Phyllis Reynolds Naylor earned countless fans with the touching morality of Newbery Award-winning Shiloh and the laugh-out-loud realism of Achingly Alice. But aficionados may be surprised to find that Naylor's Sang Spell reads more like a haunting mystery. Grieving over the sudden death of his mother, Josh Vardy is reluctantly hitchhiking to Dallas (to begin a new life with his aunt), when he is mugged and left beside a remote mountain road. A woman driving a horse and cart takes him to a strange, fog-bound, primitive village, where there are no cars or telephones or electricity. The homespun villagers turn out to be a long-lost people of mixed ethnicity, called Melungeons. They accept Josh into their community, but will only answer his questions with evasiveness and enigmas. Mavis, a broad-shouldered young woman his own age, befriends Josh when he is put to work with the others gathering ginseng, a valuable root they refer to as "'sang" and trade once a year to Chinese merchants. Over and over again Josh tries to escape--by road and by river--but finds that somehow all routes lead back to this village that time has forgotten. When Josh finally joins in the villagers' rituals and celebrations, his feelings of despair about his own future begin to transform and heal. And after his loyalty to the Melungeons is tested, Josh finds that he is free at last to make the decision to leave. (Ages 11 to 15) --Patty Campbell


From Publishers Weekly
The prolific Naylor (the Shiloh trilogy; the Alice series) combines elements of Brigadoon and Lost Horizon with little-known historical lore to create a haunting story of a youth's journey from dissolution to wholeness. Numb with grief after his widowed mother dies in a car crash, Josh, 15, sets out alone to hitchhike from Massachusetts to his aunt in Dallas. Somewhere in the Appalachians he gets beaten and robbed, and winds up being taken to the isolated, primitive village of Canara. The residents are Melungeons, people of Mediterranean ancestry who were already living in the mountains when the English first settled the Virginia coast. With their black hair, blue eyes and coppery skin, they resemble Josh, but despite their similar looks, Josh has nothing in common with these insular and unworldly peopleAor does he? He doesn't want to know, and like the venomous Kaspar, another accidental resident, he is desperate to return to the world "beyond." But no matter whether he walks, swims or rows, the scenery shifts uncannily and Josh ends up in Canara again. That these and other fantastical happenings seem as real as Josh's personal turmoil is a tribute to Naylor's narrative skill. With imagination and sensitivity, she lightly drives home the message that "to go forward, you must go back"Aa theme that resonates long after the close of this grittily enchanting tale. Ages 11-up. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
Grade 6-10-After his mother is killed in a car accident, 15-year-old Josh heads from Boston to Texas to live with his aunt. Forgoing his plane ticket, he decides to hitchhike in order to clear his head before beginning his new life and hopefully accumulate some good stories to impress his new classmates. However, somewhere south of Pennsylvania he gets lost, beaten, robbed, and left unconscious in a cold rain. Josh wakes up bruised and dazed in a simple Appalachian village that is strangely lacking in such 20th-century conveniences as electricity and automobiles. As he heals, he is given care, food, and work to do, but the villagers are evasive when he talks about getting back on the road. After some time and effort, he eventually learns that no one has left Canara alive for generations. Like Brigadoon, it exists in some alternate time that occasionally touches the one Josh came from, but is usually invisible and impermeable to the outside world. Josh makes several attempts to leave, but always ends up back in the village. Canara offers peace, security, work, friends, and eventually family as well, but he is unwilling to accept them at the expense of his freedom. Losing his mother and then getting lost in this strange world force him to think about many aspects of life and death, love and loss. Eventually, he is led to a greater understanding of himself and his values, as well as to a way out of Canara. Exciting action and thought-provoking ideas make this journey both compelling and memorable.Susan L. Rogers, Chestnut Hill Academy, PACopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Gr. 6^-9. Naylor enhances a masterfully crafted tale of mystery, magic, and madness by picking out a little-known thread in the American ethnic braid. Recently orphaned, Josh hitches a ride with the wrong person and wakes up, mugged and beaten, along a rutted country road. The silent woman who comes along on a wagon takes him to Canara, a rough-hewn village without electricity or other modern amenities. Feeling that something's not quite right but too injured for a long hike, Josh repays the care he is given by helping the mostly friendly residents gather ginseng (the sang of the title), meanwhile piecing together their story: they are Melungeons, descendants of a fugitive band of Portuguese, Turks, Africans, and others who settled in North America long before the foundation of Jamestown but were harried by later emigrants and, for this group at least, forced deep into the Appalachian backwoods. How deep? When Josh tries to sneak away, he finds that both road and river somehow lead him back to Canara--not to mention that the hills themselves move from time to time, certain buildings appear and vanish on appointed days, and he catches hints that some of the people he's met are much older than they look. Even as Josh searches for a way out, though, he feels the pull of this peaceful haven, a place where, he is told, only those of Melungeon blood may come. Naylor revs up the danger quotient with another outsider, Kaspar, who is willing to kill in his desperation to escape. Despite Kaspar's wild threats, Josh betrays him and finds that the real key to escape involves getting past his own grief and fear. With clear insight into human nature and well-chosen, often arresting details, Naylor artfully brings both cast and community to life as she gives readers a rare glimpse of a nearly forgotten episode in our history. John Peters


