Prosper's Mountain

by Henrietta Branford

Fable and fairytale are combined in this story of a child's grace in the face of ignorance and prejudice. Felix finds a baby boy cracking out of a shell in his hen house and names him Prosper. But the villagers blame Prosper for the poor crops and hound the family out of the village.

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 4, 2000

About the author

Henrietta Branford was a British novelist for young people.
She was born in India in 1946, but was raised in the New Forest in Hampshire, England. During her short career she won the Smarties Prize in 1994 for Dimanche Diller (Harper Collins) and the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1998 for Fire, Bed and Bone (Walker Books); she was twice shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize, in 1994 and 1997. Her progress and development as a writer was watched with interest by publishers, critics and fellow writers alike.

Reviews

[Anne Hamilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I've hidden this review because of spoilers, really the cover tells all. An egg child begins to grow wings. His foster father tries to conceal them. Sweet, but I felt it was missing the right spark.