The Road to Ever After by Moira Young (review)

At thirteen, orphaned Davy lives on the streets of Brownvale; he spends most of his time in the library or roaming around town drawing amazing pictures of archangels in the dirt. When he runs afoul of the parson who dictates the town's morals, he seizes the chance to get out of town with elderly, dragonish Miss Flint, who wants him to drive her (despite his youth and inexperience) to her childhood home. Davy soon realizes Miss Flint is planning to go home to die—and it's his job to see her to the next world. British author Young effectively sets up Brownvale as kind of a quaint dystopia, a more modern (but not quite contemporary) Dickensian town of oppression and scarcity. Davy is a kind and sympathetic soul, and his angelic focus is logically explained (he copies out of the only nice art book in the library) even as it's thematically relevant. The book's gentle movement from highly colored realism to outright myth-touched fantasy is effective, as is the development of the story from picaresque to poignant. This will suit younger readers who like their fantasies domestic and appreciate a bittersweet touch. DS