Castle Waiting: The Curse of Brambly Hedge #[nn]

Linda Medley's *Castle Waiting* has always had a gift for fairy-tale warmth laced with genuine strangeness, and this 1999 Olio publication wears that quality proudly on its cover. The scene is a wonderfully busy workshop where a wise, bespectacled elder woman holds aloft a glowing green flask while ghostly, writhing spirits — imps, spectral figures, and small creatures — billow up from a cauldron at her feet, all watched over by a young woman consulting a book, a cheerful red-capped figure, a wide-eyed girl with braids carrying a bucket, and a youth crouched in the corner. Lettered with care by Todd Klein, this is a fine entry point into a series that treats folklore and character with equal affection.