His parents have vanished. Can this young boy and his talking dog-like friend conquer puzzling obstacles and obscure creatures to bring them home?
Robert loves spending summer vacation with his chatty bestie, Fartie. Boating and swimming, collecting rocks and eating candy—their time at the lake is simply perfect. But the joy turns to confusion when they make it back to the house and the parents are nowhere to be found.
Determined to save the grown-ups, who had been taken by a cold damp shadow to a mysterious world, Robert and Fartie follow a blackbird’s instructions to enter a magical turquoise-colored land. And when a wise dog greets them to explain that Mom and Dad are trapped in a castle with their memories missing, the brave duo vows to find the magic sand that can fix everything.
As they walk, fly, and dive across this colorful realm, can they rescue their family before they run out of time?
A Place of Turquoise is a whimsical middle grade fantasy. If you or your child like fast-paced adventures, unique characters, and sweeping, immersive settings, then you’ll delight in Karina Salfeld’s masterful story.
His parents have vanished. Can this young boy and his talking dog-like friend conquer puzzling obstacles and obscure creatures to bring them home?
Robert loves spending summer vacation with his chatty bestie, Fartie. Boating and swimming, collecting rocks and eating candy—their time at the lake is simply perfect. But the joy turns to confusion when they make it back to the house and the parents are nowhere to be found.
Determined to save the grown-ups, who had been taken by a cold damp shadow to a mysterious world, Robert and Fartie follow a blackbird’s instructions to enter a magical turquoise-colored land. And when a wise dog greets them to explain that Mom and Dad are trapped in a castle with their memories missing, the brave duo vows to find the magic sand that can fix everything.
As they walk, fly, and dive across this colorful realm, can they rescue their family before they run out of time?
A Place of Turquoise is a whimsical middle grade fantasy. If you or your child like fast-paced adventures, unique characters, and sweeping, immersive settings, then you’ll delight in Karina Salfeld’s masterful story.
The sound came from under the floor. A dull, persistent sound. Monotonous, like the ticktock of a wall clock, with no beginning or end.
Pong! Pong! Pong!
ÂRobert lay in his bed and listened to the mysterious pounding, counting the muffled beats.
Pong! Pong! Pong!
When the count passed forty, ÂRobert sat up and looked around.
Morning light flooded his room. A breeze slipped through the half-open window and rustled the beige linen curtains. Sunbeams hopped all over the walls, bouncing off a sequined pillow that had fallen to the floor. A painting of fish ÂRobert had made and a poster of a polar bear—a gift from his mother—hung on the wall. Wooden bird figurines, a massive crystal, and other knickknacks lay scattered across his dresser. Nearby stood a wicker basket holding a collection of stones of various sizes, shapes, and colors that ÂRobert had found on trips with his parents and brought back home.
Everything was in its place. Everything was familiar and ordinary. Everything but the insistent sound coming from somewhere below.
Pong! Pong! Pong!
ÂRobert got up. He paced around the room, then lowered himself and put his ear to the floorboards. What if a pipe had broken under the house? What if some strange beast had taken up residence down below? Should he wake up his parents?
According to the alarm clock by his bed, it was 7:18 a.m. ÂRobert decided to investigate. He went into the hall. The sound got quieter, but he could still hear it. He stopped in the living room, peered into the kitchen, and checked the bathroom. The muffled blows were audible everywhere.
Walking past his parents’ room, ÂRobert turned and headed toward the front door to investigate outside.
As soon as ÂRobert opened the door, the persistent knocking sound stopped.
It wasn’t quiet outside, but the sounds were different: leaves rustling in the trees, birds singing, cars occasionally driving past in the distance.
ÂRobert stood on the doorstep and watched the sun’s eager rays chase the remnants of night away, promising a long, hot day. The morning dew beaded the freshly mown grass.
“I should have woken up ÂFartie,” ÂRobert muttered. He poked his head back inside and looked down the hall. All was quiet. Then he swept his hair from his eyes and stepped out onto the pale paving stones by the front door.
The lilac bush between the front door and porch was in full bloom, attracting bees. ÂRobert nestled his face in the flowers and took a deep breath. He closed his eyes as he greedily inhaled his favorite plush, purple scent. Then he opened his eyes. A few yards from the lilac grew the deutzia bush—his mother’s favorite—with creamy pink flowers. Once every few days Mom would cut off a little branch and put it in a vase in the living room.
Or at least, that’s where it normally grew. ÂRobert froze in surprise.
Instead of the deutzia there now stood a strange, sprawling, clumsy-looking bush blazing with big bright turquoise flowers.
Squinting, ÂRobert walked up to the bush and felt the leaves, shook the branches, and studied the trunk. The bush was definitely real.
ÂRobert ran into the house. He heard sounds coming from the kitchen, took a sharp turn toward it, and nearly knocked his mother off her feet.
“Is everything all right?” she asked.Â
“Did you see that?” ÂRobert panted.
Mom reached for a mug from the cupboard. “What are you talking about?”
“Your bush! The deutzia!” He waved his arms. “It looks weird. It has turquoise flowers!”
Mom approached him and gave him a peck on the cheek. “Are you sure?” she asked with a smile.
“Mom!” ÂRobert rolled his eyes.Â
“All right, all right. I’ll go look. Can you stay here and turn it off when it boils?” she asked, pointing at the espresso maker.
ÂRobert nodded. He climbed onto a tall stool and waited while his mom went outside.Â
“The bush is fine,” Mom said, reentering the kitchen. “It’s just like it was yesterday, and the day before that, and a week ago. Maybe you dreamed it?”
