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After Hamelin | 
 enlarge | Author: Bill Richardson
Publisher: Annick Press
Category: Book
List Price: $8.95
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $8.94 (100%)
New (23) Used (71) Collectible (1) from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 1194076
Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 144
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 1550376284
EAN: 9781550376289
ASIN: 1550376284
Publication Date: September 2, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Implicit in many folk and fairy tales is the question, 'Then what?' After Hamelin picks up the story where the Robert Browning poem -- or other tellings of The Pied Piper of Hamelin -- leaves off. In a quest that is both contemporary and timeless, Richardson creates a magical world through inventive wordplay, uninhibited imagination and a facility with rhyme. Here is a raconteur who spins a narrative tale that takes readers into strange lands inhabited by unusual characters, both good and evil, where adventure abounds and unlikely saviors emerge. Penelope is 101 years old, but she can remember the story like it happened yesterday. On the morning of her eleventh birthday, she wakes to discover she can no longer hear. It is on this same day that the Piper returns to Hamelin to spirit the children away in an evil act of revenge upon the townspeople. Spared because she is deaf to the Piper's bewitching tune, Penelope is left to grieve the loss of her friends and beloved sister Sophy until Cuthbert, the wise man of the village, reveals that Penelope possesses the unusual gift of deep dreaming. Armed only with a charm from Cuthbert and her own courage, Penelope enters the land of sleep on a treacherous quest to rescue the stolen children. There is suspense, humor and high excitement (wrapped in dark undercurrents) as Penelope and the companions she meets along the way -- Scally, her trusted cat; Alloway, the blind harpist; Ulysses, a three-legged dog; and Quentin, a dragon who loves skipping -- journey to the Piper's mountain fortress. Their combined wits and talents see them through strange landscapes and close calls. In a thrilling climax played out in a mysterious place between dreaming and waking, they triumph over the Piper and set the children of Hamelin free.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Create Your Own Review March 27, 2008
Leanne D. review of After Hamelin by Bill Richardson, March 12, 2008. This book was an interesting account of what happened to the one child left after the Pied Piper piped all of the children of Hamelin away for revenge. The majority of the story is in the leftover child's, Penelope, who is capable of "deep dreaming", dream in which she goes on the quest to rescue the children of Hamelin. She is accompanied by her cat, Scallywaggle, and is guided along the way by a very old man named Cuthbert. Along the way to the Piper's palace, Penelope makes friends with the Trolavians and with a dragon. Once she and her newfound friends find their way to the Piper's palace, they get locked up with Penelope's sister, Sophy, who appears to be the only child around. Sophy proves them right once she explains that the piper has turned all of the children into rats. As Penelope's friend, Alloway, gets turned into a rat by the piper, Penelope catches the words to the spell and turns it on herself in an attempt to save the other children. She does so, only to chase the Piper and the other children over the border between dream and waking. Penelope manages to free the children and restore the spell that bound the Piper to the land of dreaming.
Um....eheh July 28, 2006
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
What was THAT?!
That was the strangest book I ever read, that's what. Very...interesting. It left you with a few unanswered questions, but it wasn't a half bad book.
Very...um...interestingly....strange....though...
 Gets better with time March 20, 2005
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
After Hamelin might be marketed as children's lit, but that demeans it. The characters are real and alive. Even the cat. How many authors have tried to make an animal into a character and failed? But Scallywaggle is a full-fledged character. And who ever thought of a flower-arranging dragon? I'm still working on my re-read, so some of the details that I have aren't great. Though I hate the children's sections, I love fairy tales, and wish everyone would remember C.S. Lewis's dedication of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Children's lit is often an incompetent author trying to sell to kids who don't care about quality. After Hamelin, though, should go to the fairy tale section. I hate Disney retellings: they make fairy tales cheap and simplistic happily-ever-afters. Richardson knows his story of the Pied Piper well, and does with it exactly what everyone should do with fairy tales: he takes it, adds some stuff, changes some characters, adds events, and puts in beautifully handled prose. He reinvents the story for a more modern reader, and makes it more accessible. Penelope isn't "charming" in the sense that she isn't the sweet, adorable little girl, nor is she the tomboyish one who defies the rules. There's no title on the list of character cliches to fit her, or any characters in this book. They're all their own selfs, and that's what makes this book stand above the masses of fairy-tale takeoffs that plague book stores. There's not much else to say. I read this first when I was 10, and now at 14, and will keep reading it throughout my life. Read this book, and remember, above all things, one: we are never too old for fairy tales, and fairy tales aren't for children alone. I'll spare the rant on that here, but read After Hamelin, regardless of your age, and rediscover the fact that we all have dreams and goals, and that no matter how fantastical they are, they are true.
Pipe, Pipe, Pipe away Piper! December 4, 2003
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
In this woderfully weaved tale of a girl, Penelope who is 101 years recalls upon her childhood adventure in saving the children of Hamelin. Once you read this book you will want to know more and more until the book ends. But imagination doesn't only end at the last pages for some. Many may want to make a tale of their own. Penelope recalls in extraordinary detail and Bill Richardson has done a wonderful job of making the pipers music in this book turn you eyes to look at the story. The cover speaks alot itself and one look can tell you the meaning " a picture is worth a thousand words." You may get annoyed with the repeating parts where she always says she's 101, but other than that its a good story.
Penelope is a skipper. Not any ordinary skipper, she's a skipping harpers daughter. Ever since she was little there has always had music in her life. Then on the day of her elevening, she goes deaf. The same day the piper comes to pipe away the children with his magical net of music from his pipe. All children but two. Alloway, a blind apprentice who stays with Govan, Penelope's father and of course our heroine, Penelope. To save the children of Hamelin she must go to a world both seen and unseen. Where anything can happen, into a land of dreaming. The stakes are high and in this dream world you just can't wish yourself away from danger.With a wacky group of companions she embarks on her journey... the rest is for you to find out...
An amazing book April 14, 2003
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is a newer version of an old story.I myself a 12 loved this book my mom a well... older than twelve year old also loved this book. It was great and I thought Penelope was a very brave herione. I also loved Quentin and his unusal habits.Most of the people who went on the journey and some sort of disablity, take for example Alloway a blind harper, it just made the story a little more intersting on how it showed us that even if we are disabled we can do great things. I recomend this book to boys and girls of all ages.
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