The Troll Queen

September 1, 2003
Gr 4-6-In this slipshod follow-up to The Troll King (Aladdin, 2002), Rollo has disappeared and his girlfriend, Ludicra, is desperate to find him, mainly because she wants to be Queen of the Trolls. So begins the journey of trolls, ogres, and gnomes. Rollo, in the meantime, is trying to return the body of his dead fairy friend Clipper to her people. He's also hoping to use a magic knife to bring her back to life, but needs to find someone who can show him how. The two story lines finally meet, with fairly predictable results. The plot moves at such a breakneck pace that there's no sense of time passing. Characters never get beyond the one-dimensional and the dialogue is annoyingly stiff. Instead of buying The Troll Queen, consider filling your shelves with more offbeat visions of fantasy by Patricia Wrede, Jon Scieszka, Vivian Vande Velde, and Bruce Coville.-Patricia A. Dollisch, DeKalb County Public Library, Decatur, GA

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