The Legend of Greyhallow by Summer Rachel Short

The Legend of Greyhallow is a fun, inventive fantasy, perfect for an entertaining, recreational read.

The Legend of Greyhallow by Summer Rachel Short. Simon & Schuster, 2023. 256 pages.

Reading Level: Middle grades, ages 10-12

Recommended for: ages 10-12

Ainsley (age 12) and Tobin (age 10) recently moved to Lowry, a small mountain town. It’s the beginning of summer, and Lowry just so happens to be the setting where The Legend of Greyhallow was filmed. Their new house just so happens to have belonged to the Greyhallow director (Mr. Ripley)! Ainsley is a fan. A big fan. Ainsley is ready to take it all in and cannot wait to explore the area. Her brother, Tobin, appreciates it, but he’d rather take refuge in more predictable entertainment. On their first foray into the town (which appears to function much like a Renaissance fair or other themed-park/adventure), Ainsley is given a mysterious box by a woman who claims to know Mr. Ripley.

Ainsley impulsively attacks the box in an effort to discover its secrets. The box turns out to contain a mysterious old key. Ainsley discovers that the key unlocks their attic, a space filled with Greyhallow paraphernalia! One of the relics is an old movie projector. When the siblings begin to watch one of the Greyhallow movies, they accidentally find themselves in the movie. The movie projector is sort of portal. But the action in the movie seems to veer off from the Greyhallow movie they saw before. Are they changing the plot of the movie? Can they get back home?

The Greyhallow movies are reminiscent of fantasy movies like The Lord of the Rings or even The Princess Bride. Strange creatures abound. Mortal peril lurks in corners. Who can the kids trust? And what happens when some of the characters (including a nefarious villain) come back through the portal to earth?

The Legend of Greyhallow is clever and fun. Who among us hasn’t wondered what would happen if we entered a movie? What would we do if we had a portal to our favorite fantasy movie trilogy right in our attic? Ainsley, predictably, learns to trust other people and look before she leaps, but not before she gets herself (and her community) into a heap of potential trouble. The journey in this novel is a rewarding one, and movie fans will especially enjoy it. As an added bonus, Ainsley learns to be a better friend and ends up reconciling with a former friend with whom she’d been estranged.

Bottom Line: The Legend of Greyhallow is a fun, inventive fantasy, perfect for an entertaining, recreational read.

Considerations:

• Supernatural: The Greyhallow movies featured in the book are fantasies with all sorts of creatures, including ghosts, fortune teller types, elves, and the like. After the portal opens up, many of these creatures invade the earthly town of Lowry. It’s in context of a fantasy, and “works” without feeling overly sinister.

Related Reading at Redeemed Reader:

• Reviews: Definitely check out Summer Rachel Short’s fun mystery series about Maggie and Nate: The Mutant Mushroom Takeover and Attack of the Killer Komodos
• Review: I Don’t Know How the Story Ends by Janie B. Cheaney (yes! “our” Janie) isn’t fantasy, but it is about movies and perfect for movie buffs.
• Reviews: Sara Ella is another current Christian author writing inventive fantasy. Her Curious Realities books (Wonderland Trials and Looking Glass Illusion) are clever spinoffs of Alice in Wonderland.

We are participants in the Amazon LLC affiliate program; purchases you make through affiliate links like the one below may earn us a commission. Read more here.

Buy The Legend of Greyhallow from Amazon.