Blackberry Fox - by Kathrin Tordasi

About the Book

During a summer holiday in Wales, Portia and Ben discover a mysterious door in a forest, unaware that it is a portal to a perilous Otherworld, and they unwittingly open the door, unleashing a powerful evil that endangers both the human and fairy realms, forcing them to confront the consequences of their actions.

Book Synopsis

For fans of the Wilderlore and Skandar series comes a thrilling middle grade fantasy adventure steeped in Welsh myths and legends about two intrepid friends who are tricked into opening the door to an enchanted world--only to get trapped inside.

On a summer holiday in Wales, Portia and Ben find a mysterious door set in a bramble hedge in the middle of a forest. If the old stories about the wonders and dangers of the Otherworld hadn't long been forgotten, they may have realized the door was a portal to the perilous realm and should never be opened...

Robin Goodfellow, the man with the fox shadow, needs someone to open the door in the brambles so he can finally return home, and he's willing to use the children's curiosity to his advantage and lures Portia under the guise of his innocent fox form.

Once the portal is open, great danger arises, and Ben and Portia struggle to stop a powerful evil threatening both the human and the fairy worlds as they find themselves stuck in the wrong realm.

Review Quotes

A tween crosses into an alternate fantasy world in this enchanting adventure by German author Tordasi. While visiting her great-aunts Bramble and Rose in North Wales, 12-year-old Portia Beale awakens to find a fox rifling through her aunt's desk. After Bramble chases it away, Portia discovers a key hidden in a secret compartment. Portia soon meets Ben Rees, whose mother insists that he show Portia around. But Ben is waylaid by an injured blackbird, and Portia, noticing the fox from earlier, follows it to a door in a clearing. Portia unlocks it using the key and enters the Borderlands, which separate the human and fae realms. Meanwhile, Ben's blackbird turns out to be a tiny bird-man named Ridik who informs Ben that the fox is a shape-shifter, and that he's woken the dreaded Gray King whose fog turns people into vacant shells. Following Portia into the Borderlands, Ben, accompanied by Aunt Rose, must seek the help of Queen Titania before Portia--and both worlds--are lost to the Gray King's wrath. Tordasi makes up for somewhat bland characterization with inventive, articulately constructed, and lushly described worldbuilding steeped in Welsh mythology. Characters default to white. Ages 10-up. (June)--Publishers Weekly "3/25/2024"

Two children embark on a once-in-a-lifetime quest in this translated title from Germany.

When London girl Portia Beale visits her aunts--Rose and her partner, Bramble--in the countryside of North Wales, she isn't expecting the adventure of a lifetime. Really, following the fox who appears one day seems like a harmless thing to do. But when the animal leads her to a mysterious door in a stone wall, Portia can't help seeing whether there's a magical world on the other side. Soon Rose and Ben Rees, a quiet local boy, are racing to close the door that Portia so innocently opened, beginning a quest to save both the human and faerie worlds from the powerful Gray King, whose sinister fog threatens to suck the memories and life from all it touches. Pulling characters and inspiration from a variety of sources, including Welsh mythology and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, this fantasy relies on classic quest tropes as it meanders to the inevitable culminating battle between good and evil. The dual perspectives follow Portia's and Ben's journeys, which diverge at times, but this structure sadly doesn't speed up the slow pacing. Both protagonists have strong backstories, yet their motivations fail to inspire an emotional connection. It's unclear whether the unfortunate use of problematic terms such as spirit animal and chop, chop reflect connotations in the original text or were introduced in the translation process. All characters read white.

A traditional fantasy for patient readers. (cast list, Welsh glossary) (Fantasy. 8-12)--Kirkus Reviews "4/15/24"

About the Author

Kathrin Tordasi was born in the south of Germany and has been a bookworm since she was little and started making up her own stories when her dad gave her his old typewriter. She dreamt of becoming an explorer, a pirate, or a writer and eventually decided to go for the third option (mostly because she gets horribly seasick). After spending a year in Bangor, Wales, she came up with the idea for a book about a girl who follows a fox into Faerie. Bramble Fox was first published in German, and now it has been translated into English as Blackberry Fox. Kathrin lives in Berlin where she can usually be found browsing through local bookshops, writing in cafés, or exploring the nearby lakes and forests.

Cathrin Wirtz was born near Cologne, Germany, but has lived in the United States for more than a decade. She divides her time between Brooklyn, New York, and the coast of Maine.