The Roundhill

Evan is a quiet, ordinarily quirky teenager growing up in a bourgeois family in the 1920s. The roundhill is his refuge, an isolated tree capped hill, due east of his bedroom window, which he can behold at a distance or retreat to for solitary meditation. But one summer day he meets a mysterious child on the hill, and once he has recovered from the invasion of his territory he begins to be fascinated by her. But why does she keep disappearing when they are disturbed, and why does she talk in a wise and elliptical manner more typical of an old and wistful lady? This is an excellent, supernatural detective story that culturally aware readers will solve much more quickly than Evan does. The story treats deep themes of mortality and transience lightly but movingly, and the final chapter, when Evan takes his own grand-daughter to the summit of the Roundhill, provides a beautifully effective resolution. Bailey's monochrome pastorals evoke a sense of a world of lost tranquillity. Highly recommended for reading aloud to the class, or for independent readers to read alone.