ÂRobert shook his head. He jumped off the stool and ran to the garden. The elegant deutzia was back in its place. The mysterious bright turquoise bush was gone.Â
“Breakfast time,” Mom called.Â
ÂRobert scratched the back of his head. Something wasn’t right.Â
“What about Dad?” ÂRobert asked, getting utensils and napkins. Then he remembered and frowned.
“Still sleeping,” she said. “Let’s not wake him.” Mom dished out jam into a saucer, watching ÂRobert from the corner of her eye. “Are you still upset?”Â
ÂRobert nodded and bit his lower lip. Mom came over and hugged him.Â
“Dad just needs time. I’m sure we can convince him.”Â
ÂRobert freed himself from her embrace and turned around.Â
“All right, go get dressed. We can talk about it when you’re ready, OK?”
“Uh-huh,” ÂRobert said through his clenched teeth.
* * *
“Where were you? I woke up and you were gone! When can we have breakfast?” ÂFartie somersaulted onto the bed, singing his version of a Puccini opera.
ÂRobert’s mood improved immediately. It always did as soon as he was with his jolly, chubby friend. ÂFartie had black fur, a tail, and a white spot around his left eye. He had four legs but always walked upright. He was kind of a dog and kind of a human—no one knew for sure. ÂFartie considered himself to be a unique specimen and was very proud of his disproportionately large head. “There’s a lot of intellectuality there,” he liked to announce.Â
For as long as ÂRobert could remember, ÂFartie had lived with them. Which meant ÂFartie was no younger than twelve. But ÂFartie didn’t like to speak about his age. The only thing ÂRobert could get out of him on the topic was “Age doesn’t matter unless you’re a cheese” and a raised eyebrow.Â
ÂFartie ignored good manners and passed gas often and without hesitation. Attempts to convince him to stop doing it were not successful. That was how he got his nickname: ÂFartie. As for his real name, no one knew it.Â
ÂRobert’s parents had found ÂFartie behind the garage at their lake house, before ÂRobert was born. They mistook him for a lost dog until they heard him talk. And that talk was not of a pleasant sort.Â
“He was furious, spouting gibberish curses. We didn’t understand a word,” they told ÂRobert.Â
“So you didn’t know where he came from?” ÂRobert asked.Â
“No. And by the time he learned human language, he couldn’t remember his old one.” Dad paused, then added, “Or maybe he decided to forget.”Â
ÂFartie soon became fluent in human language and won over ÂRobert’s parents. He became a family member, but ÂRobert’s parents kept ÂFartie’s ability to talk a secret. He was just a strange-looking dog to others but a stubborn yet beloved creature to them. And a little bit later to ÂRobert too.
“So? Where were you?” ÂFartie asked again.
ÂRobert slumped onto the bed. “I was in the garden. There was a weird bush where the deutzia is.”Â
ÂFartie shrugged and jumped high in the air.Â
“Did you hear anything this morning?” ÂRobert asked.
“Nope.” ÂFartie jumped again and landed on his head. The bed creaked.Â
“A sort of knocking, for example?”
“Nope.”
“That’s what woke me up. I checked the whole house.Â
I could hear it everywhere. And when I stepped outside, the sound just stopped. And then I saw that strange bush.”
“You’re imagining things.” ÂFartie chuckled and hopped off the bed. “And I’m hungry. When’s breakfast? Ooh!” He closed his eyes. “Nuteeella. Toast with Nuteeella. Or better yet, a croissant. Then another croissant.” He opened his eyes. “And then we’ll go for a ride on the paddleboat, yes? Yes, yes! Exactly! Where’s my life jacket? Ooh, there it is. I’m so happy our parents finally bought us a paddleboat. We’re going to cruise all day long!”
ÂFartie jumped up, clapped his paws, and headed toward the door.
“Come on already, get dressed. Or else I’ll die of starvation.”
ÂRobert smiled and started changing out of his pajamas. But deep inside he felt something menacing about the knocking, something bizarre that had found its way into his world.
Robert and his family are enjoying a typical stay at their lake house when strange things begin happening. A bush glistens turquoise for a moment. Turquoise bushes make an appearance at the bottom of the lake. His 'dog' turns out to be not such an ordinary 'dog', and both the dog and a random blackbird starts talking!
All of this might seem like a daydream to many, but when Robert's parents disappear without a trace, Robert has no choice but to believe the blackbird's claims that they've been swept away into an alternate reality, a place of turquoise.
With 'Fartie' (his faithful dog/companion) at his side, Robert leaves home to rescue his parents from a memory-draining castle and the dark forces living within it.
A Place of Turquoise struck me very much as a modern-day Alice in Wonderland. There may not have been a rabbit hole, but from the moment Robert and Fartie crawl through a dead tree into a new world (thanks to some magical turquoise webs), every twist and turn in this book merges whimsical and fantastical with real-life morals and values.
A motley crew of side-characters and creatures make an appearance throughout Robert's journey, but the faith and friendship he shares with Fartie is what truly makes this story special. This is so much more than a tale of a boy and his dog--it's a tale of brotherhood that surpasses differences, and the strength one can find by not shying away from things that others see as different or strange.
Salfeld has done an amazing job of making A Place of Turquoise a story that the whole family can enjoy. There are many great themes within it, such as not taking things at face value (for both good and cautious reasons), doing what's right even if it hurts, unconditional, self-sacrificial love, and believing in oneself and one's friends, among many others.
I am not typically fond of the 'stupid, helpless parent in need of rescuing' trope, but the parents' capture was never played out as 'stupid' in any way, and their rescue was realistic.
Some of the concepts in this story may be a bit confusing for younger readers (in the 6-8 year-old range), but those same concepts could make for great family discussions, too.
A Place of Turquoise is a magical, immersive adventure into a world I was reluctant to leave. I truly hope we see more from Robert and his world in the future!