night? Why is she always drawn to the sea and long for the sweet taste of fish?My reviewI am torn between giving it a 2 or a 3 to be honest. The first 3 quarters of the book is about The Folk and Corinnas job. It is only when you get this far in and the story develops a twist that you understand (or at least start to) the build up. I still found it quite confusing as when you get to the end The Folk didn't really have to be in it (I felt) and the last quarter was the actual real story.Perhaps I just don't have the imagination and that maybe I missed what the author was trying to do but I felt it didn't pick up until the last quarter and The Folk angle wasn't required. I really enjoyed the latter part of the book but even after finishing it I don't get the relevance to The Folk.3 of 5 for me and the 3 is purely based on the part of the story I liked, the rest is definately a 2. I have another book by this author and will certainly read it but with this one I just didn't get a big chunk of it.
—Lainy
Franny Billingsley has a new book coming out this month called Chime, which has everyone raving and already has six starred reviews. The kidlit world was buzzing with news of a new book by this author and I felt very out of loop-I had never heard of Franny Billingsley before! But then I realized it's been 11 years since her last book and I was in high school when it was released, so I felt a bit better about not knowing anything about it. While The Folk Keeper was critically acclaimed, it didn't generate a lot of buzz outside of the book world. So I decided to catch up and see what all the buzz was about. The Folk Keeper is a strange little book. The story is told in journal entries and it has the feel of an old folktale or a gothic tale. It took me a bit to get into it because we're thrown right into the story and we're never really told what or who the Folk are (I imagined them to be like Fey or Fairies). The Folk Keeper's job remains a bit of a mystery throughout the book as well, with only little details revealed here and there. But once you get going, the story picks up-the author doesn't waste a lot of time setting up the story, and Corin is whisked off to Cliffsend very quickly. Once at Cliffsend I found myself engaged in this odd little tale. Corinna tries to come off as a strong and in charge girl (or boy at times, as she's hiding her identity) but deep down you see her fears and her struggles. She also has a sharp wit which I appreciated-it made her a more interesting character and I found I liked her a lot more. There are a lot of fantasy elements to the book, but I don't think non-fantasy readers would be turned off by that because they are lighter fantasy. There's also a bit of a romance, but again, it's fairly light. Mostly, this is Corinna's story about discovering who she is and choosing her path. It reminded me a bit a Neil Gaiman, so I would recommend to this Gaiman fans or readers who enjoy folk tales and gothic stories. It seems like it would be a tween novel, but I think it's a higher middle grade/young teen novel and would be great for advanced readers. After reading The Folk Keeper, I understand the excitement of a new book from this author and I'm looking forward to reading Chime. Book Pairings: Pair with Neil Gaiman's Coraline (they just had a similar feel to me) and Joan Aiken's Wolves of Willoughby Chase for another middle grade gothic tale.Full Disclosure: Reviewed from copy I borrowed from my local public library
—Sarah BT
Very, very unusual book. It would have been a great advantage being more fluent in English, because I'm not sure I understood all of it. Don't get me wrong, the story as a whole was easy enough to understand, but being doomed to failure, because of the little things? I have this feeling, I could have enjoyed it a little more, without this hindrance.Corin/na is brave, vengeful, patient, stubborn and very, very smart. She's afraid that people will constrain her freedom, take away her rights once they know she's merely girl dressed as a boy. She's also bloodthirsty, people who've wronged her, she takes revenge upon, with no second thought. So, it's also no wonder she enjoys having power over other people and being able to keep her secrets to herself, since she knows she's indispensable."Everyone else is afraid. Only I am powerful." "Vengeance. It is not always as delicious as you anticipate, but you must not flinch from it. Otherwise the Matrons of the world would rule us all." "But I never spoke my anger; no, you must never give your anger away. "She likes to keep people guessing, keep them on their toes, but actually only minds her own business."There is power in silence, I have always known that."And then of course, the little things, which made me like her." I don't care for beauty, not in the ordinary way. "Although it's said that The Folk Keeper is a children's book. I must say I'm not sooo sure about that one. Well, enough said. I enjoyed it enough. And so might you.
—jo mo
