Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple, Pay the Piper

Pay the Piper

Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple

Doherty, Jul 2005, $16.95, 176 pp.

ISBN: 0765311585

Fourteen-year-old Calcephony "Callie" McCallan is a school reporter for her school in Northampton, Massachusetts. She is excited by her job because this assignment enables her to go back stage while the popular rock 'n' roll band, Brass Rat performs. The only setback is that her parents make her bring her brother Nick with her. After listening to a recording by the group, Callie wonders why her classmates are making such a fuss over this band. That is until she meets the dynamic lead singer Peter Gringras. His flute playing mesmerizes all who listen including Callie.

However, on Halloween night as the Brass Rat performs, all the children including her kid brother Nick vanish. Callie thinks she knows why the children have been "abducted" and plans to rescue them as she plans to follow the magic flute into the land of faerie to make the piper pay, but she will soon learn how "faerie justice" works.

The middle school crowd will enjoy this fine version of the Pied Piper starring a wonderful young heroine who risks her life to save her sibling and the other children from the unknown. As the audience learns the truth, feelings towards Peter the Pied Piper will change although he still committed the abductions. Young readers will enjoy the first rock and roll fairy tale while looking forward to future fantasies from this solid mother-son collaboration.

Harriet Klausner