“Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me” … unless the words happen to be in the form a curse. In fairy tales and blockbuster movies, curses have the power not only to break people’s bones but to poison their wells, sicken their cattle, and generally make their lives miserable for the rest of eternity.
Curses used to be serious business in real life because people believed they worked, especially the ones that were made in the name of God or the gods, the devil, or other supernatural powers. They might affect one person, a family, or an entire village, and they could last forever unless someone figured out how to break them.
Curses were a staple in the stories told to children (and adults) in centuries past, often in the form of warnings about the bad things that would happen to them if they didn’t do what they were told to do. For example, “Act like a rude, selfish brat, and you’ll soon have toads and snakes falling out of your mouth!”
A good curse is a sure-fire way to ignite the plot of a novel. A book about a boy who discovers that he’s a wizard would be interesting, but throw in a scar from a curse gone wrong and — abracadabra! — you’ve got a series of best-selling books that spawns movies, theme parks, and an entire subculture.
Curses are popular in children’s books, and not all of them are about boy wizards. The ones described below are among my favorites.
The Crowfield Curse
By Pat Walsh
In The Crowfield Curse, Will lives and works as a servant in a medieval abbey, where he is badly treated by most of the monks who live there. Everyone knows that the abbey is under a curse. Its buildings are in constant disrepair, its crops fail on a regular basis, and it has teetered on the brink of financial collapse for decades. No one knows the reason for the curse, but they do know to stay away from a spooky wooded area near the abbey, especially after dark.
Will is a gentle, kind-hearted boy who is still grieving the loss of his family, all of whom died in a suspicious fire shortly before the story begins. One day Will rescues a fay creature known as a hob from a trap. The fact that Will can see the hob reveals that he has the Sight.
Soon after this, two mysterious strangers arrive to stay at the abbey. One of the strangers, Bone, wears a mask that conceals his face. The other, Shadlock, is an intimidating and battle-scarred fay warrior.
Will learns from the hob that the abbey’s curse is connected to something buried in the spooky woods. He learns that Bone and Shadlock are also connected to the curse. Then he learns that he is the key to ending the curse. The result is a truly epic battle between Good and Evil.
Author Pat Walsh weaves concrete historical details about medieval life into the story while also making its magical elements seem completely believable. The Crowfield Curse has a deliciously spooky atmosphere, and the battle scene is spectacular. What appeals to me about the story is an underlying message that true spiritual power lies in those who act with compassion toward others, not in those who give lip service to religious platitudes while treating others with cruelty.
Good news! The story continues in The Crowfield Demon.
You can learn more about Pat Walsh at pat-walsh.com/.
The Princess Curse
By Merrie Haskell
In The Princess Curse, Reveka is the daughter of the Konstantin, who is in charge of the gardens in Castle Sylvania. Her goal is to become a master herbalist, which she thinks she can finally achieve if she can break the curse that has afflicted the twelve princesses of the kingdom, who somehow manage to wear out their dancing slippers night after night, despite never leaving their communal bedroom. The challenge is not without risk: All those who have attempted to break the curse have ended up in a permanent twilight sleep — neither dead nor alive — or they disappear altogether.
What seems like a simple task for a smart, intrepid heroine like Reveka turns into a tangle of mysteries that include Dragos, the lord of Thonos, a region of the Underworld. If Dragos doesn’t find himself a queen, Thonos will die, and all the souls waiting there will vanish forever.
Reveka makes a split-second decision to sacrifice herself to spare the lives of others, and then the story becomes even more interesting.
In The Princess Curse, Merrie Haskell takes a fairy tale about The Twelve Dancing Princesses, mixes in bits of The Beauty and the Beast, adds a dash of the story of Persephone and her abduction to the Underworld — and comes up with something that’s definitely more than the sum of the parts.
Fans have been begging for a sequel for years, but — alas! — there isn’t one to date.
You can learn more about Merrie Haskell at merriehaskell.com/.
Nightbird
By Alice Hoffman
As Nightbird begins, Twig (a.k.a. Teresa) Fowler can’t have friends over to her house after school. She can’t participate in community events. She and her mother must keep to themselves. And it’s all because her brother is a victim of the curse put on the men in her family centuries ago. He must stay hidden from outsiders so that no one sees that he has wings growing from his back.
The plot thickens when descendents of the witch who placed the curse — including Julia, a young girl Twig’s age — move into the house next door to Twig’s house. Her mother forbids her to have any contact with them, but that proves difficult when the entire family comes to her rescue when she falls from a tree and breaks her arm. She and Julia secretly become close friends, and they resolve to break the curse on Twig’s family.
Meanwhile, Twig’s brother has grown tired of being confined to his room and begins sneaking out to fly through the night sky, prompting rumors of a “monster” in the area. He also becomes romantically involved with Julia’s older sister — a descendent of the very witch who put the curse on his family!
Let’s just say that Twig proves herself to be quite the clever curse-breaker. She and Julia unearth fascinating details about the history of their area of New York, while also eating a lot of pie made with apples from the orchard planted by one of Twig’s ancestors. Her mother’s pink apple pie is mentioned throughout the book, and a recipe is provided at the end.
You can learn more about Alice Hoffman at alicehoffman.com/.
I myself am plagued by numerous curses — chronic toenail infections, lactose intolerance, an allergy to dust. Perhaps I should abandon medical remedies and find myself a good curse-breaker?