The Folk Keeper

by Franny Billingsley

Book Overview

She doesn't really know who she is or what she wants... Corinna is a Folk Keeper. Her job is to keep the mysterious Folk who live beneath the ground at bay. But Corinna has a secret that even she... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689828764
• ISBN13: 9780689828768
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Atheneum Books
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 1.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.8" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 10 to 14 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 9

Customer Reviews

Mystery and Myth

Absolutely love this book, my copy is well-loved. Corinna is a fascinating character, and her personality is dynamic, she could almost be a character in a Tamora Pierce novel.

A Hidden Gem!

This is by far my most favorite work by Ms. Billingsley! This story is about a young girl named Corinna Stonewall and her interesting time attending to 'The Folk' while also pretending to be a boy. During her time she becomes curious of the old man who used to own the large estate she now works at as well as her own past. Love is something that hasn't quite been on her mind very often growing up and it's up in the air if it'll continue that way. This story is excellent for younger readers, I suggest 12 & up, but still is complex enough for more seasoned ones as well. It's very much worth every penny and I hope you'll give it a chance!

Instant Children's Classic!

I used to be a children's librarian---that was a long time ago, but I still love children's books. (The Harry Potter books have just confirmed what we've known all along, that good books appreciated by children will also be appreciated by grownups.)The Folk Keeper is a fantasy set in England. Time period? Perhaps Georgian, perhaps Stuart, perhaps earlier. It's a time where people still have to propitiate the vestiges of an earlier, pagan world, a hungry, non-human, gnomish, fairy world by leaving offerings of food and drink. If these beings are not satisfied, cows will die or cease to give milk; crops will rot in the fields; all matter of unexplainable phenomena will take place and cause havoc. The folk keeper's job is to keep these harmful, always-hungry, excitable creatures at bay. Our heroine, a foundling named Corinna, now disguised as a boy, Corin, keeps the folk at bay at an orphanage. For this, she is respected, if not honored. When the opportunity comes to leave this awful excuse for a home, she hesitates, then goes. It turns out to be her ancestral place, where she will come to grips with her true nature, her forebears, her own other-worldliness, and find a great love. The language is sparse, but poetic, and tough but fey Corinna grows on the reader. Such an unloved little soul, who gradually becomes more beloved than she'd ever imagined. Her ordeals are harsh, but she doesn't despair. This young woman simply does not give up---making this a wonderfully inspirational story for children. I have only one quibble, and I chose to suspend my disbelief because the author writes so exquisitely: I don't think that the stepson in a second marriage could ever have inherited entailed property, much less a title, in England. But it doesn't matter---it's a quibble that will bother only die-hard researchers in English history.

Dark, poetical story with strong characters!! A great read!

The Folk Keeper Submitted 6/15/01Corinna Stonewall is a Folk Keeper. That is, in the strange and beautiful world of Ms. Billingsley's book, it is her job to lurk in the dark, cavernous underground Cellar distracting and pacifying the hideous Folk, creatures described by another Keeper as "mostly wet mouth and teeth." The Folk are constantly angry and ravenous-- never a good combination-- and they have the power to ruin crops, spoil milk, rot eggs and meat and cause animals to sicken and die. Any estate or village, therefore, desperately needs their Folk Keeper, and Corinna knows this well. Whereas anywhere else in the village she would merely be a slave or laborer, as Folk Keeper she has power and she knows it: "here in the Cellar, I control the Folk. Here, I'm queen of the world."Perhaps like all queens, Corinna has secrets, not the least of which is that she is pretending to be a boy, for no female can be Folk Keeper. As Corin the Keeper of the Folk, she can spend long hours away from people, which allows her to keep her other secrets well hidden. Secrets like how she is never cold, how she always knows the exact time, as if a clock were running through her veins, and how her hair grows two inches every night as she sleeps. Some of these secrets are threatened when old, dying Lord Merton comes to her, and fetches her away to his vast estate where the lure of the sea and the power of controlling a great many more Folk tempts Corinna to leave her small village. Once there, Corinna must contend with Folk that are far more fierce than those she's used to, a young man named Finian whom she forms a fast but tenuous friendship, and the enigmatic, possibly dangerous Sir Edward, who may be more than he appears. Told in the form of a diary, the reader follows Corinna through her early stages of a Folk Keeper and how she managed to hide her secrets, to the surprising end where she discovers her true heritage and everything falls into place. Corinna's language is poetic and beautiful, describing everything around her in languid eloquence. Describing a party she attends on Midsummer's Eve, she writes in her journal: "A footman handed me a glass. Tiny lines of bubbles streamed through the pale liquid. The fiddle cried out in a language that everyone but I understood. Like pieces of a kaleidoscope, the ladies and gentlemen fell into patterns of color on the Ballroom floor."Ms. Billingsley is the author of "Well Wished", a title that won Best Book of the Year by School Library Journal. In "The Folk Keeper", her second work, she has created a beautiful world and fine character in Corinna, one who is immediately likeable in spite of her rough exterior-- perhaps even BECAUSE of it. As female characters go, Corinna is brave and inventive despite all of her stubbornness. She is a strong character in an age where too many female leads are still portrayed as helpless shrinking violets.As noted, the writing style of "Folk Keeper" is somewhere betwe

A must read!

Both my boyfriend and I loved this book. I wish more adults would read some of the amazing children's literature out there. Perhaps after Harry Potter they will. This book had all the elements of a good story: a great page-turner, intriguing characters, and surprising turns in the story. I felt like I was 9 again, under the covers with my flashlight squealing with delight when unexpected and wonderful or unexpected and terrible things happen. Great for readers of almost any age.

A Significant Juvenile Fantasy Novel of the Decade!

Surely one of the most significant juvenile fantasy novels of the decade, THE FOLK KEEPER is a brilliant novel woven of intricate plot, masterful characterization, and deliciously poetic language. The compelling story of Corinna, a folk keeper who earns her place in society by tending the dangerous and ravenous folk of the underworld, is told in diary format, a device that heightens the immediacy of her search for self as she uncovers her true nature.This is an essential purchase and a must read!

What a fabulous read!

I was completely absorbed in Corinna's terrifying adventures as "folk keeper" and in figuring out the mystery of her background. What an unusual heroine! What a great setting! What an intriguing premise! What an astounding PLOT! I don't want to spoil the twists and turns for you, but trust me: this book is a flat-out great read.