Frances Hardinge.  Well Witched.  HarperCollins, 2008.  ["First published in Great Britain in 2007 under the title Verdigris Deep by Macmillan Children’s Books." -- t.p. verso]  390 pages.  Age 10 to 14.

One-sentence summary:  Don’t loot from a wishing well or you’ll find you’ve become a member of a possessed cult.

Let’s just start by saying that this novel is bloody brilliant.  (I can hear myself saying that in a disgraceful faux English accent…ugh.  Be glad this isn’t a podcast.)  It would have to be brilliant, and probably also clever, for someone of my attention span to polish off an almost 400 page book, happily.  The story was consistently and pleasantly unpredictable.  However, there were some…let’s call them “issues”…with its Americanization.

Nothing seemed amiss until 102 pages in, when I read about the character who was notorious for searching students’ backpacks—legend has it that she “confiscated your sweets and chips and ate them herself.”  Even though it wasn’t the first appearance of the word chips, I couldn’t help but picture these kids walking around with backpacks full of greasy steak fries.  Surely that can’t be right.  Then it occurred to me that I had read the word fries a number of times, not to mention that the frequent use of the phrase shopping cart, never once calling one a trolley.  Is this supposed to take place in England or not?

I consulted my father, who lived in England for a few years, just to make sure I’m clear on my English terminology.  That’s not the problem.  My spouse made the excellent point that it wasn’t much different than removing the “u” from words like favourite or colour.  I get that.  My issue, though, is that changing all these words may be underestimating the reader’s capability to discern their meanings from context.  You don’t have to be too clever or an adult or anything to do that.

Or at least be consistent.  Why change chips and trolleys, but then have him pick up a prescription cream from the chemist?

Lucky for us, Pan Macmillan made the first chapter of Verdigris Deep available online.  I read them parallel.  Most changes are minor:  tyres become tires, trainers become sneakers, cordon tape becomes caution tape, a car park becomes a parking lot.  Some things don’t change:  mum is still mum, and bollocks are bollocks. ^[1]  But it was rather interesting to see which words and phrases and entire sentences were omitted.

Some of the omissions seemed unnecessary:  “Pound” was omitted from pound coins, and “hedgehog” was omitted from Josh’s hedgehog hair.  Some made sense, like omitting “fruit machine.”  (By the way, if you have to look that up, you should know that Britain’s use of the phrase is very different from Canada’s.)  The more substantial omissions seemed more like editorial bargaining than gatekeeping.  I’m not sure if that’s how it works, but that would make sense to me.  The second publisher agrees to the title, but one of their editors still has some opinions about which sections might need tightening, etc?  Hm.

Quibbling aside, I don’t think I’ll ever look at a rogue, overturned supermarket TROLLEY the same again.  Right after I finished this book I noticed one, lodged on its side in a snowbank, that I passed on my way to work every day for a week.  I’m pretty sure it had menacing intentions.  Ryan is right—they do have “far too much body language for objects with no heads or limbs.”

reviews:
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^[1] I propose that the new “A rose is a rose is a rose” should be “Bollocks are bollocks are bollocks.”  Not quite sure what Gertrude Stein would think of that, but I can guess.

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