Starred Review Running away from his brutal, bullying father at last, 14-year-old Burl heads off into the northern Ontario wilderness. Just as readers settle in for a north-woods survival story, the plot takes an unexpected twist. Burl discovers the unusual lakeside retreat of the Maestro, a gifted musician who bewilders him, enchants him, and gives him shelter. The story shifts unexpectedly again and again, but the focus stays on Burl as he makes his way through unfamiliar and difficult situations, relying on his inner compass to guide him. In the end he faces his father, redeems himself, and earns through courage and wisdom the independence he had seized in desperation. Readers who come to this novel for an adventure tale will not be disappointed, for the scenes of physical conflict and endurance are sharply realized and convincing. Yet Wynne-Jones offers so much more: an original story with intriguing, three-dimensional characters, as well as a compelling portrayal of the conflicts that drive Burl toward his destiny. First published last year in Canada, this novel won the Governor General's Award for Children's Literature. (Reviewed December 15, 1996)

Taking off into the Ontario woods after escaping his abusive father, Burl meets a reclusive musician, whose death changes Burl's life. With some stock characters and melodramatic situations, this novel lacks the freshness of Wynne-Jones's acclaimed short stories, but Burl is a sympathetic protagonist whose coming of age gives the book a good focus.

With a brutal, despicable father who beats him and an ineffectual mother incapacitated by drugs, Burl, 14, has learned not to expect anything good from life. After a crisis, he runs away into the wilderness near his small Canadian town, eventually stumbling upon an isolated house that is the secret refuge of a famous musician. Burt ingratiates himself, making himself useful while harboring the hope of staying on. But the boy's relationship with his reluctant savior is only the first in a series of encounters with those who want to use him, assist him, control him, or threaten him. Wynne-Jones (The Book of Changes, 1995, etc.) skillfully presents a complex character who, in order to survive, uses all his resources: knowledge of the woods; an instinctive understanding of the manipulations of adults; strategy; brutality, the legacy of his father; and compassion. Lyrical writing combines with an unpredictable, unusual plot to convincingly test a teenager facing life-altering choices. A truly compelling adventure story. (Fiction. 11+)"

Gr 6-9--After observing his violent, abusive father's rendezvous with a waitress, Burl Crow runs away. He heads into the Canadian wilderness and discovers the retreat of Nathaniel Orlando Gow, an eccentric, world-renowned pianist. During their brief encounter, they become friends and Gow tells the boy about the oratorio he is composing. The man returns to Toronto and suddenly dies. After receiving the bad news from Bea, Gow's supply pilot, Burl begins living a lie of his own creation--that he is the Maestro's illegitimate son. Bea sends him to Toronto to make a claim for the lake and cabin, but instead he seeks out Gow's friend, who encourages him to rescue the oratorio. On his way back north, Burl is helped by a former teacher who offers him a home. He is trailed by his father who, in a drunken rage, sets the hideaway on fire. Everything--including Gow's piano and oratorio--is destroyed and Burl, seeing his father engulfed in flames, saves him. Complicated? Yes, and not totally convincing. Wynne-Jones's writing is powerful in its description of individuals and situations, but does not probe either in much depth. Burl often seems naive and younger than his 14 years. His feelings for his father are not strongly portrayed, yet the novel hangs on actions that result from these feelings. Characters are drawn and then dropped, and their stories never lead anywhere except to move Burl toward a rather unrealistic ending. A complex novel that may not hold readers' interest.--Wendy D. Caldiero, New York Public Library