From Kirkus Reviews
Naylor (Achingly Alice, p. 741, etc.) explores the role synchronicity plays in life, and the mental and emotional restraints people place upon themselves. After his mother is killed in a car accident, Josh decides to hitchhike from Boston to Dallas, where he will live with his aunt. Mugged while wandering in a remote rural area, he wakes up to find himself transported to the mysterious village of a forgotten hill people who call themselves the Melungeons. Hidden from the outside world through a spell passed from generation to generation by the ``Old Who Remember,'' they maintain ancient ways of planting and harvesting; their only connection to the outside world is through the export of wild ginseng. As Josh struggles to believe what he knows cannot be possible, he also wages a battle between conflicting emotions and desires. Although he longs for sports, school, and friends, he also takes unexpected comfort in the routines of the village and his growing friendship with Mavis. Told he is free to leave at any time, he finds himself held captive by the boundaries of his own mind. Thoughtful readers will empathize with Josh's dilemma; while the ending is predictable, Naylor raises haunting questions. (Fiction. 11-14) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"[A masterfully crafted tale of mystery, magic, and madness." --Booklist

ANNOTATION

When his mother is killed in an automobile accident, high-schooler Josh decides to hitchhike across country, and finds himself trapped in a mysterious village somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains, among a group of people who call themselves Melungeons.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Josh is hitchhiking from Boston to Dallas to begin a new life, trying to sort out the changes that have skewed his world since an accident killed his mother and made a mockery of his dreams. No longer will he be what he was—an important person in a high school he loved. Instead he will be starting his junior year in a place where no one will know him, on one will care.

He wanders up a road he has taken away from the interstate, where he has been thumbing rides, looking for a village where he might find shelter from the unexpected August cold and rain. When a car comes along, it looks like a ride to somewhere. And that's what it proves to be. But the somewhere he finds is not the somewhere he expected. It is a place that knows him, knows the darkness inside of him; that offers food and shelter, and also confronts him with choices he does not know how to make. It probes his past, examines his possible futures, and finally pierces the wall of despair he has built around himself.

Sang Spell is a fantasy built on the hopes and dreams of a people who longed for a place of peace, for a way out of the dark and the rain. Some might think finding such a place to be a miracle, but not John. To him it is a nightmare, a prison he cannot escape. Sang Spell is an adventure into a place of forgotten people, the Melungeons, and into the boundries created by the human mind.

FROM THE CRITICS

Children's Literature - Christopher Moning

Before he ever left home Josh Vardy felt lost. His father died when he was small, and now, just as he is preparing for his exciting junior year of high school, his mother is killed in an automobile crash. Josh decides to take his time hitchhiking across the country to begin his new life in Texas. When he is beaten and robbed and left on a secluded path somewhere in Appalachia, Josh is really lost. He wakes to find himself in a strange community called Canara, where Melungeons, a people of uncertain origin, have retreated so far into the mountains that they live in a time and space all their own. The Melungeons are an odd but decent folk, and Josh struggles to find his way back to the outside world. And he must decide if he truly wants to go. This fascinatingly textured novel is haunting and gratifying, layered with emotion and suspense. Students will likely be motivated to explore further the Melungeons and their largely forgotten place in American history. A wonderful book.

VOYA - Mary Ann Capan

Fifteen-year-old Josh sets out on a hitchhiking trip from Boston to Dallas, hoping that the meandering route will give him time to sort out recent disturbing events precipitated by the car accident that killed his mother. After Josh is savagely beaten and robbed along the way, he is rescued by a woman in a horse-drawn wagon who takes him to an odd community where people live in what seem to be medieval times. The inhabitants live simply, eating and sleeping communally and wearing drab, homespun clothes. Josh is allowed to stay if he works for his keep. The self-sufficient community derives its main income from the ginseng roots or "sang," which are harvested nearby. Josh discovers that this peculiar community, called Canara, exists as though a spell has been cast over it. Totally isolated, no outsiders enter and no one leaves. The children attend school to learn only the history of Canara and what knowledge will preserve their self-sufficiency. Befriended by Mavis, Josh learns that these inhabitants are Melungeons, a people of forgotten ancestry whose arrival in America predated Jamestown. Josh is torn between Canara and his anxiety to move on to his future in Dallas. Though free to leave, he learns that there is no road out of Canara. Even more puzzling is Josh's observation that Canara seems to move with the moon. Isobel, the old one in the community, tells Josh that "to go forward, you must go back as you have lost your way." Josh will leave only after he fulfills her prophecy. Naylor's memorable story skillfully combines the real world with a haunting, fantasy one as she introduces the Melungeons. The reader is aware that Canara's people will live on as they hover between their world and the world as we know it. Josh is a believable character who uses his time in Canara to grieve for his mother as he learns about himself, his heritage, and his future. VOYA Codes: 4Q 4P J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses, Broad general YA appeal, Junior High-defined as grades 7 to 9 and Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).

School Library Journal

Gr 4-9-Josh is on his way to Texas when he enters the village of the Melugeons. The village and its 19th century atmosphere are surrounded by mysterious forces that hold those inside apart and will not allow even strangers like Josh to leave. Forced to examine his past, his dreams, and his despair over his future, he discovers who and what he is, and the true powers of the human mind. By Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Naylor (Achingly Alice, p. 741, etc.) explores the role synchronicity plays in life, and the mental and emotional restraints people place upon themselves.